Back in 1996, Rabbi Finman was asked to speak to the niece of one of his students. After spending many hours answering her questions, the woman gave Rabbi Finman her e-mail address. Rabbi Finman wrote the woman a note and included in it a short insight into that week's Parsha and a short Chasidic story.

Realizing that this was something no one was yet doing,, Rabbi Finman sent the missive to his mailing list of about 30 people. Requests from recipients friends came pouring in. The next week Rabbi Finman sent the e-Parsha to 100 people. Within a year more than 2000 people were receiving it. Today, more than 14,000 receive the e-Parsha weekly and the requests keep coming in.

Vayeshev 5896
Vayishlach 5786
Vayeitzei 5786
Toldos 5786
Chaya Sora 5786

Vayeshev 5896

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This week's YouParsha - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gyx-0nQkyI Joseph Refused

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This week is the portion of Vayeshev as well as the Shabbos before Chanukah. The Shiloh Hakodesh writes that there is an intrinsic connection between any holiday and the Parsha in which it falls.

The Parsha focuses on the trials of Yosef with his brothers. The ultimate reason Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, was to facilitate Yaakov's descent into exile. Joseph displayed tremendous self-sacrifice. He was the only Jew in the entire Egypt, yet his determination to adhere to his religious beliefs carried him to the position of viceroy of the world's leading superpower.

The Maccabees were a very small group. They, too, displayed determination for their beliefs and were successful. An interesting point of Jewish law is raised. The law states that if there is no oil that meets the strict specification for the Menorah in the Temple, any oil may be used. The Maccabees, however, were not going to settle for second best. They drove out the Greeks and defeated the assimilated Hellenistic Jews. They demanded that serving Hashem the best possible way was the only recourse.

Most mitzvahs have different levels of performance, The simple way and the hiddur or more beautiful way. Tefillin can be no smaller than two fingers cubed. Nicer Tefillin are four fingers cubed. The mitzvah of lighting the Chanukah candles may also be performed on various levels: simple, beautiful and even more beautiful - mehadrin min hamehadrin. The simple way to kindle the Chanukah candles is to light one candle each night. The more beautiful way is that each person of the household light one candle. The most beautiful way, the mehadrin min hamehadrin is that on the first night we light one, the second two, until the eighth night, eight. No one lights Chanukah candles in any other way than the very best. The Maccabees influence has effected us even 2300 years later.

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Reb Shlomo of Karlin preferred using wax candles over the more traditional olive oil. He commented that the wax drippings would leave a mark long after the menorah was used and remind him of Chanukah. It happened one year that he used an oil menorah. The menorah was placed too close to the wall and singed the plaster. The Tzadik of Karlin was very happy as that year he had a longer reminder (I don't recommend this at home).

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