Miketz: Hope and Miracles; Chanukah

Chanukah

Miketz: Hope and Miracles

Joseph has been a slave and a prisoner in Egypt for 13 years when he is called to interpret the dream of pharaoh,  He emerges the viceroy of Egypt. Pharaoh financed his startup.  That is a miracle.  We know that Joseph had not given up hope because he asked the wine steward to remember him - which he did -2 years later. 

In the famine, people wait for Divine rescue.  They hope that the  provisions will last, like the oil of Chanukah, beyond the ordinary expectation. 

Confronting the authorities often leads to deprivation - Judah confronting Joseph, the industrial strike.  But the confrontation often leads to a miracle, 

On Chanukah, the oil that was meant to last only one day continued to burn until the new oil was prepared - eight days.  There was not enough oil, there was a deprivation from which sprung the miracle.  

Hope! , and do what you can, even when logic tells you there is not enough.  Under those circumstances. miracles happen