C Minor

“… The pit was empty; there was no water in it.” (Bereishis 37:24)

Rashi quotes the Gemara (Shabbos 22a) asking: Why does the pasuk tell us the pit was empty, and there was no water? This repetition tells us that although there was no water, there were snakes and scorpions.

Earlier in the same Gemara, the same rav quotes a halachah that a Chanukah light placed higher than 20 amos above the ground is invalid.

Why did the Gemara juxtapose these seemingly unrelated passages? (Rav Dovid Hofstedter, Dorash Dovid).

A hospital is not the best place to spend Chanukah. But a family member was scheduled for surgery, so I parked on a narrow street and walked toward the building in the watery winter sunlight.

Schneider Children’s Medical Center is the largest children’s hospital in Israel. Stepping into the atrium-style lobby, I was greeted by a spectacular seven-story-tall menorah, created completely out of balloons. I could feel its Chanukah spirit giving flight as it soared above me.

Still, as I rode the elevator, the signs for so many wards and floors devoted only to children in pain had my heart plummeting despite the elevator’s ascent.

Consider the many obvious miracles that accompanied Yosef from his journey as hated sibling and slave to becoming the viceroy of Egypt. The hand of Hashem is clearly evident.

However, Hashem performed many other, albeit lesser-known miracles for Yosef, miracles that were just as essential as part of Hashem’s master plan.

If not for the Torah’s redundancy in the pasuk above, we’d never have known that Hashem saved Yosef from these dangerous creatures.

Hashem purposely includes both overt and hidden miracles in His world, so mankind will work to discover these underlying miracles and the Hand that enacted them. Upon contemplation of the “major” and “minor” miracles, he reaches the ultimate truth: Ein od milvado — There is nothing besides Hashem.

Such lofty recognition doesn’t happen with just a casual glance. One must seek the Hand of Hashem in every situation, to discover how the most minute details are all part of the Creator’s perfect plan.

Stepping into the hallway, away from the cheery lobby below, I was soon swallowed into a world of sterile masks and muted voices. And waiting. No matter where in the world, no matter how long the stay, every minute in a hospital ticks by with excruciating slowness.