ths to rectify the situation is how we become better people. This is how we grow, this is how we face our fears, and this is how we correct our deficiencies. Through tshuva, we can reconnect the emotional and intellectual sephirot, which is related to our tikkun. This is also why, found within the “lowest point of creation,” within the dream state of spiritual exile, we find the seeds of moral action, and the “essential reason” for our return. Within deficiency is also abundance; within spiritual lack are also the solutions that take us back to the beginning – realizing this paradox, applying tshuva for our tikkun, is what reveals the hiddenness of G-d’s mystery in creation.
This lesson is paramount to our time now. As I write these words, fires are raging across the Australian continent, a volcano just erupted in New Zealand, and I wonder what the earth is saying. I wonder what all the birds of the air, all the creeping beings of the ground, and all the beasts of the land – what do they have to say? I pray for them. If we never take responsibility for the environmental harms that have been done to this planet, will we ever become a responsible society? Will we ever repent? Will we ever heal?
Topics Include: the metaphysical relationship between famine and the seven sick cows, nakedness of the land and song of the land, tshuva as a stimulant for chochmah and binah
Carasik, Michael. The Commentators' Bible: Genesis: The Rubin JPS Miqra'ot Gedolot. Jewish Publication Society, 2018.
Dubov, Nissan Dovid. “The Sephirot.”
Accessed December 21, 2019.
Goldman, Rabbi Yossy. “Famine in the Land.” https://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/233934/jewish/Famine-in-the-Land.htm Accessed December 19, 2019.
Judelman, Rabbi Shaul David. “Parashat Mikeitz: The Song of the Land – A Torah Teaching for the Western Environmentalist.”
Accessed December 21, 2019.
Kalmenson, Rabbi Mendel. “The Repentance Litmus Test.” https://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/1080728/jewish/The-Repentance-Litmus-Test.htm Accessed December 19, 2019.
Miller, Chaim. “Torah in Ten: Mikeitz.”
https://www.chabad.org/multimedia/video_cdo/aid/1366278/jewish/Torah-in-Ten-Mikeitz.htm Accessed December 20, 2019.
Scherman, Nosson. "The Stone Edition of the Chumash: The Torah, Haftoras and Five Megillos, with a Commentary Anthologized from the Rabbinic Writings." (1993).
Schneider, Sarah. Kabbalistic Writings on the Nature of Masculine & Feminine. Sarah (Susan) Schneider, 2001.
Tauber, Yanki. “The Seven Fat Cows.” https://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/64974/jewish/The-Seven-Fat-Cows.htm Accessed December 19, 2019.
 Schneider, Kabbalistic Writings, p.258 – This is a reference to the first and tenth sephirot, the divine emanations of G-d, which are considered the fundamental building blocks of the material and spiritual realities.
 Sefer Yetzirah 1:7 as found in Schneider, Kabbalistic Writings, p.258
 Scherman, "The Stone Edition of the Chumash,” p.249 – There are also a few other links between Chanukah and Parashat Mikeitz. The parashah has 2025 words and there are eight lights on a chanukiah. Each light, or lamp, corresponds to the numerical value of 250 (נר Heb: lamp). 250 Multiplied by eight (2000), plus 25 for the 25th of Kislev (the beginning of the holiday), also results in 2025.
 Scherman, "The Stone Edition of the Chumash,” p.229
 Scherman, "The Stone Edition of the Chumash,” p.229
 Scherman, "The Stone Edition of the Chumash,” p.233
 Scherman, "The Stone Edition of the Chumash,” p.237 – Rashi also makes the point that Joseph wished to separate Simeon from Levi, who were responsible for carrying out the attach at Shechem.
 “Then Judah said to his Israel his father, ‘Send the lad [Benjamin] with me, and let us arise and go, so we will live and not die, we as well as you and our children. I will personally guarantee him; of my own hand you can demand him. If I do not bring him back to you and stand him before you, then I will have sinned to you for all time.” (43:8-9)
 From Chaim ben Moshe ibn Attar, otherwise known as Or HaChaim, as found in Scherman