The holiday of Chanukah is completely oil-oriented (medical concerns aside!). The miracle involved the Greeks' unsuccessful attempt to defile all the oil and the miraculous jug of oil which burned for eight days. We celebrate by lighting menorahs (preferably with oil) and eating oily foods such as latkes and donuts. What is the inner connection between Chanukah and oil?
The Greeks, unlike Hitler, did not long for our physical demise. They "merely" wanted us to abandon our obstinate loyalty to our "outdated" mitzvot and assimilate into the progressive Greek culture. It was the Maccabees, a fistful of Jews, who stubbornly refused to discard the mitzvot in favor of Hellenism and ultimately saved our people from spiritual assimilation and annihilation. What exactly are these mitzvot that triggered this intense battle?
Mitzvot are the directives which emanate from G‑d. Needless to say, directives which originate from a spiritual infinite being can be understood by us physical finite beings as much as an earthworm can grasp E = mc2. Yet incredibly - and much to the ire of the ancient Greeks - these transcendent mitzvot permeate every detail of our mundane lives. Before, after, and while eating; before, after, and while sleeping; before, after, and while involved in business - the mitzvot affect every area of life.
Now let’s look at oil. On the one hand the chemical makeup of oil causes it to rise above other fluids - transcendence. Yet on the other hand, oil permeates every substance it touches. Make a paper or food wet, and it will dry out after a short while. Pour oil on it, and it will remain oily for good. (Remember the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and the incredible damage it caused? New Orleans has long been dry from Hurricane Katrina, and Prince Williams Sound is still feeling the effect of the oil spill disaster.)
Thus, both Mitzvot and oil express the mergence two contradictory properties: to transcend & to permeate.
When we fuse the highest levels of divinity, the G‑dly mitzvot, within our mundane everyday life, we continue the Chanukah miracle and keep our oil burning - a flame that never ceases to die. So the next time we munch on our tasty and oily latkes, let’s make sure a mitzvah is soon to follow.
Shabbat Shalom & A Happy Chanukah
Rabbi Raleigh Resnick