Good Years, Lean Years (Shabbat Miketz)

This week marked the first vaccinations of Americans that we pray will bring an end to this pandemic. As we enter the final pages of this nightmarish chapter, we also recall its beginning – how, back in March, we stocked up on food and medicine for 2 weeks, which became 2 months…then 6.

Somehow, we’re still here, 9 months later, having, evidently, found what we needed to sustain ourselves until today. As we look back and grieve the loved ones, the moments, we lost, we also consider the possibility of creating new memories in the days ahead.

As we turn to the story of our ancestors Parashat Miketz recounts Pharoah’s dreams, and Joseph, who interprets these dreams, and advises Pharoah to prepare for the worst. For 7 years, Pharoah stocks the storehouses with the fullness of Egypt’s harvest.

Then, as Joseph predicts, Egypt’s fortunes change: there is a famine throughout the land. But Pharoah prepared: He opens his storehouses and takes what he needs to sustain himself and, all those in that region for 7 hard years.

The Sefat Emet finds a timeless lesson in this story. He writes:

What can be learned from this parashah to prepare ourselves in good days, days in which holiness is revealed, to set the light in our hearts, to be there in times when holiness seems far off? We must store up resources of faith, even as the Egyptians stored grain, to nourish us spiritually when events turn against us.

In good times, Sefat Emet says, we need to take in those good feelings of hope and trust, love and belonging.

But, unlike in our parasha, our national leadership didn’t heed the signs. We only prepared for this catastrophe to last 2 weeks! After weeks and months, we might think our storehouses would be exhausted! But we’re still here. Evidently, we found what we needed to get through this difficult time. What have we discovered inside of ourselves, our own stores of spiritual and emotional grain, that has sustained us?

Like many of you, I’ve been grateful on warmer days, to get outside, or to have the technological means to do crossword puzzles with my grandmother in Arizona and my parents in Chicago; for time to reconnect with old friends, and for the rich conversations I’ve had many of you have been a part of during my weekly Zoom program.

This week, Torah reminds us good years are followed by lean years, adversity by success, night by day. The Sefat Emet adds, in seasons of joy in our lives, we must savor what’s good, store it deep in the storehouses, of our bodies, hearts, and minds — so when we inevitably, confront loss or despair, we are able to reach in and pull out memories of joyful times, or lean on the relationships we’ve nurtured with friends and family for support.

I wonder: what are you finding in your storehouse these days? What resources have you stocked up on that have sustained you these last many months? Are they still nourishing you, or is time to go back and sift through your resources again — recall what’s sustained you in the past and find what might carry you through this final stretch?

May we all find what we need as individuals, a community, a nation, to move through these cold, dark days to brighter times ahead.

Amen