Riddles of the Week

(For answers see above)

1. If one finds himself in a place where he has just eight candles for the entire duration of Chanukah, and he is only able to light one candle every night, is there an inyan to put the single candle in the section of the menorah for that corresponding night. I.e. on the fifth night, should one place the single candle in the fifth branch of the menorah, or is there nothing to be gained by doing this?
2. We pasken כבתה אין זקוק לה – that if the Chanukah candles go out, there is no need to relight them. This seems counterintuitive, if the entire purpose of the Chanukah candles is pirsumay nisa, surely, we should be required to relight them, to help publicize the miracle?
3. In this week’s parsha we learn how Yosef was hastily taken out of the pit. The pasuk then says: ויגלח ויחלף שמלותיו – they shaved him, and they changed his clothing (41:14). The pasuk seems to say that he was completely shaven, does this perhaps mean that they shaved off his beard as well?
4. Another difficulty with the above pasuk is, that the Gemara in Shabbos (139a) tells us that from the day Yosef was separated from his brothers, he refrained from drinking wine, like it says ולקדקד נזיר אחיו, from which we learn he became a nazir. The question is, a nazir isn’t allowed to cut his hair, so how was Yosef allowed to have a haircut?
5. In this week’s parsha we learn that Yaakov sent down the shevotim to Mitzrayim to get food: רדו שמה ושברו לנו משם – “go down there and gather for us food” (42:2). Why did Yaakov send down his sons to get food, surely, he should have sent his slaves, like we find that Avraham sent Eliezer his slave, and by Yitzchak that his slaves dug the wells, why did Yaakov not also send slaves?