Welcome to the Hanukah parsha (Torah portion of the week). Isn’t it funny that we always happen to read this same parsha every time Shabbat falls during Hanukah? I wonder how that happens? 😉

Anyway, the parsha is called Meekaytz which means, “From the end,” as in, “And it was from the end of two years…” which is how the parsha begins.

Essentially we are two years after the cup-bearer gets his job back and Yoseph has been forgotten in the dungeon. Pharaoh has dreams of 7 fat cows being eaten by 7 thin cows and 7 healthy ears of corn being eaten by 7 withered and blasted by easterly winds ears of corn, and nobody can figure out what his dreams mean.

It is at this time that the cup-bearer remembers Yoseph and tells Pharaoh about him.

Pharaoh calls for Yoseph and tells him his dreams and Yoseph interprets them to mean that there will be seven good years followed by 7 years of famine, and that it is god telling Pharaoh what he is about to do. Yoseph then suggests to Pharaoh what to do for the next 14 years to ensure Egypt’s survival.

Pharaoh listens and decides to make Yoseph his number two man with the job of carrying out his suggestions to Pharaoh. Pharaoh gives Yoseph a new name and a wife, and Yoseph gets to work. Not only does he work on gathering food for the seven years of famine, but his wife also gives him two sons: Menasha and Ephraim.

The seven good years end and the famine begins. The people complain to Pharaoh who tells them to go to Yoseph. The famine is so widespread that it even hits the land of Cnaan, where Yaakov (Jacob) and his sons live.

Yaakov sends all his sons, except for Benyamin, to Egypt to buy grain. When they get there, Yoseph recognizes them and gives them a bad time, accusing them of being spies. They deny the accusation and in the end Shimon has to stay, but the rest can leave with the grain they bought. To prove their innocence, however, they need to return with Benyamin.

They go home, and eventually return with Benyamin, after much anguish by Yaakov, and Yehuda (Judah) promising to return Benyamin unharmed.

Yoseph has them brought to his house and feeds them, and released Shimon. Yoseph gives them food to bring home, and also has a silver goblet put into Benyamin’s bag. The brothers leave and Yoseph sends his servant after them accusing them of thievery. They deny it, but when their bags are opened, the goblet is found and they all return to Yoseph. The parsha ends with Yoseph saying he will keep the, “Thief,” Benyamin as a slave and the others are free to go.

Over the last couple of years, I have looked at this parsha from a large framework. One year, I saw it as a teaching of how we harvest what we plant. Last year I saw it as an example of how to do t’shuva (repentance or literally, returning or answering).

This year I want to focus on just one word: avraych. It shows up in 41:43 of Breisheit (Genesis). It is a name given to Yoseph by the people of Egypt after Pharaoh makes him second in command and lets the people know by having him ride in the number two place in the chariot.

As Yoseph rides by, the people call before him, “Avraych,” or, “I will bless.” What a strange thing to call out to the new number two man. Keep in mind also that this is before the people knew why Pharaoh made Yoseph the number two man, or of the coming famine. What is going on here?

Let me reframe the scenario: Pharaoh walks out of his palace and publicly makes a nobody the number two man in the country by having him ride through the streets and the people call out before him, “I will bless.”

Now, this could just be a ceremonial type of thing to do. Maybe they say this to all the new number twos that Pharaoh sends riding in the streets; the Torah doesn’t say.

But the Torah also doesn’t waste words. In other words, it is not important what is normally done, or what has been done before. What is important is that they are doing this to Yoseph. They are defining Yoseph as the one who will bless. For when the Torah calls something by a name, that is what that thing’s purpose is. So, the Egyptians are saying, Yoseph, you will be a blessing.

How profound of them to be able to see this.

They are saying something else too. Before I tell you what that something else is, I need to share a little bit of what I have learned about blessings.

The Hebrew word for blessing is barach and is spelled bet-raysh-chof . Once upon a time (in my blog) I mentioned that the Hebrew letters are not just letters used to make words, but also numbers.

The numeric value for bet is 2, for raysh is 200, and for chof is 20. If we put these together, we get 222. What is this number, two-two-two, trying to tell us?

I think it is trying to tell us that for a blessing to happen, you need two. You need the person giving the blessing, and you need the person receiving the blessing. If there is nobody to accept the blessing, how can a person give a blessing? Who would the blessing go to?

So, the receiver of the blessing is actually giving the blessing of giving a blessing to the one giving the blessing.

Got that?

I hope so, because it is the key here. When the Egyptians give Yoseph the name, “I will bless,” they are also saying to Pharaoh, and Yoseph, that they are willing to receive whatever Yoseph does or says as a blessing; they are willing to receive the blessings Yoseph will bestow upon them. What a wonderful thing to call out to Yoseph, the new number two man of Egypt. What a blessing they are giving him, to know that the people will accept him unquestioningly.

It is in this spirit that I wish to thank you all for blessing me by reading my blog or by being on my email list, and reading my Torah thoughts over the last few years, and sharing them with others, and for the comments I have received telling me how they have touched your lives. It has meant a lot to me to be able to have a receptive audience to share some of what excites me about our family tradition commonly referred to as Judaism.

If you want to read what I wrote about this parsha last year, click here.

About the Author

Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.