B.

Scott 12/8/12

VaYeshev 2012: Joseph & Hanukkah

This week not only do we celebrate the divine appointment of the Shabbat, but it also launches us into the eight day festival of Hanukkah, a celebration of the victory of the Hebrews and their covenant with Yahweh over the pagan ways of the Greeks! From the surface it may seem that this portion, VaYeshev, And He Settled, covering Genesis 37:1-40:23 has little to do with the events of Hanukkah (this portion mainly covering the life of Joseph, the dreams he has, and his eventual selling into slavery by his brothers and winding up in the Egyptian dungeon). Yet, could there be more than meets the eye to both this celebration and this parshah? Lets look and see! This is the 9th portion of the year, just as we are in the 9th month on the Hebrew calendar, the month of Kislev. If we connect the parshahs to the months of the Calendar, we find that the portions of the month of Kislev contain 9 of the 10 dreams found in the Torah, associating this month with dreams. *Further connecting Kislev (9th month) and the idea of dreams, we find that the 9th stone of the breastplate of the High Priest is the Amethyst: Strongs #306 achlamah amethyst; from #2492 chalam to dream, to be healthy or strong (*Remember that) Joseph is known as the dreamer, and this portion itself contains 4 dreams! Further connecting all of this, the gematria of dream/chalam = 78, same value as chanak (#2596) to train, dedicate, inaugurate; root of the term Hanukkah! With the numerical connection between dreams and chanak, could Joseph (and therefore his descendants) somehow be connected with Hanukkah then as well, literally the training up and dedication of the house unto Yahweh? Is this what Joseph has been charged with? Proverbs 22:6 Train up (chanak) a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Go: Strongs #6310 peh mouth In other words, dedicate and train up the house in the way that it should speak! Its no accident that in Genesis 37:2 were told that Joseph is 17 years old. 17 = the mouth, in other words were charged with guarding our mouths, the words that we speak in order for the house to be trained up! Way: Strongs #1870 derek way, road, distance, journey, manner; gematria = 224, same as miphkad a reference to the Miphkad Gate 1

where the red heifer was sacrificed! Thats significant (and provides another connection to Hanukkah and the events of rededicating a temple) because the ashes of the red heifer were used to cleanse someone that had become ritually impure by coming in contact with death, without this cleansing you were not allowed to participate in the Temple services. In other words, the time of Hanukkah becomes our reminder that the words that we speak have the potential for us to come in contact with death (Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue), yet if we will be obedient to train our mouths in the way that they should speak the ashes of the red heifer are there to cleanse us and enable us to rededicate the house, and it is Josephs responsibility to speak forth the words that cleanse! This same thought is conveyed in the very name of this 9th month, Kislev: Strongs #3691 Kiclev his confidence; prefix = like, as + ) = #5536) a basket + = as a suffix represents his this month teaches us to be like his/Yahwehs basket, a basket is a container, what are we supposed to be containing? Gematria = 116, same as the phrase Pei Yahweh the mouth of Yahweh we should be a basket that is containing the words that are issuing forth from the mouth of Yahweh! This word for basket cal is mostly used referring to a basket that holds bread/lechem bread, food, grain; from lacham to do battle, make war, to fight (it is the 9th month that commemorates the war over who would control the temple); gematria = 78, same as chanak to train, dedicate, root of Hanukkah & chalam to dream, connecting us back to the dreamer Joseph! *Could this be hinting that it is the descendants of Joseph, the scattered tribes, that would be expected to rise up and do battle in order to dedicate the Temple (the house all 12 tribes uniting as one to form the body) by becoming a basket/container that would speak forth the words of Yahweh?! Now lets take a look at the number 9 = which represents an inverted/perverted womb results of housing the wrong seed. There are also 9 materials used to make vessels that are able to become impure according to tradition: metal, wood, skin, bone, cloth, sack, pottery, nitrium, and glass. Tet also represents clay or mud (#2916 ) Psalm 40:2 - He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay ( ,)and set my feet upon a rock, [and] established my goings. Pit: Strongs #953 bowr pit, well, cistern *1st reference of bowr/pit is Genesis 37:20 Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his

dreams. Joseph was thrown into a dry pit, a well without water. A well is represented by the letter which also represents a womb as well. In other words, a well without water is representing the same thing as a womb without seed or one that is housing something other than the living water/seed of Yah. Joseph is thrown into the pit at Dothan: Strongs #1886 Dothan 2 wells, they were supposed to be at Shechem is spelled with the same letters as meshek #4901) )a bag or container for seed used by a sower; noun referring to a trail of seeds, or the path left from sowing seeds Shechem is the house of the language, its here that you can be sown with the Seed, its here that the Word is revealed! Notice the pattern! The house leaves the place of the sowing of the seed of Yahweh and they choose instead to become an impure vessel, a well lacking the living water of Yahweh. *If you have a vessel/person that has become impure, what is needed to cleanse it? The ashes of the red heifer! Its no accident that Joseph and his sons are connected throughout the Scriptures to the bull and the heifer! His son Ephraim: Strongs #669 Ephrayim double ash heap; contains the root #665) epher) ashes, same term used to describe the ashes of the red heifer; the mirror image of epher is rapha (#7495) to heal, make healthful Remember that Joseph is the dreamer/chalam, which not only means to dream, but to be healthy or strong! Joseph represents those who will speak forth the words of Yahweh (the Torah) in order to cleanse the house that has become impure and lost the living waters that heal. Thats why he must be thrown into the pit to see what will become of his dreams its the ashes of the heifer being mixed with the water to heal the house! *The term pit bowr, comes from the root #952 baar to make clear, explain, make plain, to declare, letters on a tablet Hes declaring the letters that had been written on the tablets, the Torah, making it clear and plain to the house that had become dry in order for it to be trained up and dedicated again! Miry: Strongs #3121 yaven mire, mire of clay; cognate of #3120 Yavan Greece it was the nation of Greece that oppressed the Hebrews, desecrated the Temple, and caused the uprising that led to the history of what we know as Hanukkah! *It has been the descendants of Judah throughout most of history that have stood against the other nations, like Greece and the history of Hanukkah. Yet here in Psalms we have a hint of a future time of

dedication, a time when Josephs descendants, the scattered sheep, would be brought up out of the pit in which they have been thrown, standing up against the mire and the compromise that has sucked them in and their feet shall be set upon the rock! Feet: Strongs #7272 regel foot; the Temple was built in the form of a man and the feet of the Temple man are represented by the altar which was desecrated by the Greeks and rededicated at Hanukkah by the Maccabees! *Now we can begin to understand the significance of Hanukkah to Joseph as well as Judah! Joseph is the one connected to the dedication and training of the house, but in order to fulfill this role his descendants must come to the understanding that we have to declare the Torah! This then causes the house to come out of the dry pit where weve been and return to Shechem return to the seed of Yahweh to shoulder the Torah (Shechem is translated as meaning shoulder and is the valley between Mt. Ebal & Mt. Gerizim, the mountains of blessings and curses representing the responsibility of Torah that rests upon the shoulders of those in Covenant). Rock: Strongs #5553 cela crag, cliff, rock; 1st reference is Numbers 20:8 Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock/cela before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock/cela: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink. *When Joseph/scattered sheep speak the Torah, the promise is that Yahweh will unstop the well that has become a dry pit and water will flow forth from the rock. This is why we see the Torah being opened up in our day like has not been seen since Messiah its fulfilling the promise of the well being unstopped, water from the rock!

The Gathering of the Tribes

Genesis 37:1-3 Dwelt: Strongs #3427 yashab to dwell, remain, sit, abide, to marry; = He will & = to return, make teshuva this becomes a prophetical declaration concerning the house of Jacob, he will return, he will make teshuva *Prefixed to the front is the letter = the connector, the link (Messiah); revealing to us that because of the Messiah (the connector) the house of Jacob would make teshuva and return, it would be trained up and dedicated (chanak) again! *Its important to note that Joseph as well is a shadow picture of the Messiah, the suffering servant, who as well became the sacrifice of the Red Heifer!

This is why we see the light of the world being conceived during this 9th month during the festival of lights He was coming to train up and dedicate the house that would now be able to make teshuva and return via the door He was offering! The gematria of yashab = 312, the same value as lost sheep (abad seh ) who He was coming to restore and rededicate! The gematria of vayeshev = 318, the same value as Jezreel God sows, Yahweh will scatter; one of the prophetical names given in the book of Hosea describing the scattering of the tribes, yet promising as well that one day they would be gathered again. The only time the festival of Hanukkah is seen specifically referenced in the Scriptures is revealing this same message as well! John 10:22-27 Could this be the true significance behind this celebration, that its teaching us of the return of the lost sheep, the scattered tribes, the sons of Joseph returning in order to dedicate the house? Its interesting that in the very next statement in this portion, the focus is placed upon Joseph who it seems is charged with this taking place These [are] the generations of Jacob. Joseph, [being] seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; Joseph: Strongs #3130 Yowceph Yahweh has added; from #3254 yacaph to add, increase, to do again; 2 letter root (#5592) caph 1 )a basin, spreading out, goblet, bowl 2) threshold, sill, doorkeeper; from #5606 caphaph to stand at or guard the threshold *As the house is being rededicated and trained up we find that Josephs role is to be the one who guards the threshold, the doorkeeper in other words, the sheep coming back have a responsibility! Psalm 84:10 For a day in thy courts [is] better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my Elohim, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. In the Hebrew, this verse has 12 words, pointing towards the 12 tribes that would be united together again in order for the house to be dedicated to Yahweh and cleansed by the ashes of the Red Heifer!