1. This week's Torah portion is "Vayigash," the 11th of 12 portions in the book of Genesis. We are approaching the end of the first book of the Torah. The parsha is considered particularly moving: it begins with the words "Vayigash elav Yehuda" (And Yehudah approached him) - Yehudah speaks with Yosef, and changes the family plot for the better.
2. After 22 years of separation, Yosef and his brothers are reconciled. The first family of the people of Israel succeeds in repairing and resolving the difficult crisis they went through, and passes on a message to all of us. Our commentators explain that Yosef waited so long so that the brothers, who had turned against him and sold him, would understand the meaning of their actions and rectify them, so that the reconciliation would be genuine.
3. And later in the parsha: Yosef also reunites with his father, Yaakov. This family unity is important, but a new challenge begins: the exile. The entire people of Israel is now in Egypt. Only in the book of Exodus will the story of the Exodus from Egypt begin, from slavery to redemption.
4. We are already in the month of Tevet, and this coming Tuesday - the Fast of the Tenth of Tevet, the day when the siege on the walls of Jerusalem began, before the destruction. In our generation, this is also the "Yom Hakaddish Haklaki" for all who were murdered in the Holocaust and whose date of death is unknown.
5. And this may already seem far away, but this past Sunday we still lit the eighth Chanukah candle. This is an opportunity to remember and ask ourselves: What Jewish light did we take from Chanukah this year?
And now - to the light of the Shabbat candles.
Shabbat Shalom.
