The connection Yoseph HaTzaddik-Mashiach Tzidkeinu-Chashmonaim – Shabbat Chanukkah-Miketz 5777 [מקץ ה”תשעז]

By: Chaim Yehuda Ben Avraham Folch, Chaim Eder – haimiehuda@gmail.com

From the previous parashah, VaYeshev, we learned why Yosef son of Yaakov receives the appellation of Yoseph HaTzaddik: he resisted the multiple provocative bustles of the wife of Potiphar, high priest of Egypt; According to the parashah:

And it came to pass after this, that his master’s wife set her eyes on Yoseph, and said to her, Lie down with me (Genesis 39:7).

And it came to pass that she spoke unto Joseph every day, and he would not hear her to lie beside her, to be with her (Genesis 39:10).

That woman came to fill the rooms of her house with mirrors so Yoseph would find her image wherever he looked, and even had a sword placed under his chin so he could not lower his head to avoid seeing her. Just as the woman’s seductive efforts were about to succeed, Yosef saw an image of his father Yaakov, saying: “My son, if you fall into the trap, your name will not appear on the breastplate of the Kohen Gadol and you branch shall be cut off the Children of Israel.” That image was decisive for Yoseph to avoid falling in the temptation, and today we know him as Yoseph HaTzaddik (learned from my community Rabbi Meir Shimon Bar-Chen).

A similar denomination receives the Mashiach, being called Mashiach Tzidkeinu, our righteous Mashiach. Are there points of connection between Yoseph and the Mashiach? Clearly, yes. The connection comes to the point that the Messiah receives the appellation of Mashiach ben Yoseph. Why?

The Mashiach (ben Yoseph) will battle against Edom, the descendants of Esau (Midrash Zerubavel), a compendium of the enemies of Israel, that is going to be vanquished by the Mashiach ben Yoseph, as is alluded in the same birth of Yoseph, when his mother Rachel exclaims “the Eternal has taken away my disgrace” (Genesis 30:23), with the prophetic vision she saw in where an “anointed savior” will descend from Yoseph and remove the opprobrium (to be subsumed in exile): And so, an anointed for battle will descend from Yoseph (Midrash Yelamdenu). As the prophet Ovadiah says, “[…] the House of Yaacov shall be a fire, and the House of Yoseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them […]” (Ovadiah 1:18), so that “Esau’s [spiritual] offspring shall be delivered to the Hands of the descendants of Yoseph”(Talmud, Baba Batra 123b). (References taken from this link)

Clearly, Yoseph’s offspring are characterized by their Tzidkut, their righteousness, and these Tzaddikim of the present, past and the future, direct spiritual descendants of Yosef HaTzaddik, constitute the vaccine of the Jewish People against complete assimilation. Is there evidence of this in the Torah? Absolutely: we can extract it from the beginning of Parashat Matot, where Israel goes to war. Be”H (with the help of G’od) we will see that now.

HOW HASHEM SAVES ISRAEL THROUGH THE TZADDIKIM

Indeed, in Parashat Matot we find the model that HaShem shows us that guarantees the survival of Israel. There we have the passuk in which Moshe rabeinu addresses the people giving the order to make war against Midian, saying:

(Bamidbar 31: 3) “הֵחָלְצוּ מֵאִתְּכֶם אֲנָשִׁים לַצָּבָא; וְיִהְיוּ, עַל-מִדְיָן, לָתֵת נִקְמַת-יְהוָה, בְּמִדְיָן”

“Let some of you assemble for war, and go against Midian and do the revenge of the Lord in Midian” (Numbers 31: 3).

Of the text in Hebrew, we emphasize in that passuk the expression

“הְצלּוּ מִאְּכֶםתְּכֶם אםים לָצבָא”

“Assemble some of you for war”

Where two (ב) times appears – connoting guevurah, rigour and strenght – the Letter Tzadik (in the first and last words: “he’haltzu” and “latzabá”). Expression and Tzadik Letters that are remarked a second time (ב) twice in another expression, in this case in Bamidbar 31:5:

“חלוצי צבָא”

“Men armed for war” [“Chalutzei Tzabah”]

These armed men are selected from among the 12 tribes, with passuk 31:4 expressing

“Of every tribe a thousand, throughout all the tribes of Israel, shall ye send to the war” (Numbers 31: 4).

In that battle against Midian, not a single Jewish soldier died, since, as it denotes the comment that we have made on the Letter Tzaddik (Letter Tzaddik analyzed here by  Rav Ginsburg), the army was a legion of the most select 12,000 Tzaddikim among the people of Israel. Indeed, the sages explain that

“It is not the poison of the serpent that kills, but the transgression” (Talmud, Berakhot 33a)

And how do these select Tzaddikim fight against the assimilation of Midian/Edom? This can be deduced from the word “army”, “tzabá”:

“צבָא”

This word can be interpreted as follows: the Tzaddikim [צָ] who bring victory to Israel through the “Unification Service”, Avodat HaYi’hudim, by evolving reality from the duality/gevurah of the beit [בָ] to the unity/kindness of the Aleph [א]. Thus, Avodat HaYihudim consists of the spiritual work to be performed precisely in the Final Redemption: it is a question of revealing the different extant levels of unity (above all within the people of Israel, and in Humanity) and to develop them through a work of meeting of people where this unit is expressed naturally. This is the work of the Tzaddikim legion in Israel that will bring the Final Redemption, and that legion of Tzaddikim can be identified with the soldiers of the army who are joined by the Mashiah Tzidkeinu. A legion that beezrat HaShem (with the favor of God) will bring us victory through combat in the style of Yosef HaTzaddik. Below we will briefly see how this links with the times of Hanukkah.

HASHMONAIM: TZADDIKIM IN BATTLE AGAINST THE ASIMILATORY PLAN OF THE GREEKS

In the events of Hanuká, a few Tzaddikim (in this case also physically) fight again against the assimilationist plan of the numerous Greeks, and in spite of the Hellenist Hebrews. This Avodat HaYichudim component clearly existed, but in that case the strongest component is Avodat HaBirurim – the extraction of good from evil – as the Chasmoneans did by extracting a pure oil vessel from an almost totally desecrated Temple. This was an exceptional situation and, in the rededication of the Temple, Avodat haYihudim was also manifest: the exceptionality of the Jewish people among the nations became evident, and with the military victory also the internal unity of Israel was openly manifested, after being put in grave danger by Greek pressure.

That pressure would be reproduced with the Romans, and in conjunction with the 2,000 years of exile from Edom which we are enduring. May be the will the Eternal that the Unification Service of the Tzaddikim of our generation entail, in the manner indicated by the Berachah of Al HaNisim, that Israel should overcome the reshaim (wicked), and that that Service will have the definitive effect we expect from the action of all Jews and righteous Gentiles. May we all contribute to this national and universal Unification Service by lighting the Hanukkiah all this Hanukkah festivity, so that the Eternal brings us a permanent joy linked to the happiness  of Hanukkah multiplied ten thousand times with the inminent arrival of Mashiach Tzidkeinu, speedely in our days, Amen [אמן].

Hanuká 5777 Saméah [חנוכה 5777 שמח]