17 Dec PARSHAS VAYEISHEV: SERVE HASHEM WITH JOY

The sar ha’ofim,
Pharaoh’s chief
baker, told Yosef
(40:15-16) that in
his dream, he was
carrying baskets of
bread on his head, and
birds were eating from
the basket.
Yosef told him that
he would be hung and
birds would eat his
flesh. And that is what
occurred (see 40:22).
How did Yosef know that this was the
interpretation of the dream?
The Chida (Pnei David, Vayeishev)
answers with a mashal:
An artist painted a true-to-life picture of
a man carrying a basket filled with fruits.
Birds were pecking at the canvas because
they thought the fruit was real. People
said, “The painting is so true-to-life, it
even fools the birds.”
A wise person disagreed. He said, “If

the painting were true-to-life, the birds
wouldn’t come. They would be afraid of
the man holding the basket. But birds
come, so I’d call it ‘a dead painting.’”
The Chida explains that the sar ha’ofim
dreamt that he was carrying a basket on
his head, and yet birds came and ate the
bread. Yosef said, “If the birds aren’t
afraid of the man holding the basket, this
proves he’s dead.” That’s how Yosef
knew the fate of the sar Ha’ofim.
We’ll take this lesson a step further:
In the dream, the sar ha’ofim, carrying
the loaves of bread on his head, was
alive, yet we see that one can be alive and
be considered dead. The same can be said
about someone who keeps the mitzvos
without joy. He is alive, and his heart is
pumping, but a major part of his being is
dead. That isn’t the way to perform the
mitzvos. We should keep the mitzvos
with hislahavus and with joy. On
Chanukah, we should perform the
mitzvos joyously, and it should be
noticeable to all that we are alive.
The Gemara (Taanis 28) states, “The

Yevanim forbade Yidden from
donating wood for the mizbeiach and
bringing Bikurim to Yerushalayim.”
Why did they specifically target these
two mitzvos? The Maharsha explains
that these mitzvos were performed
with joy and celebration (as the
Mishnah Bikurim states, “the flute
played before them…”). The Yevanim
didn’t want the Jewish people to be
happy.
The Bach (670) quotes a Chazal,
which states that the Jewish nation was
lax with the Avodah in the Beis
HaMikdash. Therefore, the Yevanim
forbade them from bringing the korban
tamid. The Shem m’Shmuel (680)
explains that the problem wasn’t that
they didn’t bring the korbanos. Before
the Yevanim’s decree, they brought every
korban, but they did so without joy, and
therefore it was taken away from them.
The Skulener Rebbe (Rebbe Eliezer
Zusia) zt’l would say that at the beginning
of the year, on Rosh Hashanah, Yom
Kippur, and Succos, we build a beautiful

(spiritual) edifice, which is the source for
bounty and blessings for the new year.
Yet, everyone understands that the
building isn’t finished without electricity.
Something essential is missing from that
structure. Similarly, the new year without
light isn’t complete. Chanukah adds the
light. Now, the new year is complete. The
light is the joy of Yiddishkeit, the
happiness we experience when we
perform the mitzvos.