Rav Lipman Podolsky z"l
In the Al HaNissim prayer that we recite on Chanuka, Chazal reveal that the sworn goal of the Greeks was to cause the Jews to forget Hashem's Torah. One question: How is it possible to cause someone to forget something? Usually, the more one tries to forget, the more one remembers!
At the end of our Parsha, Yosef asks the butler to remember his kindness, and to beg Pharaoh to release him from prison. But after the butler was restored to his position, he did not help Yosef. "And the butler did not remember Yosef, and he forgot him (Breishis 40:23)." What does this mean? It cannot mean that the memory of Yosef disappeared from the butler's brain completely, for two years later he actually did remember Yosef. So how can the Torah testify that he forgot?
How does one forget? Forgetting does not mean that the information has disappeared completely from the brain. Sometimes, information that was seemingly gone can be re-accessed years later. Hypnotists are famous for arousing ancient memories in aged patients.
Rather, forgetting means that the information is hidden from us, deep within our brains. Shikcha (forgetting) shares the same letters as Chashecha (darkness); we can't see it. To remember is to activate the information, to bring it into the consciousness; to breathe life into it. Forgetting is synonymous with dormancy, inactivity, death.
We cite as evidence the incident of the Gid HaNasheh -- the displaced sinew. The angel of Esav caused Yaakov's sinew to become dislocated, rendering it unusable. It was no longer connected properly to the joint. Nasheh -- dislocated -- means forgetting in Aramaic (See Onkelos to 40:23 -- the above quote). Forgetting is when the pertinent information becomes disconnected from our conscious. It becomes inaccessible, unusable.
"Why was it called Gid HaNasheh? For it was a sinew that caused Yaakov's children to forget the Divine Service (Zohar I:170b)." By dislocating his sinew, the Yetzer HaRa somehow caused Yaakov's children to forget the Torah. Herein lay the seeds of "Lehashkicham Torasecha" -- to cause the Torah to cease being active, to be neglected, to become dormant and to die.
Thus the butler forgot Yosef. Not that the memory of Yosef completely evaporated from his brain, but rather, Hashem hid this information from him -- temporary amnesia -- so that he would not remember. Only after two years did Hashem open his eyes, restoring his memory in full.
This is precisely what the Greeks intended -- Lehashkicham Torasecha. They wished to blind the eyes of the Jews so that they could not see the Torah, so that they could not live the Torah, that their Torah should wither and die from within. The Greeks wanted that their Torah should become a superficial shell, devoid of its holy neshama, devoid of life.
Look around and try to figure out who won the war. We, orthodox Jews, are the legacy of Chanuka. The Maccabees fought and died for our sake. Yet is the heart of Torah pulsating within us? Is the flame of Torah burning within us? Does the Torah occupy our conscious, or has it been relegated to the sub -- or even the un -- conscious? Has the Torah, the inner beauty and meaning and excitement of the Torah become forgotten, dormant? Are we actively Jewish, or are we merely going through the motions, maintaining the inertia of a previous generation?
Chanuka is upon us, and it is our responsibility to remember, to insure that the Greeks will not have been victorious.
Do we remember?
