Parshat Miketz

The Chinese word for crisis is composed of two characters.  One represents danger, and the other represents opportunity.  The underlying concept here is that when a crisis occurs there are two possible outcomes.  When faced with a crisis, if we lose hope and do nothing, the crisis will definitely be dangerous.  But, if we view crisis as an opportunity, it can motivate us to action, re-think, re-imagine, be persistent, and grow.  A crisis is not the end; it is merely an opportunity to move forward differently.
So the question is: how do we navigate the potential danger of a crisis so that it becomes a moment of opportunity?

We can find an answer to that question from Joseph’s behavior in this week’s Parsha.  The Parsha begins with Pharaoh’s dreams.  Pharaoh had dreams that were very troubling to him.  In his first dream he saw seven beautiful and robust cows along the banks of the Nile.  Then, all of a sudden seven disgusting looking emaciated cows rise out of the Nile and ate the seven beautiful cows without the appearance of the ugly cows not changing at all.  In his second dream, he dreamt of seven beautiful ears of corn growing strong only to be followed by seven unhealthy looking ears of corn which then proceeded to swallow up the seven beautiful healthy looking ears of corn.

When Pharaoh woke up in the morning he was extremely agitated by these dreams.  He looked for someone to interpret the dreams for him.  But in all of Egypt he couldn’t find anyone who could interpret the dream to his satisfaction.  At this point, the butler who had spent time with Joseph in prison, tells Pharaoh about Joseph and his ability to successfully interpret dreams.             

Upon hearing Pharaoh’s dreams, Joseph told Pharaoh that his dreams werereally one dream with the same message, and the message is a warning about an impending crisis.  He said that the message of the dream was that there were going to be seven years of plenty, and good harvests, followed by seven years of famine.  And the famine would be so bad that no one would even remember the years of abundance which had led up to the famine.  That is the end of the interpretation of the dreams, but it is not the end of what Joseph said to Pharaoh.  In the face of this impending crisis, with its potential to be a disaster, Joseph advised the king on how to prepare for the crisis.  He told Pharaoh that with proper planning this could become a moment of opportunity for him, and proceeded to formulate a plan on what to do.

When faced with the possibility for disaster, Joseph did not despair, he gave hope to everyone around him by formulating a plan which would enable them to have hope and do something so that the crisis could become a moment of opportunity.  Pharaoh sees the greatness of Joseph’s attitude and ability to act when necessary, and is so impressed that he appointed him as the prime minister with the responsibility of overseeing their plan of action to turn the famine into an opportunity.

It is often a human reaction during a time of crisis to despair: what do we do?  What’s going to happen?  All is lost!  Joseph’s lesson is, don’t just stand there, do something.  He had no idea whether his plan would work, but it was better than nothing, having a course of action gave them something positive to focus on, rather than focusing of the negativity of the possibility of danger.  This gave Pharaoh hope and confidence.  We can’t always control the outcome of any particular crisis, but we can control our attitude when facing the crisis.  With a positive attitude that motivates us to do something during a crisis, we will feel some hope and we will emerge from that situation stronger people.
Crisis has the potential for danger or opportunity, we can’t control the outcome of the crisis but we can control whether we turn it into an opportunity or not.

I would argue that if you look at any crisis in the history of the world we would find instances when some people gave up hope, but we’d also see other people who find an opportunity in that crisis to grow.

Viktor Frankl, a holocaust survivor and psychologist, wrote a book about his experience as a prisoner in Auschwitz.  The first part of the book is his story and in the second half he explores the psychological part of his experience.  He says, that in Auschwitz everyone knew when one of their fellow prisoner’s was about to die, it might not happen tomorrow or the day after, but the people who had given up hope had certain look that was obvious to those around them that their end was near.  He said they used to call them the walking dead, because when a person gave up hope in the camps, nine times out of ten they weren’t going to make it much longer.  We can’t judge those who suffered in the camps. Realistically, most of us might’ve given up hope too in similar circumstances.  Frankl says that the question which needs to be asked isn’t, why did they give up hope, that’s obvious; Rather, the interesting psychological question is how did anyone hold on to any hope in the camps.  The answer to that question is his primary thesis, and the answer is basically that people who had something to live for, people who still saw the potential for meaning in life, maintained their will to live.

I can’t think of a crisis more extreme than living as a prisoner in a concentration camp.  Thankfully most of us have never faced a crisis anywhere near something as challenging as that.  But the message that hope can help us in times of danger and distress is a very profound message.  We usually do not have a choice about what will happen to us in life, but we can try to choose how to handle whatever situations life puts us in. Hope is better than despair.

This lesson is the real message of Chanukah as well.  The Jews in the Chanukah story were facing a major crisis. The tiny Jewish people were facing their possible destruction by one of the most dominant military powers in the history of the world, and the forced assimilation into one of the most influential cultures in the history of the world.  What were they to do?  Should they give up hope, believe that there was no way of escaping such power, and just accept their inevitable destruction?  Or should they do something about it?

There was no way of knowing what the outcome would be, but the Maccabees were the heroes of the story because they decided that despite the possibility of destruction they would not give up hope, they would do something, they would try to overthrow their enemies against all odds.  Holidays are celebrated so that the memory of the experience will continue to serve as a lesson.  Chanukah is not just about celebrating our survival, that’s not a unique lesson for a jewish holiday,  Chanukah has its own unique message.  Chanukah is a lesson to us about the power of hope.  Disaster seemed imminent, but the heroes of the Chanukah story influenced the Jewish people to have hope and do something to try to save themselves.  After beating the Assyrian Greek army and kicking them out of the Temple, they only found enough oil for one day, but they used it anyway and miraculously it lasted much longer than they anyone could’ve predicted.  When faced with great darkness, even a little light can go a long way.
May we all be blessed with the strength of faith to give us the hope to turn moments of crisis into moments of opportunity and growth.  Good Shabbos!