Shavuah a Tov and Chag Chanukah Sameach!!!!!! Wishing you a week full of light in which every day you can increase it inside of you spreading and shining it into the world.
The ideal substance to use in lighting our Menorahs is olive oil. As we know in Chanukah we celebrate our eternal struggle into not falling into assimilation, just as the oil doesn’t mix with other substances, the Jew should always maintain himself apart in the sense that we should always keep our traditions as they were passed on to us from generation to generation and not integrate into the traditions of the other nations.
Shemen (oil), that produces light is a widely used metaphor for “Chochma” (wisdom), especially the Chochma of Torah. The Gemara says: “One who sees olive oil in his dream should wait to receive Torah illumination.” This is because light and wisdom are both illuminating. It is from wisdom that light- to which intellect is compared-emerges.
Nevertheless to be able to tap into the depths of Torah wisdom one must squeeze himself to the max as one has to crush an olive to be able to extract that first extra virgin drop of pure oil. Both the Torah and the olive need to be processed before the inner light can vanish the darkness in the world.
Tonight when you light your Menorahs and you gaze at the lights meditate on your internal light and what would you need to do to make it shine brighter.
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