Hanukkah and Parashat Mikketz 2021: The Importance of 2025
(delivered by Rabbi Sacks on December 3, 2021, the Shabbat of Hanukkah)
Our Sages made sure that this week’s portion Miketz is read during or in immediate proximity to Hanukkah. They did so because of larger truths. Here the Rabbis and the Masoretes, the people who established and finalized the Torah text in the tenth century C.E. and put forth the rules and regulations concerning its reproduction, have an amazing surprise for us.
They Masoretes employed mnemonics, using a word or short phrase chosen for each Torah portion so that primary “users” can remember important details about the Parsha. Remember, Hebrew has no numbers, and before Roman and Arabic times, there were no Roman numerals or our Arabic numbers. So Hebrew has always used letters to represent numbers and each Hebrew letter has a number attached to it. What happens is that words in the Torah “add up” to numbers that gain special meaning. Herein lies the process of “Gematria” or Jewish numerology.
In the case of Parshat Miketz, there are 146 p’sukim (verses), and the Rabbis assigned the names “Y’chizkiyahu” and “Amatziah”, two kings of Israel. The numerical value of the letters in each of those kings’ names adds up to 146. We’re sure to remember the number of p’sukim.
What is highly unusual here is that for Parshat Miketz and only for Parshat Miketz, there is a third mnemonic. The mnemonic is “”L’avad yihyeh” which means “He will be my servant” and adds up to 2025. This mnemonic is not representing the number of verses, but is actually to remember the number of words in the Parsha. Yet this is the only Parsha in the entire Torah that the Sages chose to count words in addition to verses. So what’s going on here? The Torah Temimah,[1] published in 1902, explains that the number 2025 refers to Hanukkah. Here’s how and why.
Remember, this parashah always is read in the immediate vicinity of Hanukkah and often, as this year, during Hanukkah. The central observance of the holiday is the lighting of “Lights” or “Lamps.” The word for this kind of “light” or “lamp” is Ner–spelled nun, resh. The numerical value of nun + resh is 250. Yet, we know that there are 8 “lamps,” 8 ner’s in a Hanukkah menorah–not counting the Shamash, of course, since it is only a tool to light the actual candles. So 250, the value of one ner or light times 8 for 8 nights is 2000. Further, Hanukkah begins on the night of the 25th of the Hebrew month of Kislev. So 2000 + 25 = 2025, to remind us not only of the number of words in our Torah portion, but that we are to read those words on Hanukkah! Isn’t this amazing! The reading of this portion is also a reminder to light the menorah!
Now, there is an interesting explanation as to why Hanukkah is supposed to start on the 25th of Kislev. Most of us learned in Hebrew School that the word “Hanukkah” means “dedication,” and it was on that day that our ancestors rededicated the Temple, after reclaiming it, cleaning it and preparing the oil. Yet the late 16th and early 17th century sage, Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz, offers an idea as to why that day was picked. He taught that Hanukkah is actually two words: The first is“Chanu” and the second is “Kah.” Chanu means “they encamped, they rested, they ceased from fighting” and the syllable “Kah” (kaf hay) adds up to 25. The idea is that they rested from battle on the 25th, and that’s why they chose to mark the beginning of the holiday on the 25th. According to this, then, the holiday is not about the cruse of oil, but the cessation of war, fighting, and discord.
But wait! We aren’t done yet. Let’s not totally walk away without talking about that number 146, the number of verses in tomorrow’s reading! This gets a little tricky, so please follow along.
The total number of verses in this portion, 146, is exactly the same as for Parshat Bereshit, the first reading in the book of Genesis. Rabbi Horowitz points to the fact that the theme of “Light” is a part of both contexts. In Parshat Bereshit, the Torah speaks of the actual creation of “Light,” created on the 25th of Elul, while the central theme of the Hanukkah observance is also “Light,” and Hanukkah was created on the 25th of Kislev.
Therefore, since Miketz, with its 2025 words and its 146 passukim, shows up in the rotation of Torah readings at the time of Hanukkah, it is appropriate that this is the Parsha that we need to make sure is read at Hanukkah time. And to put the jelly into the sufganiyot (holiday donuts), remember that the mnemonic for 2025 comes from the Hebrew words “L’avad Yihyeh” meaning “He will be my servant.” Rabbi David Feinstein, the son of the late, great Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, z”l, looks into Parshat Miketz itself and makes an interesting observation. Here’s a Pharaoh of Egypt, the ruling authority of the most powerful nation in the world at that time, putting himself out as a god. And yet here is the entire nation of Egypt, subservient to the will of a man who was a slave and is now a Viceroy, who saw himself only as the “servant” of the one and only one G!d–HaShem, and now this powerful Pharaoh has to do what Joseph told him to do! He and his people cannot live without raising up and heeding the imprisoned Joseph.
Indeed, some Sages believe that there are supposed to be two Moshiachs–Moshiach ben David, whom we usually talk about, and Moshiach ben Yosef, who will come first. That was the power of Joseph—a powerful lesson indeed, remembered on Hanukkah through Parshat Miketz.
So this Shabbat we are to think of the power of light, for light is a powerful symbol this Shabbat. We learn through our Sages that we are informed of the creation of “Light” in Bereshit, considered to be not merely the creation of physical light, but also of the light of wisdom. On Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, we don’t celebrate the military victory so much as the triumph of Light–the light of the human spirit.
The light of that Menorah centuries ago on the 25th Kislev not only signified the miracle–it was a miracle. We create the same miracle when we light our lights. So when we light our menorahs, our hanukkiot, let us recall the kindling of that cruse of oil that symbolizes the light which burned but was not consumed, the light of our internal wisdom, the light of our supernal spirit.
May we carry that Light with us, no matter where we go. May it bring us courage, strength and wisdom so that we each can have a hand in making this world
a world of miracles,
a world of light,
a world of wisdom,
a world of spirit,
a world of hope,
a world of courage,
a world of kindness,
a world of peace. Amen.
Shabbat shalom and hag urim sameich, a joyous Hanukkah, the festival of light.
[1] The work is magnum opus of Rabbi Baruch Epstein (1860-1941), the esteemed Lithuanian rabbi. It is a commentary on the five books of the Torah and the five Megillot that we read on selected holidays.