Parshat Mikeitz – Rosh Chodesh – Chanukah
When Rosh Hashanah falls on Monday and Tuesday and both Marcheshvan and Kislev have 30 days (Shaleim years) – or when Rosh Hashanah falls on Tuesday and Wednesday, in which case Marcheshvan has 29 days and Kislev has 30 days (K’seder years) – then Rosh Chodesh Tevet will be on Shabbat and Sunday, the 6th and 7th days of Chanukah.
That happens in 28% of years.
When it does, like this year, Shabbat is Rosh Chodesh (the first of the two days of Rosh Chodesh) as well as Shabbat Chanukah, and the Parshat HaShavua is Mikeitz.
Ideally, three Torahs are used for the Torah reading. (If the minyan has only one or two Sifrei Torah, there will be a fair amount of rolling to do.)
The Parshat HaShavuah goes first, but only six people are called to the Torah for it. Shishi and Sh’vi’i are combined into Shishi.
In the second Torah, the Shabbat Rosh Chodesh portion is read, as Sh’vi’i.
Then, in the third Torah, the six pesukim of the Chanukah Nasi-of-the-Day is read – the portion for Gad’s Elyasaf ben D’u’el.
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There are other situations when we also read from three Sifrei Torah:
- When Rosh Chodesh Adar (or Adar Sheini) is on Shabbat, it is also Parshat Shekalim – occurring 11.5% of years.
- When Rosh Chodesh Nissan is on Shabbat, it is also Parshat HaChodesh – occurring 28% of years.
- The only other time we read from three Torahs is Simchat Torah morning – which occurs 100% of years!
But if you want to turn all this into a riddle to challenge others, ask: “On which Shabbatot do we read from three Sifrei Torah?”
In this case, for Simchat Torah in Chutz LaAretz, the answer is never, so Simchat Torah isn’t part of the answer – only Shabbat Chanukah, Shabbat Sh’kalim, and Shabbat HaChodesh.
But in Eretz Yisrael, Simchat Torah can fall on Shabbat, which happens more than 28.5% of years.
By the numbers, three of the different “Three-Torah Shabbatot” (or “Three-Kugel Shabbatot”) occur in the 28% range; the rarest is Shekalim, down at 11.5%.
Do any years have more than one Three-Torah Shabbat?
Yes. In Eretz Yisrael, Shabbat Simchat Torah and Shekalim falling on Rosh Chodesh – possible in only one year-type – occurs 4.33% of the time. But no for Chu”L.
Shabbat–Rosh Chodesh-Chanukah and HaChodesh on Rosh Chodesh – two year-types, 10% of the time.
So, three year-types, totaling 18.17% of years, have no Three-Torah Shabbatot.
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After pondering the issue for a long time, it was decided that Yerushalmi kugel and lokshen kugel are to be considered different kugels. Whether sweet lokshen kugel and salt-and-pepper kugel can be considered different is still being debated. Challah and matza kugels are definitely two different kugels.
Whether you take three kugels for a Three-Torah Shabbat seriously or not, enjoy your Shabbat-Rosh Chodesh-Chanukah!
On a serious note, the fact that there is always a Shabbat during Chanukah – once in a while, two of them – and that there is also always a day or two of Rosh Chodesh during Chanukah, is particularly significant in light of Shabbat and Kiddush HaChodesh being major targets of Greek oppression leading up to the story of Chanukah.
When Shabbat and Rosh Chodesh coincide, the significance is more “in your face,” and we should all speak about it around the Shabbat table.
And if there also happens to be a brit milah on this coming Shabbat, the message intensifies.
It is this: “Hey – you ceased to exist. We still exist… and thrive – observing Shabbat and brit milah and all the mitzvot, learning Torah, and using the calendar you tried to take away from us.”
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On a Three-Torah Shabbat, like this one, the weekly sedra is read first, because of Tadir – the rule that when you have two things to do at the same time, the more frequent one goes first. The reading for Rosh Chodesh goes second, for the same reason – it is more frequent than Chanukah.
The haftara for Mikeitz is pre-empted. Instead, we read the haftara of Shabbat Chanuka – which happens to be the same haftara for Parshat B’ha-alo-t’cha.
Here’s an interesting, less known detail.
Let’s say a shul made a mistake and read the Chanukah maftir after the weekly sedra (forgetting it is Rosh Chodesh, or for whatever other reason). They then read the Rosh Chodesh portion, since Tadir determines what goes first, but a switch in order does not invalidate anything. Now here’s the interesting fact: The haftara they should read is the one for Shabbat Rosh Chodesh – not the one for Shabbat Chanukah.
This is based on the guideline that the haftara follows the theme of the last part of the Torah reading.
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Mikeitz is on the long side for sedras. Counting lines, it ranks 6th. With its 146 pesukim, it is tied for 8th place with Parshat Bereishit. But Mikeitz distinguishes itself with words and letters – longer pesukim than usual for long sedras.
With 2,022 words – one of only five sedras with more than 2,000 words – it ranks 3rd. And with letters, it rises to 2nd place among the 54 sedras of the Torah.
Just in case you’ve seen a word count for Mikeitz at 2,025, know that the text as we have it today is 2,022. Checked and double-checked.
And with an extra two bunches of words added to the Torah reading – for Rosh Chodesh and Chanukah – we’ve got a whole lot of words to hear this coming Shabbat.
On another note, Mikeitz is made up of one single parsha, a petucha. It is the longest parsha of all 674 parshiyot in the Torah.
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The sedra begins, “And it was after two years…” so there is the number two. There will be more twos: Par’o’s two dreams (even though Yosef tells him that they are one); Yosef’s two sons; Yaakov mentioning Shimon and Binyamin as the possibility of two sons being lost to him.
Then, of course, we have seven: seven fat cows; seven emaciated cows; seven fat sheaves; seven scrawny sheaves; seven years of plenty; and seven years of famine. In fact, I just counted the occurrences of the word “sheva” (seven) in Parshat Mikeitz. There are 29 of them! That’s a lot. Significance of 29? None that I know of… except as an oddity in the spelling of numbers in English.
What do I mean? Look at the spelling of “five,” for example. How many straight lines does it take to write it out? Ten. How about “eleven?” Nineteen. We are looking only at numbers that are spelled out with straight lines only. So “one” is not involved here, nor is “six,” and so on.
“Twenty-nine” is the only number whose name is written with 29 lines! Obviously, this has no relevance for the occurrences of words in a sedra. But I thought I’d share it with you anyway.
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But since we are talking numbers, let’s talk Chanukah.
In last week’s column, we explored some of the answers to the “Why 8?” question.
Let’s take another look at 8 from a different angle.
We sing, in “Maoz Tzur,” in the stanza about Chanukah, that “B’nei vina y’mei sh’mona…” – Men of deep understanding established, for eight days, song and praise.
It wasn’t simply: “Let’s make an eight-day holiday because the one-day supply of oil lasted for eight days.” You don’t need deep understanding to do that. And besides, a holiday declared by our Sages is not fixed by a number in the story that led to the holiday. Using Torah precedents, holidays are one day or seven days or, in the case of Sukkot, seven-plus-one days, i.e., eight days.
So, the Sages could have made a one-day holiday (like they did with Purim) to commemorate and celebrate the miracles of the victory and of the oil. Or, they could have made a seven-day holiday (which would give us a chanukiya just like the Menorah of the Beit HaMikdash). But they chose eight days. The miracle of the oil might have been Hashem’s way of hinting to our Sages which way to go. Or, you can look at the miracle of the oil as a stamp of approval, a smile, from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, for the Sages’ choice of an eight-day festival. Either way, eight is the key to understanding and appreciating Chanukah.
Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai highlighted the number eight by modifying the original rule of one candle each night for eight nights. When they instituted a built-in count of the days, they were saying, “Do you want to know what Chanukah is? It is eight. It is above and beyond teva – nature. The Greeks and the other nations live within the natural world. And that is fine for all Bnei No’ach. But not for us.”
We are challenged to rise above the natural order and attain a spirituality, a kedusha.
Technically, the reason the eighth day of Chanukah is called “Zot Chanukah” is due to the twice-stated “Zot Chanukat HaMizbei’ach” in the Torah reading of the eighth day of Chanukah.
But it means more. Zot Chanukah – This is Chanukah! This celebrates the holiness of the revolt against Greek oppression and rule in Eretz Yisrael. This celebrates the miracle of the oil. The fact that oil burns with such a pure and beautiful flame is a miracle of nature. The fact that a one-day supply lasted eight days is a supernatural miracle.
The Greeks said: “Be like us. Be like everyone else. Don’t keep Shabbat, because it makes you different. Don’t have your own calendar, because it makes you different. Don’t circumcise your boys, because it makes you different.”
Torah teaches us that we are different. That is what we were chosen to be. There is nothing wrong when a non-Jew is uncircumcised. Nothing wrong when he works on Shabbat. Nothing wrong when he eats non-kosher. Nothing wrong when he counts his days and months according to the Gregorian calendar. He says, “30 days hath September, April, June, and November.”
But we have our own calendar, marking Shabbatot and their in and out times. Marking Rosh Chodesh. Marking Chagim. We keep Shabbat. We learn Torah. We do mitzvot.
Chanukah says we are different. So do Shabbat and Rosh Chodesh. And this coming Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh joins with Shabbat and Chanukah to say it most powerfully.
Shabbat Shalom, Chodesh Tov, and Chanuka Samei’ach!