Parshas Mikeitz always falls out around Chanukah, and Chazal explain that this is not coincidental. In explanation of this phenomenon, the commentaries discuss how Yosef is connected to Chanukah, and how he symbolizes our victory over the Greeks. This begs the obvious question as to what exactly the connection between Yosef and Chanukah is. An obvious connection both Yosef and the Greeks would be the concept of beauty. Yosef is the only male in the Torah who is referred to as “beautiful” (Bereishis 39:6). The Greeks originate from Yefes, a name which literally means “beauty”. In parshas Noach, Noach blesses his two sons with the following- “Yaft Elokim l’Yefes, v’yishkon b’ohalei Shem”– Hashem will grant beauty to Yefes, and he will dwell within the tents of Shem (Bereishis 9:27). Yefes is the precursor to the Greeks, and Shem to the Jews. This seemingly paints the Greeks in a positive light, as a beautiful nation fitting to dwell within the framework and boundaries of Judaism. In a similar vein, the Gemara (Megillah 9b) states that despite the general prohibition of translating the Torah into different languages, it is permissible to translate the Torah into Greek due to the beauty of the language.
Based on the fact that both Yosef and the Greeks are referred to as beautiful, we must uncover the connection between them. How is the beauty of Yosef and Greek beauty connected? In order to answer this question, we must first understand what the spiritual concept of beauty actually means. To do this, let us track the spiritual concept of beauty back to the creation of man, to before Adam Ha’Rishon’s sin.
Adam Ha’Rishon
Before Adam sinned, he looked nothing like you or I do today. When we look at each other, all we see is flesh and bone, but if you looked at Adam before he sinned, he appeared angelic, transcendent, luminescent. The midrash says that he wore katnas ohr, skin of light. In other words, when you looked at Adam, you didn’t see his body, you saw Adam himself; his neshama, his soul. For example, when you look at a light bulb, all you see is light; only when you look very closely, can you just make out the surface of the bulb. The same was true regarding Adam; only when you looked very closely could you just make out the surface of his physical body. His body was transparent, with the outside loyally reflecting his inner self. This is true beauty, where the inner and outer melt into a oneness, where the physical loyally and perfectly reflects the inner and spiritual; where the physical vessel serves as a medium to project something much deeper than itself. Beauty is the harmony and synthesis between different components, which results in something infinitely greater than the sum of its parts.
However, once Adam sinned, his entire body transformed as well. The physical no longer revealed the spiritual, but hid it. Now, when we look at each other, we don’t see our true selves; all we see is a physical body instead. What was once light is now darkness. People can’t see your inner world, your thoughts, your consciousness, your emotions; all they see is your external body. Now, in order to reveal yourself to other people you need to use the physical to reveal the spiritual; only through your words, actions, facial expressions and body language can people gain a glimpse of who you truly are. The body used to be incandescent and reveal, now it only hides.
The Chanukah Battle
The conception of beauty was a fundamental point of contention in the battle between the Jews and the Greeks. The Greeks did not believe in using the physical to reflect anything higher; they viewed physical beauty as an ends unto itself. They focus was solely on the external; to them, beauty was physical perfection, independent of anything deeper. The Greeks glorified Olympic games, a competition that idolizes the physical body. For the Greeks, true godliness was physical and intellectual perfection, where the physical and intellectual were completely independent, where mind and soul did not permeate the physical, but remained distinct and separate. This is why the Greeks come from Yefes, which is the same word in Hebrew for “beauty”, and why their language is referred to as beautiful. Ideally, the Greeks could have reflected true beauty, whereby the physical beauty and spiritual beauty harmonize into one. They could have harmonized with the Jews, and joined the physical with the spiritual; instead, they chose to corrupt true beauty, disconnecting the spiritual from the physical, projecting the physical as an independent ends in itself.
Yosef and Beauty
Yosef is connected to Chanukah because he represents the harmony between the physical and the spiritual; he successfully utilized the physical to reflect something higher. He is called beautiful, because his physical body projected something infinitely deeper than itself. This is the profound meaning behind the name that Pharaoh gives Yosef, Tzafnas Paneach, which means “to reveal the hidden” (Bireishis 41:43). A name reflects inner essence, and Yosef’s middah was true beauty, the ability to harmonize the physical with the spiritual, the hidden with the revealed. Yosef represents our victory over Greek ideology, whereby the physical can reflect something infinitely deeper than itself.
Yosef, Tzion, and True Beauty
The Greeks attacked Yerushalayim, trying to disconnect us from the Beis Ha’Mikdash, the place where Hashem connects most intimately and deeply with our physical world. The place of the Beis Ha’Mikdash is referred to as Tzion, a unique, beautiful and distinguished place. The pasuk in Tehilim (50:2) refers to Tzion as the ultimate place of beauty: “Mei’Tzion michlal yofi”– from Tzion comes the embodiment of beauty. The Gemara explains that nine-tenths of the world’s beauty was given to Tzion, which in essence means that it received all the world’s beauty, and gave a tenth of its portion (ma’aser) to the rest of the world (Kedushin 49b).
Yavan represents external, surface beauty, while Tzion represents true beauty. Yavan is comprised of the letters yud, vav, nun, while Tzion is comprised of those same three letters, along with a tzadi in front, the same root and shoresh of the word tzaddik. Yosef is referred to as Yosef Ha’Tzaddik, because he places the tzaddi in front of Yavan– turning surface beauty into Tzion, true beauty. Yosef represents the ability to shine forth inner and higher beauty through a physical medium. It is no coincidence that the gematria (numerical value) of Tzion is 156, the same gematria as Yosef.
This is the hidden light of Chanukah, the light which helps us see the truth, the ability to see past the surface. Beauty is much deeper than a description of how a person looks, it’s a way of life. A beautiful life is one of oneness, where we synthesize all the aspects of who we are; where our thoughts, words, and actions all reflect a higher purpose. This is the beauty of Yosef, this is the light of Chanukah.