Chanukah: The Kabbalah of Olive Oil. הנס שהי' בפך השמן A Kabbalah class by Rabbi Yitzchok Minkowicz

Welcome to our class on we're going to be learning another beautiful discourse in the re the name of the discourse is called the Reb said this discourse on that year was the last day of Kaneka in the yearim 41 years ago and went on in the year 36 years ago to certify and edit this discourse in honor of kanah and it came out in a special booklet in honor of Kan and again of the year so theic discourse as we said is based on the blessing that we say blessed is the one that made miracles for our forefathers by in those days in our times now this blessing that we make is not referring to the miracle of the success in the war that we we were Hashem handed over the victory of multitude and a few people but it's specifically referring to the miracle of the uh oil that was found in the temple and that's why because the blessing is associated with the oil we make this BL blessing when we light the Kaneka candles or when we see the Kaneka candles that we that we commemorate the miracle that happened with the original oil that was found okay so the re brings and he says it's explained in AIC discourse with the same title of from the first the Al and has foot has footnotes and comments from his grandson the third and he says in order to understand why the miracle of Kaneka was specifically established with candles so we we have to understand in order to understand why candles we have to understand the the whole idea the cabalistic Insight of behind oil this discourse can to take you into a beautiful Journey understanding the spiritual significance of the oil and the light that comes from the oil and over there in that discourse he explains at length that this that we find that oil always Rises to the top whether it's mixed with oil wine whether it's mixed with water or any other liquids now we know that anything that happens in a physical in the physical that's because in the spiritual world so the reason why oil Rises to the top is because that in a spiritual level oil is much higher another words oil spiritually is higher than Wine and higher than water why is that because wine and water spiritually is correspon of and know wine is associated with the sphere of Bina and and and water is associated with the sphere of and oil if that's the case is a much deeper level of which is called of we know every sphere is intertwined with all the SPH so again so wine is beina water is and and oil is which means So based on this he explains that's why when they dedicated the temple how did they dedicate the temple they anointed it with olive oil oil of anointing why again because we just learned that that oil is connect to with why is that because when you dedicate the temple and specifically when you dedicate the Altar and kanuka dedication comes from from from from education how do you do that you do it by bringing in very very powerful lights which which which comes in afterwards through the konote so in order to make that happen you need to have the powerful oil that dedicated the the temple and and the Altar and explained elsewhere that this that the the princes of the Jewish people theum they donated for the dedication of the temple and the dedication of the of the Altar and they gave many many gifts and they actually brought on on the altar they brought Kus which is the incense which is brought on the outer altar why is that so that it should be ready to re to receive the sacrifices so in order to have the the the incense and to bring the sacrifices you have to bring in a very very high high energy which is higher that that gets brought in just the sacrific itself so therefore the way they dedicated the temple and specifically the way they the altar is when they anointed it with oil which again we said is a level of Which is higher than all the the the the the energy that's drawn in through the sacrifices and through the which the libations and after he explains discourse um the idea of the O the oil that Anointed The Temple and specifically the the altar he explains over there next level that would the the idea of the oil for lighting the Mona and that and lighting that's the oil we had the miracle of Kaneka because that oil is even higher so again so we just learned just before we go forward so we stay we stay focused that basically there's there's water there's there's wine wine is being know water as then there oil that anoints is and then in the you have the one that was used for the to anoint a tabernacle then even higher you have a higher level of oil which was used for the manur says as follows this study explains at length that know in the discour about Kaneka that the reason why they they Anointed The Altar with with with uh oil of anointing it's all it's it's not only as an introduction and by knowing the value of the oil that was used for the for the for the altar we know the value of the oil for the manura and to tell us that's obviously it's even higher and that's what the miracle of Kaneka was but he wants to go even deeper that even this idea that of of of the anointing the altar is not just introduction to the O oil for the manura but this idea of anointing the altar is also connected to why is that because the reason why is called it's coming from from from dedicating the altar which happened at that time and that's why anhah the the priest the princess has brought sacrifices and Bas you can say that um even when it came to dedicate the altar which would took place on Kaneka they also had the oil the of anointing on a spiritual level however there's something even higher and what's even higher the the miracle of the oil of the manura which is even higher than sh so again so the point was bringing out is it's not only that we're learning about the the oil for the for for the the dedicated the that anointed the tab the altar so to reach the next level but no the oil anointing the oil on the on the on the altar is also associated with KH and that's why the end of the reading Kaneka after we read about all the different sacrifices that the see and the princes brought over Kaneka and on the last day of Kaneka was the day that he dedicated the altar so what what happens afterwards after we read about dedicating the altar we read about Aon would go ahead and bring up the candles on the on the manora which is also a reference to the the Kana candles in other words ref what so therefore therefore what what might you say that the Torah is uh presenting it to us in a way which is called in Hebrew M you go from a lower level to a higher level and know first he starts off with the dedication of the altar through the oil of anointing and then he goes on to the oil of the manora and the miracle that happened here now so let so that is going to explain he says as follows and says as follows when you're dealing with the sacrifices that they brought on the temple and the same thing also the liation that was brought on on on the on the altar so what the purpose of the sacrifices and the purpose of the Elations is to go ahead and take that powerful energy and bring it I'll say in HEB I'll translate the pemus it should be internalized the goal is these powerful lights be to be internalized within us and that's why the sacrifices and the Libations is called eating and drinking why because when you through the fact they bring a sacrifice and we bring and they brought to Libations you draw in in an internal way just like for example when you eat and you drink on a physical level so the food and the drink becomes part of you the same thing also by bringing the the sacrifices and the Libations in the temple that allowed that spiritual un to get internalized however even though they both were internalized the internalization and drawing in of the Libations is much higher than the sacrifices itself why cuz just like when it comes to eating and drinking a physical level so what happens is when you eat something what gets revealed just the external part of the soul and when you drink wine what gets revealed the internal part of the Soul know when you eat you feel great okay the soul is alive but when you drink wine now the internal part all the secrets come out so the same thing also when it came to the eating and drinking of the altar that when you when when when they brought the sacrifice which compared to bread so basically it's only drawing in um to into the worlds in a way of know it gets internalized but it's not a very very highlight but by bringing the Libations you actually bring in an internalized way a much higher level the level of what of the part that hovers over the world and in the libation itself on the holiday of we know they had they poured water on on on on on on on the altar besides the fact that a whole year they pour just wine on the altar as Libations and sukot they poured water and water ACS to be even higher and deeper than Wine and like he explains in that that's why um the pouring of the Libations of wine specifically in the Torah however when it comes to pouring the water it doesn't say specifically in the Torah it's given over we say in Hebrew it was given over and the and the rabbis somehow connected to a verse in Torah why is that because the level of water we said is connected to to the level of kma so water is and kma are connected Which is higher than Wine which is only be so that level cannot be written in the in the written Torah and it should means it should get it should get in in part of a physical letter and that's why the water is only in the oral part of Torah as we know that it says that the the the the words of the of the rabbis are much sweeter than the wine of Toyah why because it's coming from a deeper place he like to add that this connection that wine we said is what is beina and water is K and that applies also to wine and water on a physical level as we know that wine when you drink wine it tastes good and it actually makes you happy and matter of fact if you want to be sing praise you need to have a you need some wine first because again wine is connected to bino however when it comes to water water doesn't really have a taste and matter of fact according to Jewish law you can only make a blessing on water if you're actually thirsty because there is no benefit to a person just from drinking water sound like an enjoyable experience we're going to hch the water now only when when you're thirsty so that's when you make the blessing in other words this difference between wine and water on a physical level that the wine is more enjoyable and the water is just you know is to quench your thirst it apply it's connected like the way to a spiritual level why CU water is Bea what does Bea mean understanding comprehension and water is which is which is be which is beyond logic says it's brought down in many discourses that this that we say that Torah is comp is is compared to wine and oil is compared to the secrets of the toyra which is just like wine and oil that are concealed in the the wine is concealed in the grape and the oil is conce concealed than the Olive and the difference between wine and oil is that wine is the secret of the but War oil is the secrets of the secrets of the to and so that's in general between wine and oil the secrets and the secrets of of the between wine and oil so from this will be understood that this Torah is also compared to water as what is it referring to it's referring to when the Torah is referred to water it's referring to the revealed part of the Torah and like the explains in Tanya that the reason why that toyra is compared to water because we know that water goes from a high place water goes down finds its lowest spot so the same thing also the Torah came down from the highest places the will the intellect of and it came down and deals with physical things in the Torah and as we know most of the laws in the Torah are physical so based on the ask we have to understand this is seemingly opposite what than what it's explained in theic discour and also the the different discourses for where it speaks of difference between wine and water and over there he says that water is actually higher than Wine what did we just learn we just learned that um oil is the secrets of the secrets of the Torah the um wine is the secret of the Torah and water is a simple simple but the fact is explained elsewhere that water is on the on the deepest level so the there explains as follows that Bas is a rule that's known in cabala a very powerful rule it's an important rule to know and I'll say it in Hebrew I'll translate it anything that comes from a high place means the higher it comes when it falls it falls to the lowest and it gives a lot of insight and a lot of things in life anything that the higher it is when it falls the falls to the lower lower so when something Falls so low it's because obviously has a huge in high it's the source is very very high so in other words what what's the there is being this example to to bring out that this that water has its nature that wants to come down and wants to get revealed in the lowest level Lally to the lowest levels in other words even after it comes down they they wants to go even lower why do the water keep on going lower and lower lower and the answer is because it source is higher so water has two opposites on one hand the source is the from the highest but in the other hand when it comes down it's actually to the lowest So based on this there explains that this that's explained in many discour that water is what is lower than wine that's the cuz way in reality water comes down to the lowest places because water nature is to go down lower and to be revealed Etc however when it comes to Wine the Natural Instinct of wine is to stay in the grape and in order to take it out from the grape you have to do something but it's not the natural thing that wine jumps out of a grape if you don't if you don't press it wine is not going to come out and this is actually the reason why um the the expression I'll say it in Hebrew when someone has a of wine what happens all of a sudden all the secrets come out why is that when you say you drink some wine all the secrets come out because just like in its source that the wine is really stuck in the grape but it came out from a concealed Place into a revealed place in other words this what initially was concealed in the grape got revealed so the same thing also when you consume wine that was again initially concealed became revealed it affects the person that you reveal the secrets that are within you to become revealed okay and so so and this explained inic discourses that water is actually higher than Wine it's referring to its source that's higher that what's recognizable in the water that in reality that even though it comes down because because because in its source it's much higher and this is also the reason that water doesn't have a taste because since when it comes down what's recognized in water that that comes from a very very high place so therefore even when it comes down to this world it's it doesn't have a taste so again this what recap just taught us was that water on one hand is brought down discourses that's a very very high level higher than one the other hand it's SP down it's lower so guess water has two components on one hand it comes from the highest place on the other hand it goes down to the lowest but even in the lowest it's it recognizes that it comes to the highest soice and that's why at times it explains that water is higher than wine or sometimes explains that it's slower now we learned before um from the discourse of what we learned that this that oil is always going to be um uh residing over any type of liquid wine water any type of liquid what's the reason we learned was cuz oil is much higher physically and obviously spiritually now based on we learned before that the that the the quality that wine has overw waterer is because wine naturally is concealed and it comes it's not its natural place to reveal so it's to practically it's on a higher level until we squeeze it out and the quality of water is not the way it come it gets revealed but the way in it sours it's even higher so again so Wine's quality over water is that it's naturally concealed it's not looking to go down so it's technically in a higher level water's quality over wine is that source is much higher now what we learned before that oil is higher than Wine and water so therefore you must say that this that we saying that oil is higher than Wine and water so it has to be higher in both levels a in the concealment part in other words that the concealment way the oil is sitting within the olive is a much greater concealment and it's much more ingrained in a in a concealed way than the the wine in in its grape and the same thing also this that oil that water doesn't have a taste so oil is much deeper in a level where it doesn't have a taste so oil basically is higher than Wine in the component where wine is concealed oils conceal deeper and it's oil is higher than water water doesn't have a taste and oil doesn't even deeper doesn't have a taste and what is that there explains like this this idea that one wine which is basically concealed within the grape it's called in cabala it's concealment which is close to be revealed and therefore in order to reveal the wine the way it's concealed in the grape you just got to squeeze the grape you don't have to work too hard you're squeeze it the the wine comes out however the oil that's in the in in in the olive it's it's it's concealed but it's not close to revealed and in order to bring out the oil from the olive you actually have to crush grape which is much greater effort than taking wine out of a grape versus taking out the oil out of the grape now this is what that's why he explains in the cic discourses that wine is the secret to the Tyra and the oil is the secrets of the secrets why because in order to reveal the secrets of the Tyra so since it's concealed but it's able to be revealed in an easy way just like the one you squeeze it so you just it requires a little effort but in order to reveal the secrets of the secrets of the Torah since it's a concealment which is not possible to be revealed so you need to put a lot much greater effort into it and re as will understand this the difference between the two types of effort and know the way you have it in the revealed part of Torah where there's two different levels of efforts even in the revealed part of the Torah and never explains even though that when a person learns Torah in general any Torah you're learning whether it's Mish tal any revealed part of Torah that you're learning you have to put effort into it you can't just walk in and expect it to go in your head you have to sit you have to read it you have to meditate discuss it think about it requires effort up to the point even after you study and you revisit again the thing you learned you have to put more of your intellectual comprehension into it in Hebrew it's called you have to you have to you have to you have to think deeply into it you have to put effort into it um a matter of fact according to Jewish law if you s let's say learn something and you learn it again with the same intensity you don't go deeper into it you're you're you're you're really not fulfilling the obligation of learning Torah Torah means that whatever I learned it yesterday I got it yesterday now I have to go deeper into it and that's the power of Torah as deep as you go you can go deeper into it and how much more so when you're learning deep ideas in Torah that you literally have to put effort into it and obviously there many many many levels however on whatever level of putting effort into it you don't have to totally obliterate anything you you you understood before you understood it yesterday like this and tomorrow you're going a step de deeper and then you go further you don't have to obliterate what you learned before so that's one level of effort where you're constantly going deeper and deeper however when you learn something in Torah which is off the charts so what happens then is you have to put such effort in that you have to totally forget about everything you learned before like for example the famous teaching says or zra he actually fasted 100 days he fasted to to forget the Babylonian talet so that he can have a Clarity when he learns the Jerusalem talet so that's a whole different level of depth so the same thing also says applies between the effort of having the revelation of the secrets of the Torah to the reev the effort of having the revelation of the secrets of the secrets two different levels two different levels of of of of of intensity trying to comprehend it now there's another quality of oil over wine and know oil even after you go ahead and Crush The Olive and the oil comes out even after it comes out you can't drink the the oil on its own a matter of fact if you went ahead and drank a cup of oil you don't make a blessing why because oil in its own is harmful not like wine that after you drink it and after you squeeze it and then you go ahead and drink it it's actually a very very a respectful drink and matter of fact the the blessing gets upgraded it's a very pren why is that because oil even after you crushed and you took it out it's and even though know the oil was concealed you revealed it but even after you revealed it it's still not revealed and it's what's the proof cuz it's not profitting to drink by wine it was concealed you revealed it oh now you can enjoy it make a blessing it's revealed oil on the other hand it was concealed you revealed it but it's still not revealed there's still a secret going on there and every like to add he say like this this idea that the oil is concealed and mean says even after it comes out you still can't drink it because obviously is's a secret it's holding on to it's even higher than the concealment of water doesn't have taste why is that when you when you have water and even though yes it doesn't have any taste it's fitting to drink you drink it you make a blessing and not only that you can actually enjoy it how do you enjoy it if you're thirsty you can enjoy water if you're thirsty however oil on its own a cup of olive oil not only you can't enjoy it but it's not even a drink why because oil even after it comes out it's considered concealed concealment and and it's you can't reveal it and that's why you can't enjoy it now you can say that this difference between wine water and oil in other words wine has a taste water has no taste taste but you can still drink it and oil has no it's not befitting to drink it's connected to way they are in a spiritual level what's what how on a spiritual level what is wine spiritually the sphere of be comprehension and therefore ah you have wine you you have a taste just like beina which is comprehension water which is connect the the flash of idea which is higher than comprehension so if it doesn't have a taste it's a flash an idea but you can still drink it and you can actually enjoy it if you're thirsty why is that because it's a revealed idea however what we learned before what is oil oil is it's a hidden idea which is higher than being revealed in being on and that's why you can't drink it and that's why D explains beautifully that's why when it came to dedicate the altar in the temple how do they dedicate it they poured on there they anointed it with oil of anointing why because when you pour on the oil what we just learn it comes from which is means it was a k not regular of and through that by anointing it with it has the power to bring on there the sacrifices which basically the food which is connected to eating um and and the libation of oil which is Bina and the Libations of water which is kma so in other words because the altar was anointed with this powerful of it can receive the sacrifices the wine which is connect to beina and the and and the and the libation of water which and he goes on to say that in this oil of anointing that they use for the for the for the T for the for the altar they put inside Su in other words which different types of clothes that have that have a scent to it which is actually even higher than oil a scent is even higher than oil and every explain what's the what what is the idea behind it because oil even though it's higher than having a taste like like like like uh like wine and and uh and benefit like water and up to the point where you can't drink it but the fact is oil you can touch you can touch it it's something physical however a send you can touch it and not only that um sent to something which the body doesn't benefit the soul benefits so therefore even the level of of Torah which compared to oil ansent in other words this that we said that oils connect the Torah is referring to the secrets of the secrets of the Torah and even as we know the secrets of the secrets could be revealed on an intellectual level and up to the point you can actually explain it at words however when you're dealing with the scent the smell of the Torah that already you can't even comprehend but nevertheless even the way you have a scent even though it's something which the soul gets benefit and not the body but we know that when a person God forbid is fainting and a strong scent will re will will will bring the person back alive it brings the soul back alive in the body so the same thing I'm going to say also in reference to the scent of toyra that Lally it could come down in a in a ruling up to the point that we know Mia comes he's going to be what does that mean that um through the scent he's going to be able to bring down do certain things however the understanding we're not going be able to comprehend it because it's very very deep or like for example the gives an example ital a reference to a dispute say was quiet but nevertheless even though he was quiet means he couldn't explain it he didn't Retreat why because even though he had in the level of of vision knowled of he knew what it was and he couldn't bring but he couldn't bring it down where he can he can explain it but nevertheless through that he was able to give a ruling okay now he goes on to explain as follows after he explains in theic discourse of bar the the powerful idea that we just learned the powerful energy of the the oil of anointing so he explains like this that when it comes to oil Next Level oil that was BR for the manura and for that oil was the miracle of Kaneka it's actually even higher than the oil of anointing of the of of of the of the altar why because the light that comes out from the oil for the manur and where does light come from how do you have fire from the oil the oil basically becomes into nothing it disappears and that creates a light so actually what's higher the fire is actually higher than the oil just like for example the scent that was in the in the anointing oil Which is higher than the oil and not only that that the light that comes from the oil the fire that comes from the oil is even higher in the scent of Conant oil in the anointing and like he explains in this this in this course over there as well and what is he what's the difference and he explains like this when you have a scent that comes from the oil of the oil of anointing the temple so the scent was put in for the oil you put the scent in so the oil should have a scent in other words through the fact you had the descend you what what that caused that the of of of C should be revealed and you're able to anoint the anoint anoint the altar and through that you're able to bring the sacrifices and the Libations on it however when it comes to the oil and the fire that comes from it it's just the opposite that the purpose of the oil is to create the light up to the point that the that the oil gets gets consumed and the oil turns into light by the scent the scent upgrades the oil by the the oil and the fire the F the oil creates the light that's one point another idea is is that the light the fire that comes through the fact the oil gets extinct so even though the oil in its own is in a concealed State because besides the fact that the nature of light or fire any type of fire what's the nature of fire it wants to go to its source so in reference to this light that comes from the fact that oil which is a very very deep oil gets gets gets gets consumed and even that means the oil is in a concealed seal concealed State how much more so that the fire that comes from that type of oil is even much higher in a concealed in a concealed level but nevertheless and here's the power powerful IA saying so again we're dealing with the oil which is concealed and this oil is deeper than the oil of the of of anointing oil and the H's the essence of oil that oil again the initially it was concealed in the olive when it comes out still concealed because you can't even enjoy it and you can't you can't you you can't you don't even make a blessing on it Etc this oil gets con gets more concealed CU producing the light but nevertheless even after all that how concealed it is and this is like a home run there saying is the light becomes a light that gives off light wow the light this light that's so coming from the oil that's concealed that was in the in the olive was concealed the gives off light not only that through the fact that it's coming from Shan from pure olive oil it actually gives off light in a very very calm way it produces the most powerful and the most calm light that gives off light to to the world whereever wherever wherever wherever it's shining so from here we see the great quality of the miracle of of of Kaneka that and the Miracle SPF happen with that oil in other words the oil what happened was when they found it there was only one little jug It could only last one day and what happened a miracle happened and it burned for eight days in other words the light that came from this oil since it was a miracle so it's even higher than regular oil regular oil you have olive oil like we learned before so the in the of it's concealed when it comes out still concealed it gets consumed means it goes away but it creates a light gives that gives off uh in a calm way here you only had one drug should have only lasted one day it lasted eight days so this besides the fact that the that the oil the fire is coming from the place of the oil but here it's also coming through a miracle and this oil even though it's coming from a concealed place and it's coming from a miracle it Reve it gave off light in a revealed way and then C way so ever says he like to connect this with the idea that they lit the manura for how many days for eight days as we know the days of Kaneka it's eight days of Kaneka what's the idea of eight days like he explains in the discourse over there that you're drawing in from the seven days of so we know in K you have and you have the higher part is the lower part is so you're drawing from the seven days of otic which is the higher part of ker into malos and malus we know is the source of everything that was created and through malus this powerful light gets revealed down in this world and that's the miracle of Kaneka that this powerful light gets revealed to this world finishes off and he say like this it should be the will of hem that's very very soon we should all Merit for messiah to come the righteous mashia and then what's going to happen is it's going to it's going to be split to se seven strands and together with that we're going to have the violin with eight strands up to the violin which which going to be in the future which going to be of 10 strands that this this K this violin is going to be in the in the B mdash the Third Temple which is going to built with the coming of Messiah because as we know the Third Temple is an everlasting Temple and when is this going to happen it's going to happen very very soon up to the point of mad right away and like the r quotes in the ram which is a book of that right away H and we get redeemed so here's another powerful discourse about the power of the miracle of Kaneka with the spiritual significance of the oil that on one hand it's so concealed and it's so concealed and you're dealing with a miracle but literally from that deepest place what comes out beautiful light to the world like every finishes off let's hope and pray that we'll have we Merit Messiah and we'll have the celebration on Temple and God's willing our next class will be Ines have a great and blessed week sh to and happy KH