Some commentators solve the contradiction in this manner. Of course, one must try to make a human “hishtadlus” and effort. Yosef attempted to do so through the wine steward. However, immediately afterwards he had remorse over his action and chastised himself for not being on a higher level of not making a hishtadlus at all. He therefore went ahead and davened that the wine steward would totally forget his request on his behalf so that the salvation should come only from Hashem alone. This is the way the passuk is to be interpreted. “Veloh zachar sar hamashkim es Yosef vayishkachaihu – the wine steward did not remember Yosef and forgot him. Apparently, there seems to be a redundancy in this passuk: he did not remember and he forgot him? However the authentic explanation in this passuk is that the reason that the wine steward did not remember Yosef was because “vayishkachaihu”, Yosef made the wine steward forget him through his power of tefillah to Hashem.

With this interpretation we have found a solution to the two seemingly contradictory Medrashim. True that Yosef asked the wine steward to help extricate him from his situation. But from this alone we perceive his incredible trust in Hashem. For here we find a man who did not act improperly for making a hishtadlus but nevertheless not only do we find him immediately regretting his hishtadlus but he also davens that the wine steward should also forget his hishtadlus, and consequently Hashem did listen to this tefillah. The proof lies in the extra two years spent in jail which is testimony to the fact that the wine steward really forgot about him and that Yosef at the end was actually saved by his total trust in Hashem without any intermediary. The entire passuk therefore is complimentary of Yosef’s excelling level of bitachon.

The sefer Shemen Rosh takes this concept even a step further. If one consciously thinks about someone else, it will cause that the one that he is thinking about will in return be aroused to think about him as well. Being so, if Yosef would have had even a fleeting thought of the potential salvation that he might receive from the wine steward, the wine steward would not have forgotten Yosef or his request. It must have been that Yosef totally erased from his memory the wine steward and any scintilla of possibility of salvation that might come from a human, thus enabling the wine steward to totally forget about him. This can be read in the passuk with a novel interpretation “The wine steward did not remember Yosef and he forgot about him”. Above we asked that this clause and he forgot about him seems superfluous. The answer to this is that “vayishkachaihu” is not to be understood to mean that the wine steward forgot about Yosef but rather that Yosef forgot about the wine steward. Only because of this almost supernatural phenomenon of bringing oneself to forgetting about a potential conduit to freedom, did Yosef merit to receive his freedom from Hashem alone.

We are approaching the end of this high spirited wonderful Chanukah. This Yom Tov is the victory of remembering over forgetting. As we say in Al Hanisim, the Greeks attempted to make us forget our Torah. The Medrash describes the four exiles as symbolized by he four words in the second verse of the Torah :”sohu vohu choshech penai sehom”. The third symbolic word choshech represents the galus of Am Yisrael within the Greek culture. Note that the letters of choshech spell shacahch – to forget. How did they intend to cause the Torah to be forgotten from the Jewish nation? They for sure understood that Torah was and has always been an essential part and parcel of Jewish lives, a sort of inborn and natural DNA memory chip, for even as a embryo in the womb one has learned the entire Torah with a holy malach. It would be unnatural for a Yid to forget his Torah? But then again, as we explained above, Yosef was able to forget also what was under natural circumstances impossible to forget. So to the contrary, it is possible to cause the Jewish nation to forget it’s Torah. as proven by Yosef. This is what is hinted in the gematriah of melech Yavon and Antiyochus which equals the gematirah of Yosef. It was with this power of Yosef that they attempted to cause Am Yisrael to also forget the unforgettable.

To accomplish this they first decreed three prohibitions, the observances of Shabbos milah and Rosh Chodesh. What common thread to these three share? The answer is the power to remember. On Shabbos there is a mitzvah of Kiddush which is derived from the passuk “Zachor es yom hashabbos lekadsho”. Shabbos is the day upon which we must remember that Hashem creates and sustains the universe and remember the goal and mission for our existence. Milah is an irrevocable sign and treaty on our bodies to remind us of our purpose and meaning for being created. The mitzvah of chodesh which is sanctifying the new moon also relates to remembering. For when the light of the moon totally wanes and disappears it becomes forgotten due to its darkness. On Rosh Chodesh when its light cycle returns, it becomes once again remembered. Or in other terms: oldness and staleness, habit and routine breed forgetfulness, but chiddush and freshness, newness and insight cause remembrance.

The Greeks well understood that to cause Yidden to forget their Torah they first had to obliterate any semblance of mitzvos that would nurture them in the opposite direction which is to remember spirituality and purpose. If we look closely at the word choshech and its partner letters shachach we can find these three mitzvos hinted within. The shin of shachach is Shabbos. The chaf of shachach represents milah which was given to the 20^th generation from creation – Avraham Avinu [Medrash Rabbah Aicha]. The letter ches of shachach stands for chodesh. Hence the Greeks felt that by first abolishing these three particular mitzvos that help a Yid remember his deep connection to Hashem, they would be successful in making the Yidden forget their Torah.

It was the Kohanim the Chashmonaim whose first three letters of their name ches shin mem symbolize the opponent force against eradicating these three mitzvos and forgetfulness from the Jewish people, who rose and rebelled against the great Greek armies. For the holy Kohanim in general are more naturally connected to remembering than the rest of Yidden. For their holy task was service in the Beis Hamikdash which is called “machon leshivtecha” [Shmos 15,17] upon which Rashi comments that the Mikdash below is directly under the kisay hakavod above. Being so, the makom hamikdash was a place that facilitated the spiritual memory of meaning and purpose in this world and one’s close relationship with Hashem. For we say in tefillas Musaf of Rosh Hashana “kj ain shichecha lifnai kisay kevodecha” that there is no forgetting before the throne of glory. Therefore, in the Beis Hamikdash where the kohanin perform avodah, there is also no forgetfulness. It makes sense then why the kohanim in particular rose up against the Greeks who strove to bring forgetfulness of Torah amidst the Jewish nation.

We can now understand why the Sheeltos of Rav Achaee Gaon brings that one should light the Chanukah menorah wearing a talis. It is because the blue string of the tzitzis reminds one of the color of the ocean, the color of the ocean reminds one of the color of the heavens, the heavens reminds one of the color of the kisay hakavod. And as we just mentioned, there is no forgetfulness by the kisay. Chanukah and our battle against the Greeks was all about remembering the important things of life and not the “narishkeit” and passing insignificants that lead people to “nowhere land” and dead ends. We live in a culture where the media tries its utmost to make man forget his tachlis in this world. You are here only to enjoy, have fun, satisfy your bodily cravings, and buy our products to make us rich.

Yosef demonstrated to us that our tefillos can accomplish to forget the shortcomings and failures that we brought about through our wrong choices. Our sincere tefillos can have such an effect even on others in a way that they should also forget them as well as we found in the case of Yosef. Surely we should daven to remember the important issues in our lives for it makes a world of a difference. This Shabbos Chanukah which is called Zos Chanukah the zenith of these holy days of teshuvah and the final sealing of the din given on Yom Kippur should be a day that we remember everything that would bring out our ruchniyus and bring us closer to our creator.

The learning of Torah which was our victory over the Greeks helps one with the memory mode of ruchniyus. There is a story told of the late Ponivisher Rav ztl who once entered a cheder and asked the children why is there a custom to say a passuk at the end of the shemoneh esrai that the first word begins with the first letter of one’s name and the last word ends with the last letter of his name? Our Chazal say that when one will stand before Hashem in the day of judgement after 120 years he will be so petrified that when they ask from his name he will forget it. Isn’t that a little difficult to understand, asked the Rav, since throughout his entire life everyone called him that name, his parents, teachers, friends wife etc so how does he forget it? The problem is answered the Rav, that we don’t realize and we cannot even imagine how scary it is to stand before the melech malchai hamlachim. Yes scary enough even to forget that name of 120 years. So how, may you ask, is the passuk going to help? The answer is that in the next world one will forget everything except the Torah that he learned. Torah he will always remember. Being that his name is attached to a passuk he will therefore remember his name even then.

Gut Shabbos

Rav Brazil

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