Page 34 - HaMizrachi #15 2019 Chanuka USA

Rabbanit Noa Lau

NOTHING,

EXCEPT FOR A JUG OF OIL

he miraculous finding of a pouring. When the vessels were also stops. The prophet wants to show
small jug of oil is the story that full, she said to her son, ‘Bring me us that we already have the remedy at
Taccompanies us from nursery another vessel.’ He answered her, home. A single portion of oil in the
school on, illuminating Chanukah ‘There are no more vessels;’ and woman’s home is enough to bring
as the “festival of lights,” when G-d the oil stopped. She came and told great bounty.
brought light to the Temple Menorah the man of G-d, and he said, ‘Go
the Greeks had desecrated through sell the oil and pay your debt, and This is also the story of the second
that small amount of oil that lasted you and your children can live on miracle of the oil, the Chanukah story.
eight days. the rest.’ The Chanukah miracle functions
similarly to Elisha’s miracle. A small
However, there is an earlier story that The opening portrait is chilling. The quantity of oil with the High Priest’s
describes a miracle involving a cruse regime has lost sight of human beings. seal suffices to light the Menorah for
of oil. It appears in Melachim, part of If a poor widow has debts, the creditor eight days. This is the secret of using
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the cycle of miracle stories involving can claim her children as slaves, and the inner reserve of energy that is the
the prophet Elisha. It is a short narra- the State will do nothing to intervene. source of light and goodness. As the
tive, but we can learn a lot about the How the prophet handles the woman’s Psalmist says in a hymn to “the ser-
attitudes the Torah wishes to imbue cries teaches us an important lesson vant of the L-rd”: “With You is the
in us with regard to the significance of about how we ought to behave here in fountain of life; by Your light do we see
miracles in general. light.” 2
the present. He does not create some-
A certain woman, the wife of one thing from nothing. Rather, the mira- The secret of both miracles is that
of the disciples of the prophets, cle is that he creates something from when asked, “What have you in the
cried out to Elisha: ‘Your servant, something. He asks the woman to house?” the answer is – I have some-
my husband is dead, and you check what she has at home. At first, thing. Even when one has a sense of
know how your servant revered she answers, “Your maidservant has emptiness or failure, it is reasonable to
the L-rd. And now a creditor is nothing at all,” but after some effort, assume that deep down there is always
coming to seize my two chil- she finds a jug of oil. That was enough some “small cruse” with the seal of
dren as slaves.’ Elisha said to her, for the prophet. He instructs her to the high priest. From this one positive
‘What can I do for you? Tell me, bring vessels, and he starts pouring oil starting point, beginning with our
what have you in the house?’ She into the vessels. This is the first “mira- own efforts, it will then be possible
replied, ‘Your maidservant has cle of the oil.” to chart a path that culminates with
nothing at all in the house, except blessings from Heaven.
for a jug of oil.’ ‘Go,’ he said, ‘and The person who needs a miracle
borrow vessels outside, from all brings the initial vessel. The miracle
your neighbors, empty vessels, as can then begin. This is the starting 1 Melachim II, 4:1-7.
many as you can. Then go in and point from which the miracle flows, 2 Tehillim 36.
shut the door behind you and and the magnitude of the miracle is
your children, and pour [oil] into determined not by the prophet but by
all those vessels, removing each the woman’s efforts and exertions. She Rabbanit Noa Lau, Associate Dean of
one as it is filled.’ She went away collects the vessels, and the oil fills up Nishmat, is a Yoetzet Halacha, the Moshe
and Charlotte Green Chair of Jewish Law
and shut the door behind her and those vessels. As long as there are still at Nishmat, and the Program Coordinator
her children. They kept bring- vessels, the oil will keep flowing, but of Nishmat’s Keren Ariel Yoatzot Halacha
ing [vessels] to her and she kept when there are no more vessels, the oil Training Program

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