Brighter is the Result
Now you shall command the Children of Israel that they should take for you pure, pressed olive oil for illumination, to kindle the lamp continuously. (Shemos 27:20)
Pressed: He presses the olives in a mortar and does not grind them with millstones so that there should not be any sediment. After he has obtained the first drop, he puts them into a mill and grinds them. The second oil is unfit for the Menorah but fit for meal offerings. (Rashi)
We say every night before reciting SHEMA, “Ki Heim Chayeinu” – “Because they (words of Torah) are our life…”. Whatever we find in Torah has current relevance to our lives. So, we can legitimately ask, “What are we to learn from this detail, that the first drop exuded from the olive is designated for the Menorah?!”
Years back, I was leaving New Square one late afternoon after Davening Mincha and a young man, who I recognized, and who lived near my house, asked me for a ride. I asked him his name and when he told me an alarm bell went off in my mind. It was the very same last name as the Morah that taught my boys in Pre1A. I asked him if he is related and he told me that it is his mother. It was a week or so after Purim and so I took the opportunity in our brief ride to share with him what an incredible merit his mother has. I told him that my oldest son read the Megillah on Purim with great proficiency many times and every word is to her credit because she is the one that taught him how to read Hebrew.
He, then, tried to deflect the credit back to me by postulating, “It probably comes from you!” There are a few things I am pretty good at but Kriah and public reading is not one of them. I swiftly begged away from the honor but an older memory suddenly awoke in my mind. A bunch of years ago my wife and I merited making a Shidduch- a match. A suggestion we made actually worked. The couple was married and we were delighted to have a hand in the happening. A few months later, we received a handsome check in the mail from the groom. I didn’t know what to do with the money.
The fellow was a friend of mine and we were only trying to help. We were not looking to make a living as matchmakers. It’s a good thing because we haven’t been successful to make one since.
I went to one of my Rebbeim and presented the problem. He told me that I should accept the money. It was entirely appropriate for him to offer a finder’s fee. He also said that it was the cleanest money that one can earn. In other deals there may be some under or over selling and the commission may be less deserved. “This was a deal from heaven and you were privileged to be the broker.” The deal was clean and true and good and so is the money. Then he advised me to use the money to pay for my son’s tuition. My oldest child was in first grade at the time. That’s when they were teaching him to read. We set aside an account and paid tuition monthly from that fund that entire year.
Oddly, and amazingly, that child has become not only a competent Baal Koreh, but a virtuoso, like someone with perfect pitch, sensitive to every subtle deviation and nuanced change. He is a reader of the Torah in Shul each week. Did he get this talent from me?! Not me! Looking back, I believe, his interest and talent in this area can be attributed mostly to the purity of that fuel that can create a lasting flame.
That we are told to extract a single pure drop from each olive and the rest can happily go on to join other Mitzvos is an open endorsement for the importance and the preeminence of Torah study, symbolized by the light of the Temple Menorah. The first and the best are to be invested to support and promote this holy activity. The mind is the engine of each individual and the driving force of the nation. It needs the purest and most powerful form of fuel.
Shlomo HaMelech, the valedictorian or humanity, tells us in Mishlei, “MiKol Mishmor, Netzor Libecha, Ki Mimenu Totzeis Chaim” – “From all the things you watch, guard your mind, because from it founts life!” The more one feeds the mind Torah and not junk food for thought, and the more honest the money for the Yeshiva tuition is, the holier and brighter is the result!
Go to Torah.org
Date: March 7, 2025
