The Weak Destroys the Strong — Lessons From Joseph, Hanukkah, and History

From the Dungeon to the Palace

I really can't help myself getting emotional when I read this portion of the Torah. It is not only because it is speaking of Joseph in Egypt becoming second to Pharaoh himself. From the dungeons of the Egyptian jails to the palaces of Pharaoh. From poverty to riches! From being a slave, falsely accused of sexual harassment by the mistress of the house of Potiphar, to the one who interprets a dream as indicating the restoration of Pharaoh's chief cup bearer back to his former glory and out of jail.

The story of Joseph is repeated so many times in the Bible, and so many of the heroes of our faith experienced similar rejection and returned and became instruments in God's hand to save Israel. King David himself was ignored and rejected by his brothers and left alone with only God on His side, and saved Israel from the Philistine giant Goliath, and became the most important king of Israel.

You see, dear brothers and sisters — I was also rejected by my family for believing in Yeshua the Messiah, and being baptized. I was also sent out of my country to the edges of the Okefenokee Swamp in the state of Georgia in the United States. There is something inspiring about a man who was so mistreated and so abused by his own flesh and blood brothers but he never gave up and never got depressed nor lost his way.

Hanukkah — The Few Against the Many

The reading of Parashat Miketz usually coincides with the celebration of the feast of Hanukkah, the Feast of Dedication. Hanukkah is a feast of celebration of the few and weak having victory of the many and the strong. It is what one family of priests from the village of Modi'in — not far from today's Ben Gurion Airport, near Tel-Aviv — did to raise the flag of rebellion against the cruel and powerful empire of the Seleucids (Greeks who inherited a part of Alexander the Great's empire).

Like in the story of Joseph, the impossible became possible by the sheer power of faith in the righteousness of God and through stubborn faith and trust in God's promises. The weak had victory over the vast army of the Seleucid King Antiochus Epiphanes. The same power of faith that told Joseph when he was in the well, "God will have the victory in the end, don't give up, be strong!" is the power that gave the five sons of Mattathias and the few Judean guerrilla fighters the strength that comes from faith in God — the ability to drive the Seleucid army out of Jerusalem. They took Jerusalem and the Temple back into their Jewish hands, purified the Temple and the altar from the abominations that were offered there to idols, and restored the worship of the God of Israel in the Temple in Jerusalem.

Faith That Stood United — A Story From the Death Camps

Several years ago I visited a very famous ultra-Orthodox rabbi who is 100 years old, and still very much a powerful man of God, who survived the death camps of Nazi Germany during World War II. The rabbi spoke of the barracks in which he and another 700 Jewish men were housed. There was room in this barrack for only 500. These Jews in that death camp were also worked hard for many hours per day with very little food, and had to decide to either act like selfish animals or to work together and survive to see the hand of God in their deliverance from that hell. In the same barracks that this rabbi was in, there was an Orthodox Jew who was also a believer in Yeshua. The name of that Jew was Joseph Vactor, son of Maier. This rabbi decided that the right thing to do was for all to stand united as one man and to work together, to see that all survived and, in their weakness, to see the victory — because God is faithful to keep His promises.

Historians said that the blood of the martyrs was the weapon that brought down the Roman Empire. Tertullian, one of the 3rd century church fathers, said: "The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the church!"

Three Lessons — and the Seven That Follow

Here are the three most important points that we must learn from the story of Joseph. First, when God gives you a promise, either personally or collectively, stay strong and believe that promise with all your heart, soul, and being. God keeps His promises. Second, the wise thing to do is keep your cool and to do your best to be helpful and beneficial and to bless others, even in your misery. Give out of your poverty, share even from what little you have, don't be selfish and self-centered, especially when you are going through the difficult moments of your life. Here is what our Lord Yeshua was teaching in the Temple in Jerusalem:

Finally, we all need to have patience. The ability to suffer and to restrain ourselves like Joseph, and to not become angry at God or at our fellow men for the hardships that have befallen upon us, is one of Joseph's great gifts. I am thinking of the Alfred Dreyfus affair in France at the end of the 19th Century — a single Jewish officer in the French Army, falsely accused of spying for the Germans by some fellow officers who were anti-Semitic. None of his friends came to his aid or stood by him. However, help came from the most unexpected corner of France. The writer and publicist Émile Zola published an article — J'Accuse…! — Zola saved Alfred Dreyfus from Devil's Island in French Guiana and liberated the falsely-accused Jew, who was exonerated and restored to his rank.

Beyond these three lessons, if I were to summarize what I learned from Joseph's story more fully, it would include: always trust God and His word more than you trust your own brothers and sisters; forgive and don't hold a grudge against your brothers even if they act like pigs and hurt you; being in the right is the source of your strength; the Lord will vindicate His servants — the wheel is turning and never stops; and don't do your family laundry in front of strangers, especially not Egyptian strangers! The Lord is always the same and His actions in the world never change. He lifts up and brings down. He gives life and takes it. His rewards are eternal, and His blessings, punishments and tests in this life are always temporary.