The Midrash opens Parshas Mikeitz by connecting the word mikeitz to the verse in Iyov, “קץ שם לחושך” — Hashem sets an end to darkness. It is strikingly appropriate that Chazal chose a pasuk from Iyov because Iyov is the very model of a human being plunged into darkness, grappling with the deepest questions of pain, suffering, and Divine purpose.
Chazal are teaching us that darkness is not endless. It has a boundary, a limit, a keitz — a Divine time-clock known only to Hashem.
We once discussed the magnificent comment of the Beis HaLevi, who explains this idea through Yosef HaTzaddik. Yosef’s years in prison were a form of darkness, yet they, too, had a precise spiritual ”expiration date.“ When the moment of redemption arrived, Pharaoh dreamt. Not that Yosef was freed because Pharaoh dreamt, but rather, Pharaoh dreamt because Yosef’s time for geulah had arrived.
Life is full of moments when we confuse cause and effect. Things look random, but behind it all stands a precise, compassionate timeline set by the Ribbono Shel Olam.
One of the most piercing stories that emerged from the Israeli hostages was of a young man named Yosef. His captors mockingly showed him a video of the story of Yosef being thrown into the pit. But in a stunning twist of hashgacha, one of the great tzaddikim of our generation had previously told Yosef’s father to learn the parshiyos of Yosef, and in that merit, his Yosef would one day emerge from his own pit. And so it was.
Darkness has a clock. And when its time is up, the light breaks through.
What emerges from all of this is a powerful truth:
When a person confronts darkness with the understanding that it has a purpose and an endpoint, the darkness itself becomes a source of light.
This is exactly what the Chashmonaim did. They faced the spiritual darkness of the Yevanim — a nation that Chazal explicitly call חשך — and they refused to surrender. In that courageous act, they created a light that still illuminates our nation thousands of years later. Perhaps this is why the miracle occurred specifically with oil, the substance whose very nature is to bring light out of concealment.
Each of us experiences moments — and sometimes extended periods — of darkness. The avodah is not merely to wait for the darkness to pass, but to transform it. With emunah, with tefillah, with trust in Hashem’s timing, the darkness itself can become the spark of illumination.
This is true for each individual and certainly for us collectively as a nation.
May the light we create within the darkness hasten the ultimate light, the geulah of Mashiach, במהרה בימינו.
RABBI DANIEL COREN
