Vayeshev | "And the House of Yaakov Will Be Fire, and the House of Yosef - A Flame"

 Summarized by Danny Orenbuch

"'And Yaakov dwelt in the land of his father's sojourning, in the land of Kena'an' - A flax-merchant once arrived with his camels loaded with flax.  The blacksmith was astonished: 'What on earth can a person do with such a lot of flax?'  A quick-witted individual watching the scene commented, 'A single spark from your bellows would burn it all!'

"So it was with Yaakov who, after witnessing all of Esav's chieftains listed in the previous parasha, wondered to himself: 'Who on earth could ever conquer all of them?'  Therefore the next pasuk continues, 'These are the generations of Yaakov: Yosef....'  As it is written, 'And the house of Yaakov will be fire, and the house of Yosef a burning flame, and the house of Esav - as straw' (Ovadia 1:18).  The spark which is destined to come from Yosef will consume and burn all of them." (Rashi, older version, Bereishit 37:1)

"What was written earlier? 'And these are the kings....'  And here it is written, 'And Yaakov dwelt....'  Rabbi Hunia said, 'This may be compared to a person who was walking along the road and saw a pack of dogs.  He was afraid of them and so he sat among them.  In the same way, when Yaakov saw Esav and all his chieftains he was afraid of them, and so he stayed [for a while] among them.'

"Rabbi Levi said, 'This may be compared to a blacksmith who had his stall open in the middle of the square, and the stall of his son, a goldsmith, was open opposite him.  He saw bundle upon bundle of thorns entering the village, and said, 'What can be done with all these thorns?'  A quick-witted individual watching the scene said, 'Of these you are afraid?!  One spark from you and one from your son and you could burn all of them!'  Similarly, when Yaakov saw Esav and his chieftains, he was afraid.  God said to him, 'Of these you are afraid?!  One spark from you and one from your son (Yosef) and you could destroy all of them.'  Therefore it is written, 'And the house of Yaakov will be fire, and the house of Yosef - a burning flame." (Bereishit Rabba 84:5)

     The midrash describes two possible approaches.  The one is characterized by self-restraint, silent presence, sitting among hostile Gentiles - "amongst the pack of dogs," in the metaphor of the midrash - in an attempt to influence them by illuminating the environment, rather than by means of argument and conflict.  The other approach, on the other hand, is that of fire, sparks and flames - direct face-to-face conflict.  When peaceful and quiet presence have no effect, when self-restraint is no longer possible, then sometimes the situation calls for direct conflict.

     We perceive fire as something which brings harm, destruction and ruin.  On the other hand, though, we cannot imagine a world without the energy which we derive from fire and its by-products.  This dual nature characteristic of fire is mentioned in the gemara, where we are told that God will destroy Jerusalem by fire, but God also promises that in the days to come He will be a "wall of fire" around Jerusalem.  A destructive fire and a constructive fire.  Even in the case of the Temple we find, on one hand, the fire which consumes the sacrifices and the wicks of the candles, and on the other hand - the fire of the Menora which spreads a great light to all of humanity.

     We are about to celebrate the festival of Chanuka - the festival of light and of fire; the festival which, more than any other, represents our war against our enemies, the confrontation and the victory, the sparks which emanate from direct conflict with those around us.  But we must remember that this is neither the principal nor the most important message of Chanuka.  The message is that we should spread God's great light towards those around us, such that we ourselves become a "light unto the nations."  Our aim must not be head-on collision with the Gentile world with the aim of destroying them like straw, under the guise of serving as "God's holy flame."  We must learn to use the fire and its sparks in order to continually engage in elevating ourselves as well as the entire world, continually higher.

(Originally delivered on Shabbat Parashat Vayeshev 5753.

Translated by Kaeren Fish.)