"And it was at the end of two years...." Say chazal: Yosef spent an extra two years in prison because he twice asked the butler to 'remember' him to Pharaoh. Since Yosef did not rely on HaShem alone, his sentence was extended 24 months.


But since when is it a problem to employ human means and the help of others to achieve worthwhile goals? Does the Gemara not say, "No person can extricate himself from the

The Menorah could have been lit immediately.

pit"? So, why was Yosef any different?


Question number 2: Why are there eight days of Chanukah? The classic answer is that it took eight days to get new oil for rekindling the Menorah, and the little jar of oil -enough for one day - miraculously lasted for eight.


Now, why did it take eight days to get new oil? The fact is, it really only took one day; but the people, who were spiritually impure, had to wait a week in order to become tahor, spiritually fit to light the Menorah. But we have a principle: "Tuma hutra b'rabim," i.e., when everyone in a community is impure, then it's as if no one is. And so, the Menorah could have been lit immediately. Why, then, did they wait an extra week?


Let me answer both these questions - which really are one - with a story.
In 1985, I was sent, with a close friend, to the Soviet Union to meet with refuseniks. As part of our mission, I brought numerous ketubot - sewn into the lining of my suitcase - to conduct Jewish marriage ceremonies for young couples who had never had the services of a rabbi to wed them.


At an emotional meeting, I gathered eight of these brave couples and explained the basics of the chuppah ceremony. I took out my talit to place over them. And then, one of the young men asked me, "What about the mikveh?"


At that time, there was no mikveh to which the brides could safely go. I explained that, yes, Jewish brides immerse in a mikveh prior to the wedding, but I had received a p'sak permitting the weddings without a mikveh, because of the compelling circumstances.


At that point, the couples turned to each other and held a spirited discussion in Russian

Every move in his life was being guided by Divine hands.

for several minutes. Then, they turned back to me and said, "Rav, we believe you that it is allowed to marry without mikveh. But we have endured so much in order to be Jewish, we have come so far to be in this place, that we have decided to wait until we can have a 100% kosher chuppah. We will settle for no less than any other Jewish couple."


I learned a lot that evening, including the meaning of Yosef and Chanukah.


It's true that it is no crime to to ask others for help. But in Yosef's case, he should have sensed that every move in his life was being guided by Divine hands; he should have trusted in G-d and G-d alone. And just as the Maccabees did not want to re-dedicate the holy Beit HaMikdash via a "loophole," Chanukah teaches us to strive for holiness of the highest order.


On airplanes, we may be content to settle for economy. But in Yiddishkeit, we should do whatever it takes to travel first-class.