It would be funny if it weren’t heart-breaking.
Judah, the ringleader of Jacob’s villainous sons, recounts his
family’s story to the grand Vizier of Egypt.
He bemoans his long-lost brother Joseph who “was torn by a beast! And I have not seen him since” (Genesis
44:28). Unbeknownst to him, Judah is in
fact speaking to that brother, unrecognizable thanks to his Egyptian finery and
the passage of time. Judah cannot see
what’s right before his eyes.
So it is with Jacob, too.
Although “the famine in the land was severe” (Genesis 43:1) and Jacob
feared starvation, he instructed his sons to “take some of the choice products
of the land in [their] baggage, and carry them down as a gift for the man –
some balm and some honey, gum, ladanum, pistachio nuts, and almonds” (34:11). When they move to Egypt, the Torah recounts, “they
took along their livestock and the wealth that they had amassed in the land of
Canaan” (Genesis 46:6). Was Jacob’s clan
prosperous or was it starving? Perhaps
they were wealthy but believed themselves poor.
So it is with many of us.
We live in a bountiful world and a nation of opportunity. But we focus so much on what we don’t
have that we can’t see what we do.
This is especially true during the Holiday Season. These days more than ever, the media pound us
into believing we need what they want to sell us. It’s hard to feel sufficient with so much
energy focused on making us feel deficient.
So let us return to the message of Hanukkah, even though the
Festival is past. Recall the small jug
of oil that was sufficient to meet all the needs. Remember the single match that lights candle
after candle. We are enough – no, we are
grand – just as we are.
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