Nearly every year Parashat Mikeitz is read in conjunction with the celebration of Hanukkah. Can we find any parallel or insight in this week’s Torah portion that relates to Hanukkah? A few of our rabbis (particularly Rabbi Yaakov Weinberg) have brought insight into this correlation. Our parashah tells us:
Parashat Vayeishev begins the story of Joseph. When we first encounter him, he is a seventeen year old young man. We learn that his father, Jacob, had a special love for him above all of his eleven brothers. He was loved so much that his father had given him a special and highly recognizable garment that distinguished him from among his brothers. This disproportionate love stirred up jealousy from his brothers and fostered their resentment toward him. That resentment eventually turned to a genuine hatred of Joseph and caused his brothers to plot to do away with him.
When Yeshua called his first disciples, he asked them, "What do you seek?" When they reply, he tells them, "Come and see." Emet HaTorah director, Darren Huckey, explores this very Jewish response of Yeshua and how he is still asking his disciples the same question today. This teaching is intended to have us zoom back out at the bigger picture of what it means to be a disciple of Yeshua and why understanding him on his terms is critical for our spiritual development.
Upon a cursory reading of the Torah some of the laws contained within it seem not only a bit harsh, but even barbaric at times. This week’s Torah portion contains laws that seem to fall into that category and tend to make the modern reader uncomfortable. One of the passages is related to personal damages caused by physical violence:
You shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. (Exodus 21:25)
In our study thus far, we have seen how the Gospel — the Good News — of John the Immerser, Jesus, the Apostles (represented by Peter) and Paul are all in agreement as to its basic content. The Gospel first proclaimed by John pointed to a coming King who held judgment in his hands. Of him, John said,
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:14-15)
The Gospel of Jesus
Lest we forget our purpose for our Gospel exploration, our objective is to examine the various gospel proclamations by John the Immerser, by Jesus and also by the Apostles in order to see if the Gospel we are proclaiming today is the same Gospel they proclaimed. Otherwise our Gospel is one which would be foreign to Jesus and his disciples. Our goal is to try and recapture the original gospel message of Jesus and his disciples and let that be the Gospel we proclaim.