By Marco Del Monte
“They took him and cast him into the pit” (Gen. 37:24).
In the parashah we see that Joseph is thrown into an empty pit, where there was no water but, as Rashi explains, there were snakes and scorpions. The Maharsha asks how it is possible that Reuben wanted to save Joseph from his brothers, by proposing to throw him into a pit full of lethal animals?
The Chachamim answer that Reuven "did not have awareness" of the contents of the pit. How is this possible? Tosfot Yom Tov explains in Masechet Tamid that the ashes remaining on the altar had to be "cast away"; the term for casting (Vayashlech or Vayashlichu) in tradition implies a minimum distance of twenty amah (Eyn Hashlachà Pachot meesrim ammà), so since this term is also used in the case of Yosef, it implies that the pit was deeper than twenty amah. And what does this distance imply? We learn from both the measurements of the Chanukiah and the measurements of the Sukkah that the ability of the eye to "overlook something" does not reach a distance greater than twenty amah, and therefore, as the Talmud explains in Masechet Sukkah, there is no "Yedià", meaning there is no awareness of the fact. Thus, Reuven had no awareness of the fact that the pit was full of snakes and scorpions, because its depth was beyond the distance of twenty amah, where the eye does not overlook and therefore there is no awareness, as it is something the eye cannot see. How can we connect the elements Pit-Chanukiah-Sukkah? The Chanukiah represents the victory of light over darkness and thus of the Torah, called Or-Light, over the obscurantism of assimilation. Moreover, the Torah is also compared to water, and a pit without water signifies a being without Torah, as the Chachamim explain. Both the scorpion and the snake represent two types of Yetzer Hara: the snake has a hot venom, representing the evil inclination driven by passions that lead us to transgress even if a person follows the Mitzvot; the scorpion, on the other hand, has a cold venom, representing total detachment and disinterest in the Torah, total spiritual apathy. The Chachamim say that Hashem created the Yetzer Hara but gave the Torah as an antidote to it: the water that fills the pit and drives away the lethal animals, and the light that drives away the darkness. Likewise in the Sukkah, we find the two elements of light and water: the Sukkah represents the Divine embrace—the minimum measurements of the Sukkah, two walls and a little bit more, represent "the spiritual Divine parts" (Kiviachol), that is, two parts of the arm and forearm together with the hand. This material-spiritual structure of the Sukkah has the ability to ward off the forces of impurity, having a light called Or Makif (as the masters of the esoteric explain). Furthermore, it is no coincidence that Sukkot is the festival of Water—Nisuch Hamayim, and at the end of Sukkot there is Simchat Torah, the festival of the joy of the Torah. Therefore, we also find the components of Light and Water in the festival of Sukkot. But the conditio sine qua non, then, for living according to the Torah, is that everything takes place within the limit of twenty amah, where the eye can see, that is, in the revealed world, this world. Studying Torah and applying it in everyday life makes us aware that every material action can be transformed into a spiritual one; the fundamental thing is always to be aware—when there is no awareness, the Chanukiah is not visible and therefore the light is not seen, and the pit empties only to fill up with snakes and scorpions.
With the wish that you may be like a tree planted near a river, always full of "Light" and "Water".
Shabbat Shalom and Chanukah Sameach
Translated from the Italian with Google Gemini. The Italian text is the original.