The three Parshi’ot that surround Chanukah are VaYeishev, Miketz, and VaYigash. In these three Parshi’ot, Hashem’s promise to Avraham Avinu, that his children would be enslaved, becomes a reality: first, with Yosef being sold in VaYeshev, then, with the brothers coming to Mitzrayim looking for food in Miketz, and finally, with Yaakov and his family settling in Mitzrayim in the land of Goshen in VaYigash.
In Parashat VaYigash, Yaakov sends Yehuda ahead of him “Goshnah” “to Goshen” (BeReishit 46:28). We learn from Chazal that Yaakov sent Yehuda ahead to set up Yeshivot in order to learn Torah. This is the first Jewish community set up outside Eretz Yisrael and the first community to be oppressed by the nation in which they lived. It is interesting that the letters of the word “Goshna” are the same letters that we find on our Dreidel in Chutz La’Aretz: Nun, Gimmel, Heh, Shin. The letters represent the words Nes Gadol Hayah Sham since the miracle happened there, in Israel. The Gematria of these letters is 358. Even more interesting, is that the gematria of the words “Nachash,” “snake”, and Mashiach each also have the Gematria of 358. The lesson here is that when in Galut, we always have to watch our backs for a sneaky “Nachash” who will twist things to turn others against us and, at the same time, look forward and strive for the days of Mashiach when all of mankind will see Hashem as the ruler of the world.
I have been giving that Gematria on Chanukah for a number of years, but felt, for Kol Torah, I needed a little more. So I started thinking about the letters on the dreidel in Eretz Yisrael. When we think of the nations that have oppressed us throughout Jewish history, most of the time either we were in galut, or we were exiled into galut. Chanukah is a rare occurrence where we were oppressed within Israel and defeated the Greeks in Eretz Yisrael as well. Therefore the letters of the Dreidel in Eretz Yisrael are Nun, Gimel, Heh, Peh. The Shin for “Sham,” “there,” is replaced with a Peih for “Po,” “here”. The Gematria of these four letters is 138. I was fascinated to find that the name Menachem has the Gematria of 138. Menachem is one of the possible names for Mashiach as stated in Masechet Sanhedrin. The translation of the name Menachem is “comforter”. Just as the Maccabim comforted the people by rededicating and sanctifying the second Beit HaMikdash, so too, Mashiach will comfort us when he initiates the building of the third Beit HaMikdash in our homeland. The letters on both dreidels represent a form of yearning for the Mashiach, in Israel and, here, in galut. May we merit to see the coming of Mashiach BiMheirah BeYameinu.