Each year, as the winter days get darker, we read the story of Joseph and his brothers. The darkest night of the month, the new moon of Chanukah, is this weekend, and we are heading towards the winter solstice.

The seasons mirror the rhythm of our Torah readings because Joseph’s story is a dark one. For the first time in the Torah, God does not address the protagonist. If God communicates at all, it’s only through dreams, in the dark of the night, and often only through other people’s dreams.

It’s dark in other obvious ways, too. Joseph’s brothers hate him for being his father’s favourite. They throw him into a pit, sell him into slavery and tell his father he is dead.
When it looks like things couldn’t get much worse, Potiphar’s wife gets him sent to prison. And although he does end up in charge of the other prisoners and interprets their dreams, he clearly does not inspire affection. The butler who returns to the palace forgets all about him.

Joseph is considered to be a tzaddik, a righteous person, but he is a tzaddik in touch with the dark side of life, who thrives in Egypt, Mitzrayim, the narrow place, where actions are limited and constrained. And he brings his family down there, as opposed to Moses, who brings his people out into the light.

In this parashah Joseph finally has his chance to take revenge on the brothers who betrayed him, but despite being in a position of great power, he is still strangely vulnerable. His brothers don’t recognise him. His father believes he is dead. He has achieved every possible success in Egypt against the odds, yet it must be hard for him to shake the feeling of rejection.

Joseph faces his inner darkness, as we all must at some point. To what extent are we trapped by our own family histories or can we step outside of our hurt and anger and see a bigger picture?

Maybe it was anger that spurred Joseph to rise and stay at the top of Egypt’s political ladder. Sometimes we are aware that we only are who we are because of all the things that have happened to us, good and bad. Redemption does come, the brothers are reconciled in next week’s parashah, but Joseph remains our archetype for the dark winter months.