The good years, chances and risks
The Parasha in our everyday life, Parashat Miketz – Rosh Chodesh Tevet - Chanuka - 5783
Rabbi Eliezer Shenvald - Head of the Hesder Yeshiva 'Meir Harel' Modiin
There is a special connection between this Shabbat, the Parasha of the week, Rosh Chodesh Tevet, and the last days of Chanuka. On Chanuka we thank for the miracles, for the miraculous victories, and for the return of the kingdom to Israel for more than two hundred years. The Hasmonean kingdom. At the end of Chanuka, and as we get closer to the 10th of Tevet, we deal with lessons from the tragic end of the Hasmonean dynasty:
…כי ארבעת בני חשמונאי הזקן החסידים המולכים זה אחר זה, עם כל גבורתם והצלחתם, נפלו ביד אויביהם בחרב, והגיע העונש בסוף למה שאמרו רז"ל (בבא בתרא ג א): "כל מאן דאמר מבית חשמונאי קאתינא עבדא הוא"
"...The four sons of the old Hasmonean Matithyahu, saintly men who ruled one after another, in spite of all their prowess and success, fell by the sword of their enemies. And ultimately the punishment reached the stage where our Rabbis, of blessed memory, said: “He who says, ‘I come from the house of the Hasmoneans,’ is a slave,” as they were all destroyed on account of this sin" (Ramban on Bereshit 49:10).
At the end of our Division Commanders Course, we received as a souvenir the book by Edward Luttwak "Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace". In his book, he points out the paradoxes that exist in the strategic field. Sometimes it is the 'failure' that spurs us to make changes that lead to 'success' later on. And sometimes on the contrary, the 'success' that one tries so hard to achieve, and enjoy its fruits, leads to arrogance, complacency, loss of creativity and more, which then lead to 'failure'. When the 'peak of success' sows the 'seeds of failure.' This principle may explain the collapse of empires, precisely when they reached their peak, and began to become self-sufficient. The same is true with some of our historical events. These should be warning signs for the future.
The gradual collapse of the Hasmonean kingdom and its decline was due to a number of reasons. Among them was the inability to remember the price of the loss of independence, and the suffering that was involved while being subjected to a foreign rule. To understand and evaluate the existing national and sovereign assets, which are not to be taken for granted, and to preserve them at all costs. Understand that 'control struggles' may 'get out of control' and endanger the existing assets.
Our Parasha opens with 'Pharaoh's dream' and Yosef’s solution. It seems that the most unexpected future was that after the שֶׁ֣בַע פָּר֔וֹת בְּרִיא֥וֹת בָּשָׂ֖ר וִיפֹ֣ת תֹּ֑אַר “seven sturdy and well-formed cows" came up, there were also: שֶֽׁבַע־פָּר֤וֹת אֲחֵרוֹת֙ עֹל֣וֹת אַחֲרֵיהֶ֔ן דַּלּ֨וֹת וְרָע֥וֹת תֹּ֛אַר מְאֹ֖ד וְרַקּ֣וֹת בָּשָׂ֑ר "there followed them seven other cows, scrawny, ill-formed, and emaciated”.
וַתֹּאכַ֙לְנָה֙ הַפָּר֔וֹת הָרַקּ֖וֹת וְהָרָע֑וֹת אֵ֣ת שֶׁ֧בַע הַפָּר֛וֹת הָרִאשֹׁנ֖וֹת הַבְּרִיאֹֽת׃ וַתָּבֹ֣אנָה אֶל־קִרְבֶּ֗נָה וְלֹ֤א נוֹדַע֙ כִּי־בָ֣אוּ אֶל־קִרְבֶּ֔נָה וּמַרְאֵיהֶ֣ן רַ֔ע כַּאֲשֶׁ֖ר בַּתְּחִלָּ֑ה …
“And the seven lean and ugly cows ate up the first seven cows, the sturdy ones; but when they had consumed them, one could not tell that they had consumed them, for they looked just as bad as before…” (Bereshit 41:18-21)
In this context, the dream of the seven ears of grain is also interpreted. Yosef’s interpretation of Pharaoh's double dream was: that there will be seven blessed and successful years, with great and extraordinary economic achievements, and then there will come such bad years, during which all the achievements of the good years will be lost and 'swallowed' completely.
The strategic answer formulated by Yosef, is a national level strategic emergency plan for the seven good years, how to conduct them in a wise and frugal manner, in order to properly utilize all the achievements, lest they be lost, and to set aside reserves ('tax') that will allow them to survive in the bad years:
“There are two proposals here: a) imposition of tax - in the previous Pasuk. b) Custody over and limiting the use of grain trade, first and foremost the export restrictions. Ancient Egypt was the grain storehouse for all the other countries". (Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch ibid:34) and designate someone specially to preserve the extras: "a sort of agricultural dictator, who will limit consumption in those years" (ibid :33).
However, what is Yosef's great innovation, the need for prudent financial management, maintaining and hoarding surpluses and extras during the good years? And why is someone special needed for this?
"Because the consumption in the years of plentitude doubles the consumption of normal years. And the opposite is true, in the expensive years we settle with half the consumption than normal years. Hence, the consumption in a year of abundance is four times higher than the consumption in a famine" (ibid.).
Goodness and abundance are intoxicating. It causes a person to drown in it, to want to enjoy it as much as possible, to overconsume, and not to think about the future, and not to keep some aside for a rainy day. There is an inexplicable human tendency to take the existing good for granted, and to think that after the existing good there can be no worse. And no distress will come. As it is written: וַיִּשְׁמַ֤ן יְשֻׁרוּן֙ וַיִּבְעָ֔ט שָׁמַ֖נְתָּ עָבִ֣יתָ כָּשִׂ֑יתָ
“So Yeshurun grew fat and kicked, You grew fat and gross and coarse…” (Devarim 32:15) therefore we learn to appreciate what exists only when it is gone, when there is a shortage. And then it's too late.