Oil

12 Teves 5782

“From Asher will come rich food, and he will yield regal delicacies.” (Bereishis 49:20)

Rashi brings down a story to explain this verse:

“The people of Laodicea once needed oil. So they appointed themselves a Gentile messenger. They said to him, ‘Go and bring us oil worth a million (coins).’ The messenger went to Jerusalem, where they told him, ‘Go to Tyre.’ So the messenger went to Tyre, where they told him, ‘Go to Giscala (a town in the territory of Asher).’ The messenger went to Giscala, where they told him, ‘Go to so-and-so, to that field.’ He went to the field and he found a man breaking up the earth around his olive trees. The messenger asked him, ‘Do you have a million (coins) worth of oil?’ The man replied, ‘Yes, but wait for me until I finish my work.’ The messenger waited. After the man finished working, he cast his tools over his shoulder and went on his way, removing the stones from the path as he walked. The messenger thought to himself, ‘Has this man really a million (coins) worth of oil? I think the Jews have played a trick on me.’ As soon as the man arrived at his town, his maidservant brought him a kettle of hot water, and the man washed his hands and feet with it. She then brought him a golden cup full of oil, and he dipped his hands and feet in it, to fulfill what is stated: ‘and dip his foot in oil.’ After they had dined, the man measured out for the messenger oil (worth) a million (coins). He asked the messenger, ‘Don’t you need more?’ ‘Yes,’ the messenger replied, ‘but I have no money.’ The man said, ‘If you want to buy, buy, and I will come with you and collect the money for it.’ The man then measured out additional oil for one hundred eighty thousand (coins). It was said that the messenger hired all the horses, mules, camels, and donkeys that he could find in the land of Israel. As soon as the messenger arrived in his home town, the townspeople came out to praise him. He said to them, ‘Don’t praise me! Praise this man who measured out for me oil for a million (coins), and I still owe him a hundred eighty thousand (coins).’

This illustrates the verse: ‘There is one who feigns riches but has nothing; one who feigns poverty but has great wealth (Prov. 13:7).’”

“But the abode of the divine soul is in the brains that are in the head, and from there, it extends to all the limbs.” (Lessons in Tanya, Likutei Amarim, beginning of Chapter 9)

Similarly there are those who are empty intellectually, yet feign emotion and passion in the service of Hashem. This is not the way of ChaBaD. The way of ChaBad is to ponder Hashem’s greatness with one’s inner “eye,” one’s intellect, thereby producing “holy emotions in the heart.” A person who does this will seem meek and controlled to the outside world, yet the fire that burns within him is of a much more long-lasting and productive nature.

“O G-d, when You went out before Your nation, when You marched through the wilderness, Selah, The earth trembled, even the heavens dripped before the presence of G-d; this mountain of Sinai [trembled] before the presence of G-d, the G-d of Israel.” (Tehillim 68:8-9)

Our intense meditation on the greatness of Hashem - how He controls every single part of His creation, nurtures every grass blade, and orchestrates every occurrence, how He created Heaven and Earth, all the Stars, in one coherent design, and led out His nation from Egypt - should cause us to tremble with intense love and fear of Him. They tell a story about the Alter Rebbe that he could sometimes not even finish saying or writing the word Atzilut out of such intense emotion and regard for the term.