| During this Hanukkah week – and now in the wake of the attack on a Hanukkah celebration in Australia – we kindle candles of hope, continuity and community. We participate in an extraordinary collective act of hutzpah.We’ve all known the darkness before the dawn, the anxiety before the knowing, the gauntlet before the triumph. There have been times so dark that we could never imagine light ever penetrating. And yet. |
By Rabbi David Evan Markus
Mikeitz 5786 (2025)Dedicated to the victims, mourners and heroes of the attack on “Hanukkah by the Sea” at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia.
We’ve all been there. We all know the worried moment before good news, the gripping anxiety before a test result, the darkness before dawn. Perhaps we’ve experienced in ourselves – or alongside someone we cherish – feeling stuck at the bottom of a dark pit.In Jewish symbolism, that moment is the darkness before we kindle Hanukkah candles. In the Northern hemisphere, we face the longest night, the thickest dark – and boom, light!This week’s Torah portion (Mikeitz), which always coincides with Hanukkah, begins with that darkness-to-light turn for Joseph. After years rotting in the dark pit of an Egyptian prison, for a crime he didn’t commit, utterly forgotten, suddenly Joseph is sprung into the light of day, the light of freedom, the light of Pharaoh’s court and, incredibly, the light of being Pharaoh’s #2. Egypt’s lowest of the low suddenly wears Pharaoh’s gold ring, gleaming with light.
Everything about that Biblical moment is impossible. So many coincidences had to align just so for this pivot to happen as it did. In Torah:
Pharaoh sprung Joseph from jail…
because Pharaoh had nightmares that nobody could interpret…
and a guy remembered a dream-weaving Joseph from jail…
where Joseph was rotting away…
because someone didn’t get their way with him and falsely accused him…
who was there to be accused only because an Egyptian purchased him…
from nomadic traders passing through…
who happened to buy Joseph from his brothers…
who sold him into slavery rather than kill him…
after Joseph just happened to find them…
because a random guy pointed them out to Joseph…
who was seeking them because their father sent Joseph to them…
because…
Seemingly impossible, and yet.
The thing is, at the moment before the light, no bright possibilities can seem to matter: before light, there’s darkness. Before the test result, there’s anxiety. Before the find, there’s the loss. Before the good news, there’s the waiting. And of course, not everything always turns out in ways that feel light and bright.
And yet.
So why all of this darkness-to-light stuff? Yes, we humans need hope, which is one reason that nearly all world religions have a darkness-to-light holiday. And, there’s something more.
Whatever our beliefs or none at all, spiritually, the audacious calling of this season is one that has kept our people alive and even thriving for centuries when the odds were far stacked against us. It’s our calling to kindle light precisely in the darkness. Even more, it’s our calling to know – with a certainty that itself shines brightly – that even impossible light can indeed follow the deepest, darkest night.
Life does not guarantee us happily after ever. Not at all. There are times in the life of most of us that this “ask” can feel too big, just as there are times in any society that can feel utterly bleak and hopeless. And yet.
It is our calling, collectively, to find a way to shine and help each other shine – come what may, whatever the odds, however unlikely. Because the story isn’t over.
From my heart to yours, may Hanukkah’s lights burn brightly for you and your loved ones to illuminate every darkness.
David Evan Markus 