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DISCOVERING OIL

In the Medrash (Devarim Raba 7, 3), it says, “Torah is compared to five things: water, wine, honey, milk and oil.” The comparison of Torah to oil is no mere metaphor; it teaches us, through our Sages, many lessons about the essence of Torah and the right way to learn and toil in it. “Just as this oil is first bitter and then sweet, so too, words of Torah. Just as this oil lives forever, so too, words of Torah live forever. Just as this oil’s light is forever, so too, words of Torah – its light is forever.”

The comparison of Torah to light is understood. Light illuminates man’s way in life. Like a person who walks in a thick forest in the dark of night who holds a torch, so too, Torah shows a person how to run his life without falling into the pits and traps placed by the evil inclination. However, what’s with the comparison of Torah specifically to oil?

The five liquids to which Torah is compared, symbolize various dimensions of Torah. For example, water refers to Nigleh of Torah while wine and oil refer to the secrets of Torah.

The aspect of Sod (mystical secrets of the divine) in Torah begins with Rashbi’s Zohar and continues with the kabbala of the Arizal and his students. It was explained and developed over the years by the Baal Shem Tov and those who followed him, the Nesiim of Chabad.

These three eras: 1) the kabbala of Rashbi; 2) the kabbla of the Ari; and 3) the teachings of Chassidus, and what each one innovated over those who came before them, will be understood with a simple analogy.

A person comes from a distant land and tells everyone excitedly about a unique bird that lives in that country, the likes of which no one has ever seen. However, he wasn’t able to properly describe anything about the bird, its habits and ways, and consequently, his excitement wasn’t contagious.

Later on, someone else came from that country and told people about the bird: its color, traits, etc. and still, few were swept up in the charm of this bird. When a third person came, holding the bird, all understood and marveled.

The analogue is understood. Rashbi told the Jewish people about hidden dimensions. The Arizal explained more about the details of the hidden aspects of divinity, while the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov, especially as explained in Chabad Chassidus, turned G-dliness into something accessible to every Jew. Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi wrote the Tanya which translated the secrets of kabbala into an understandable path in life. The Chabad Admorim continued his work and explained abstract concepts in rational ways through parables, examples and explanations, which bring the mind and heart to understand and implement it in practice.

Let’s dig a little deeper into the question of, what did Chassidus innovate over the schools of kabbala which preceded it? What is special about the oil of today?

The way in which the secrets of Torah were written in earlier times, is the language of codes and parables. A literal translation of the words could lead a person to an understanding which is the opposite of what was intended. Instead of a person rising above the conceptual framework of the material reality and connecting to the spiritual, abstract part of Torah and reality, he is likely to take abstract concepts and pull them down and trivialize them. (Unfortunately, we see this happening before our eyes today, within certain groups.)

However, with the spiritual descent of generations, we’ve reached a point in which there is no other way to approach G-d, love Him, and rejoice in His mitzvos, except by deep, daily study of pnimiyus ha’Torah. The more the generations needed it, the more deep secrets of Torah were revealed, but this time, unlike in the past, they are in the style and the form that lead the person to perceive the correct and exact meaning.

EVERYTHING TASTES BETTER WITH OIL

This is also the comparison of Torah to water, wine and oil. Water, and similarly, bread and other basic nutrients are things which a person needs for basic, daily living; he cannot live without them. Wine and oil, on the other hand, are not essential. They add joy and delight. Wine brings out a person’s joy and oil improves every dish and is pleasurable.

A person “lives” with “bread and water,” which means, learning the halachos and doing them. The wine and oil of pnimiyus ha’Torah are needed in order to rejoice and take pleasure in doing mitzvos. If, G-d forbid, there is no delight in doing mitzvos, a person can completely lose his appetite. However, at the same time, he needs to beware going to the other extreme. He cannot manage on a diet of wine and oil. The analogue is obvious…

There’s a difference between wine and oil. Wine can be drunk as is; you don’t drink oil. That can even be dangerous, and no bracha is recited.

Wine symbolizes a lower level of secrets of Torah (as alluded to by the Sages, “Wine enters, a secret leaves” – wine (yayin) being numerically equivalent to sod), which are easier to understand and can be “drunk” in large quantities. Oil symbolizes the most lofty of Torah secrets, “the secrets of the secrets of Torah” – which is why its consumption needs to be with extra care. In the right measure though, its benefit is incalculable.

This is Chassidus, the secrets of the secrets of Torah, the oil of Torah! Chassidus provides taste and enjoyment, light and life, in all parts of Torah. However, pnimiyus ha’Torah is not only the “cure” for man’s sicknesses; it’s also a goal onto itself. This is the Torah of Moshiach of the future!

In the future, explains the Alter Rebbe in Tanya (Igeres HaKodesh 26), whoever tasted of Chassidus now, won’t need to learn Nigleh anymore, and he gives two explanations:

1-“The revealed aspects will be revealed and known to every Jew right away, without forgetfulness, and there will be no need to engage in them, except for the mixed multitudes (erev rav).” Therefore, involvement in Torah in the future will consist only of pnimiyus ha’Torah and their hidden reasons. Picture something along the lines of the Atkins Diet, for example, on the spiritual plane. Fatty food and protein and (nearly) no carbohydrates. So too, in Yemos HaMoshiach, Torah study suffused with the oil of Torah, without water and bread.

2-“It is also possible and likely that they will know from pnimiyus ha’Torah all of the bodies of the revealed Torah, like Avrohom Avinu a’h.” Avrohom fulfilled the entire Torah before it was given. How is that possible when there were things in Torah that didn’t happen yet? How did he have parshiyos of tefillin which mention the exodus from Egypt before the Jewish people descended to Egypt?

The answer is, Avrohom kept the Torah in its inner and spiritual sense according to lofty intentions which alluded to all of highest spiritual levels. In the future, we will know the spiritual (aspect of Torah and mitzvos) and learn from it about the physical deeds; we will understand that which is G-dly and from that, objectively conceptualize the applications to our physical world. So, let us raise a l’chaim over a cup of… oil! A serious, daily increase in the study of the Torah of Moshiach/Chassidus.

TO CONCLUDE WITH A STORY

Let us end with a story told by Rabbi Leibel Groner, the Rebbe’s secretary:

When the Toldos Aharon Rebbe visited the Rebbe in yechidus in 5726 or 5727, the Rebbe asked me to be present. At first, I didn’t understand why, but afterward, I understood.

During the yechidus, the Rebbe spoke to him at length about the need to learn Chassidus and asked him to to have a regular seder in his yeshiva for this study. The Rebbe asked him whether talmidim in the yeshiva studied the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov. He answered, of course. The Rebbe asked which sefarim they learned and he said each one learned the sefer he chose.

The Rebbe said to him: No. Just as in Nigleh, there’s a set schedule of what everybody learns, that’s the way it should be in a Chassidishe yeshiva like yours – a set schedule for the study of Chassidus. A talmid ought to know that at a certain time, they will learn Chassidus. I’m not talking only about learning Chabad Chassidus; the main thing is to learn the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov. It can be Noam Elimelech, Sefas Emes, Shomer Emunim of the Toldos Aharon [I think the Rebbe also mentioned Maor V’Shemesh and some other sefarim.]

After the Admor left the room, the Rebbe said to me, “Surely you will take care to write things down so I’ll have an exact transcription of what I told him.”

The Rebbe said in a firm tone, “Once and for all, we need to ensure that in all Chassidishe yeshivos there is a seder to learn Chassidus, just as there is a seder for Nigleh. It could be just half an hour, but the bachur needs to know that this half hour is devoted to learning the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov. The Baal Shem Tov heard from Moshiach that the key to his coming is learning Chassidus, so how can we avoid this?”

Good Shabbos!

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