A vort from the Rebbe on this week's Parshas Mikeitz together with Chanukah. In the parsha we learn about Yosef gathering the food during the seven years of plenty to prepare it for the years of hunger. And the pasuk says like this, ויקבץ את כל אוכל שבע שנים השבע בארץ מצרים, he gathered the food from the seven years that it was in מצרים, ויתן אוכל בערים, and he put the food into the cities, אוכל שדה העיר אשר סביבותיה נתן בתוכה, and the food of the fields of that city that's around it he put inside. What does that mean? So Rashi says what it means is that in order to preserve the תבואה, the wheat, the grain, he would put in some sand from the area where this specific grain grew, and that was a way to preserve it. Everything in Torah has the simple peshat and has the deeper inyanim, the hints, רמזים, the הוראה, the lesson that it gives. So here also the Torah gives us a lesson. We know it says in different places that the grain of a Yid, the תבואה of a Yid is the Torah. And what Rashi is telling us that in order for the Torah to be preserved, to stay, you have to put in some of the sand from the place. What does sand represent? Sand represents a bittul, anavah. Like we say in שמונה עשרה, ונפשי כעפר לכל תהיה, my נפש, I shall be like sand to everybody, and the pasuk continues, פתח לבי בתורתך, the the davenen continues, פתח לבי בתורתך, open my heart to Torah. That means in order for a person to really, really absorb the true meaning of the Torah, especially to absorb the kedushah of the Torah, that has to come along with bittul. And עפר, sand, represents bittul. As we find actually by ביעור חמץ, when we mevatel the chametz, we use the word ליהוי הפקר כעפרא דארעא, it should be hefker, it should be nothing, בטל, ליהוי בטל וליהוי הפקר כעפרא דארעא, it should be hefker and be batal like the sand. So sand represents bittul.

So what Rashi is telling us, the הוראה is that when you have the תבואה, in order for the תבואה to stay, as the לשון of Rashi is, נותנים בתבואה מעפר המקום, מעמיד את התבואה מלרקוב, מלירקב, מלירקב, it holds, it keeps the תבואה from spoiling, it keeps it in the proper way. Same thing here, in order to keep the Torah in the proper way, it should be by the Yid in the proper way, he should remember it, and it should have, it should be penetrate into him, and he should have the kedushah of the Torah, that is if he has the עפר, if he has the bitul.

And Rashi adds something else, that you have to take it from that place. In other words, sometimes a person could learn a lot of Torah and have bitul, but bitul not within the תורה, bitul separately. They tell him to do something else, he says, \"No, I'm nothing, I can't do it.\" But when it comes to the Torah itself, there he's a big בעל גאוה. And as the Rebbe even used his lashon, he could tell people that stand up for me, and things like that, even though he has bitul in another area. So Rashi says you have to have the עפר, which is the bitul, you have to put into the תבואה מעפר המקום, from the place. In other words, in the Torah itself, that concerning the Torah you have to have bitul. You have to realize that the Torah is not really you, the Torah is not just a חכמה that you understand, it has the kedushah, etc., etc. And the Gemara actually says something like that, it says a משל in the Gemara, that once somebody asked a friend of his to bring down a whole bushel of תבואה, and when he brought it down, he asked him, \"Did you put in the קב חומטין?\" קב חומטין is a small amount of preservatives. So if he says yes, then he says, \"Fine, good that you brought it. If not, better you shouldn't have brought it, because it's going to get spoiled.\" What's this קב חומטין the Gemara says? This קב חומטין is yirat shamayim. Yirat shamayim means you've got to have the proper feeling when you learn Torah, the proper feeling of lishmah, of learning for the sake of Hashem, and realizing that it's the not just a chochmah, but it's the chochmah of Hashem, which is Elokut. And that's something that you have to have when you learn Torah. That's the remez we have here.

And this is connected to Chanukah, because it says in Chassidus, and the Rebbe brings it in many sichos, that what was the ta'anah of the Yevanim to the Yidden, not they shouldn't learn Torah, actually the Yevanim were smart people themselves, and Torah is a very smart chochmah. What they didn't want is, what they want is להשכיחם תורתך, to make them forget that it's your Torah, to keep the kedushah of Torah, to have the bitul to the Oibershter when you learn Torah, that's what they didn't want. And when we won the war, we came out victorious, and we celebrated every year, this is what we celebrate, that we're able to learn Torah with feeling the kedushah of Torah, with the proper bitul to the Oibershter. And that's connected to this hora'ah that Rashi gives, that when you have the chitim, you gather the chitim, which is the Torah, you have to have, in order for it to be properly, you have to have the afar, the bitul that you have to the Oibershter, and then the Torah. that you learn will stay, like Rashi says, that this is מעמיד את התבואה מלהרקיב, this holds the tevu'ah from spoiling, and then it has a proper effect on the person.