"Be Like Ephraim."

Parashat Mikeitz opens with the words, 

“Vayehi mikeitz shenatayim yamim” 

“And it was at the end of two years.”

Two long years pass while Yosef sits forgotten in prison.

And then, in the blink of an eye, everything changes.

One night Pharaoh dreams.

The next morning Yosef is rushed from the depths of the dungeon to stand before the most powerful ruler in the world to interpret them.

He shaves, changes his clothing, and emerges transformed, from prisoner to viceroy, from hidden to seen, from suffering to purpose.

Yosef does not suddenly become someone new.

He has been preparing for this moment all along.

He has been cultivating his faith, absorbing wisdom, practicing restraint, and developing trust in God through all his years of hardship. 

The Torah tells us the names of his two sons.

The first he names Menashe, saying,

 “Ki nashani Elokim et kol amali” —

“God has helped me forget my suffering and my father’s house.”

Menashe represents the ability to loosen the grip of pain.

Not erasing the past, but not being trapped by it.

Yosef acknowledges the years of betrayal, loss, and loneliness and then chooses to move forward without being defined by them.

The second he names Ephraim, saying, 

“Ki hifrani Elokim b’eretz oni’i” 

 “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”

The name Ephraim is not just about survival, it is about growth.

It is choosing to create life, blessing, and abundance precisely in the place of suffering.

Yosef teaches us that healing happens in stages.

First, Menashe, the softening of pain.

Then, Ephraim, the courage to build, to love, and to flourish again.

We may not control how long we sit in our own prisons, of grief, uncertainty, or waiting.

But we can choose how we frame our experiences.

We can choose not to be stuck in our suffering, and we can choose to create meaning from it.

And this is why Mikeitz so often coincides with Chanukah. 

Light appears, a small flame in a great darkness.

One moment can change everything.

May we trust that even when nothing seems to be happening, God is at work.

May we have the strength to release what holds us back, like Menashe, and the courage to grow again, like Ephraim.

Redemption can come after years of waiting and sometimes, it comes in the blink of an eye.

Shabbat shalom.