December 18, 2025
One of the famous questions asked about the holiday of Hanukah involves a passage that appears right in the middle of the Gemara's discussion of the laws of the Hanukah candles. The Gemara suddenly interjects with what appears to be a totally unrelated comment about the story of Yosef. The Torah says about the pit into which Yosef's brothers threw him: והבור רק אין בו מים – "and the pit was empty; there was no water in it" (37:24). The Gemara explains this to mean that the pit was "empty" only in the sense that it contained no water. It did, however, contain נחשים ועקרבים – snakes and scorpions. Miraculously, Yosef survived. Many Rabbis asked the question of why this comment is introduced amidst the Gemara's discussion of Hanukah. The simple answer, seemingly, is that the same Rabbi who made this comment taught the halacha which the Gemara quoted previously. The Gemara will often tangentially quote other teachings of a Rabbi after bringing his statement about the topic under discussion, so it could be that here, too, the Gemara just happened to bring a second teaching by the same Rabbi. It seems reasonable to assume, however, that there is a deeper connection between Hanukah and the pit that Yosef was thrown into. Let's take a closer look at the Gemara's statement: מים אין בו, אבל נחשים ועקרבים יש בו – "There was no water in it, but there were snakes and scorpions in it." The Gemara here is making a profound observation about human beings. Every person is a "pit" that needs t