Divrei Azriel: Beauty and Light
Divrei Azriel: Beauty and Light

The Meaning of True Beauty

Moshe Schwartz

We pick up our story two years after Joseph (hereafter Yosef) was thrown into prison by Potiphar to find that Pharaoh had two nightmares. Pharaoh is agitated and asks for "kol chartumei Mitzrayim vi'es kol chachameha," all the magicians of Egypt and its wise men. To his dismay, nobody was able to give him a satisfactory answer.

It is at this moment that the Sar HaMashkim, the sommelier,  remembers Yosef. Yosef is rushed to the king and tells Pharaoh that it is not he himself but God who interprets dreams. When Pharaoh tells Yosef the dreams they are in a slightly different form than when Pharaoh has the dreams themselves. These discrepancies between the Torah's description of the dreams and Pharaoh's description when he relates the dreams explain why the chartumim were unable to interpret it, and also reveal a tremendous idea that can help us figure out why Shabbos Hanukkah more often than not falls out on Parshat Mikeitz.

Compare Genesis 41:2-7 with 41:15-24. First, note the difference in the amount of words used. There are 78 words in the dream, but 93 in Pharaoh's retelling. We can see already that a difference of 15 words could have made it improbable, perhaps even impossible, for the chartumim to gain an accurate picture of the dream and interpret it accordingly.

Furthermore, verse 41:2 says שֶׁבַע פָּרוֹת, יְפוֹת מַרְאֶה, וּבְרִיאֹת בָּשָׂר; וַתִּרְעֶינָה, בָּאָחוּ. In verse 18 the same cows are described as שֶׁבַע פָּרוֹת, בְּרִיאוֹת בָּשָׂר, וִיפֹת תֹּאַר; וַתִּרְעֶינָה, בָּאָחוּ. Pharaoh changes the order in the descriptions of the cows, placing greater emphasis on their beauty rather than their value to man. Paraoh's description is like that of a painter. Rav Hirsch writes in his commentary, "In the dream itself the cows were 'yafos maareh u'yafos basar,' beautiful to look upon and healthy of flesh.

These two descriptions go together. They describe the cows from the standpoint of their value to man. Pharaoh, however, calls the cows 'yefos to'ar,' beautiful of form. Now, the beautiful formation of an animal's limbs is of no interest to the butcher. It interests only artists and painters. Thus, the sorcerers, chartumim, interpret seven daughters, seven provinces, etc. (Bereshis Rabba 89:6)."

In both versions, the cows graze. In 41:3 the seven sickly cows walk up to the healthy cows, stand up beside them, and, as it says in verse 4, they eat the healthy cows. It is important to note that between verses 3 and 4 the healthy cows return to the riverbank, something which Pharaoh fails to notice.

Rav Hirsch writes on verse 2, "When the good cows came up from the river they found pasture and went there to graze. But when the bad cows came up, the good ones were standing again on the riverbank, for they had already consumed all the pasture. The bad cows were not carnivorous by nature; they would not have eaten up the good cows out of hunger, had these left them some food in the meadow."

When Pharaoh retells the dream we find him inserting his own agenda. Pharaoh spins the values of his dream to reflect pure aesthetics, things that aren't necessarily integral to the essential value of the objects themselves. Rav Hirsch writes, "Every narrative, except for that of the Torah, has a subjective coloring and reflect the impression made on the narrator by the event. When God reveals something in a dream, He does not tease man or propound a riddle to him; His language - even when He speaks in metaphors - is always clear. Pharaoh, however, blurred essential details."

This is one of the parsha's connections to Hanukkah. Greek culture, Yavan, is all about beauty: the beauty of man, the beauty of the world, the beauty of art; beauty for beauty's sake. We see Pharaoh is primarily concerned with the looks of the cows, mirroring Yavan's search for pure beauty, not inherent value in the world around him.

What Yosef does when he interprets Pharaoh's dream is, first, he listens carefully to Pharaoh's description and is able to sift through what is objective and what are Pharaoh's subconscious and subjective additions. More importantly, he introduces God into the picture, by making Pharaoh aware that the power to interpret lies solely with Hashem.

Yosef is a person uniquely positioned and capable of seeing beyond external beauty to these objects' inherent values. This is an explanation for the gematria (numberical computation of a word) brought down by the Bnei Yisascher, that Yosef = Antiochus. Yosef is able to see through civilizations like Egypt and Greece that are built on an appreciation of beauty.

For our goal is not just to have beauty. Art means something because it's beautiful. Yavan has wisdom! But if it's not wisdom of the Torah and Hashem, then if it loses its beauty in the eyes of the beholder it can be destroyed.

That's how Yosef blends, so to speak, Torah U'Madda, or Torah Im Derech Eretz (Torah and Science, Toah and knowledge).  He's able to take the inherent beauty of Egpyt - the Yavan of its day - and takes it to another level by inserting God into this beauty.

What's in a Light? (this Dvar Torah contains a good deal of Hebrew).

Chaim Meiselman

 אמר ר הונא הרגיל בנר הויין לו בנים תלמידי חכמים1. Rav Huna said: one who is prudent with the lighting of candles will have sons who are Torah scholars.

 Rashi (on location)understands this as the lighting of both Shabbos and Hanukkah; as if to say, one will obtain his  portion in נר with both of these, as Rashi quotes Mishlei (ch.6)  "For as the candle of Mitzvah, and the Torah a Light-כי נר מצוה ותורה אור ". When one is able to attain נר מצוה, which, as we learn is נר חנוכה ושבת, he will be credited with אור תורה, which is the blessing of having sons who are learned Torah scholars.

Hanukkah is known as the uplifting of תורה שבעל פה; we have won a victory for מסורה. Understandably, this נר is fulfilling תלמוד תורה. However, why is נר שבת included in this arrangement? The גמרא said just before, נר שבת has its purpose in שלום בית only! Why should it account for בנים תלמידי חכמים?

 I believe the answer lies in a גמרא in קדושין. The משנה says (39b) כל העושה מצוה אחת מטיבין לו ומאריכין לו ימיו ונוחל את הארץ - whoever performs one commandment, he is rewarded, his days are prolonged, and he will inherit the land, i.e. the world to come. The Gemara understands some מצוות to be ones of  שכר מצווה בהאי עלמא, (the reward can be received in this world) and included in this are the ones in פאה א, "אלו דברים שאין להם שעור...", where there is a balance that can be received in this world, but the reward remains in the world to come. The last two listed are הבאת שלום בין אדם לחבירו ות"ת כנגד כולם - creating peace between man and his friend, and learning of Torah is greater than all mentioned.

The answer to the previous question goes as follows: when one who has fulfilled the הבאת שלום, by lighting נרות שבת, he has attained שכר בהאי עלמא, as lighting נרות שבת will bring שלום בית. After, when he lights נר חנוכה he receives the אור תורה - as Rashi had mentioned; therefore it can be understood now that one needs to be prudent in נר שבת ונר חנוכה to be rewarded with בנים ת"ח.

[1] שבת כג:


Yechezkel Gorelik & Yonoson Kenton, Editors