Kevin Bemel ·
Two Ways Life is Like Olive Oil
Earlier today I was thinking about what my life would have been like if I had not embraced my faith 20 years ago. With no spiritual dimension, what would matter to me? When I started on this path, no one told me that I should strive to be like olive oil. The parsha for this Sabbath, Tetzaveh, will explain:
“And you will command the Children of Israel and they will take for you olive oil, clear, crushed, for illumination, to light a lamp continually.” (Shemos/Exodus 27:20).
This week’s parsha explains the mitzvah of the Ner Tamid (continually lit lamp). Nest, it describes how to make the vestments for the Kohen Gadol (High Priest) and the Kohanim. Then it details how to inaugurate them. It ends with the mitzvah of the korban tamid (continual offering) and how to build and use the incense altar, the Holy of Holies.
The Menorah in the Mishkan had to remain illuminated continually. When lighting it, Moses had to use absolutely pure olive oil. Nothing could be mixed in it, not even sediment that remains after pressing the olives. This purity brought kidushah, or holiness, to the oil and the lighting of the Menorah.
Oil is an interesting substance. When spilled, it freely flows everywhere. A towel will quickly absorb it and become saturated. But, if oil is poured into water, only vigorous shaking will mix the two. Even then, once the shaking stops the oil quickly settles on top of the water.
One of the keys to life is to be like a towel, not water. Soak up every drop of holiness possible. Integrate into its existence. Don't “wear” oil like an outer, separate garment.
Pressure Purifies Olive Oil and You
The metaphor continues. You press and filter oil to reach its required purity. The pressure of processing forges its holiness. Like oil, the tests you face squeeze out impurities leaving you a better person. But strain out the sediments of past mistakes and traumas to cleanse your mind and spirit.
No amount of secular success or material accumulation could have created any emotional or spiritual growth. Only through continual, conscious engagement in all three pillars of life – physical ∞ mental ∞ spiritual do challenges mold your best self. And through this process your life becomes illuminated.
Can spiritual growth happen without struggle?
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Every year beginning on Simchas Torah, the cycle of reading the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, ends and begins again. Each Sabbath a portion known as a sedra or parsha is read. It is named after the first significant word or two with which this weekly reading begins.
