Wine and Oil

Kabbalah and Chassidut :

Wine and Oil of Torah
The secrets of the Torah are likened both to wine
and to oil. The wine hints at the “secrets of Torah”
רַזִין) ) and the oil hints to the “secret secrets of
Torah” ( רַזִין דְרַזִין ).

What is the difference between the two?

The secrets of the Torah refer to the teachings of
the Arizal, Rabbi Isaac Luria, the holy Kabbalist
who lived in Safed over 400 years ago. His Kabbalah
describes the secrets of what took place after God
contracted His infinite light (the tzimtzum). The
secret secrets of Torah refer to the teachings of the
Ba’al Shem Tov and his students, whose Chassidic
teachings reach beyond the contraction and address
the levels of reality that existed before it, i.e., God’s
infinite light as it was revealed before the
contraction.
Though this explanation of the difference
between the wine and the oil of Torah, between
Kabbalah and Chassidut is technically correct, it is
not very revealing to those who do not have the
intimate knowledge of Kabbalah needed to
appreciate it. Let us therefore turn to Chanukah to
provide us with a more instructive explanation.

Secret and Top Secret

There are two types of secrets that people have.

First, there are personal secrets.

These might be events or actions that a person conceals because of
shame and which should be confessed only before
one departs the world. Or, they might be the good
and important actions one has performed in life, or
the sweet feelings that a person has in his heart—
these are the love and fear that we possess, about
which the Torah says that they should be “hidden
for Havayah our God.”1 Sometimes personal secrets
are about events that occurred in childhood, so we
know about them, but there are those that are from
the time we were in the womb; these are concealed
even from our own consciousness, all the more so
secrets from previous incarnations. About all these
types of personal secrets the sages say that, “When
wine goes in, secrets come out.”2 Personal secrets
can be revealed if we drink enough wine therefore
they are likened to wine. Wine also alludes to the
mother principle ( פַּרְצוּף אִמָּא ) in Kabbalah.
“mind of the Mother” – with the mercy of the
mother, who engages and raises, and keeps all the
secrets of the child).

But, there is also a much higher grade of secret,
the secret secrets, which are called “top secret.”

These are military secrets.

Military secrets must be
guarded with all of one’s strength because they
involve matters of life or death. When a person
knows a military secret, he has to sacrifice himself
in order to keep it. But, while personal secrets are
likened to wine that is meant for personal
consumption, military secrets are like oil; oil is a
source of energy, a part of society’s infrastructure,
and like all energy sources it is handled at the
public level, providing fuel for all of us together.

Top Secret Secrets from the Chanukah Candles.

Chanukah is the festival of light and oil and was
the favorite holiday of our teacher the Ba’al Shem
Tov. During Chanukah, the oil candles of our
menorahs reveal top secret military secrets—the
secret of how the Hasmoneans, who were few in
number and weak, were victorious over the great
numbers of powerful Greeks and their Hellenized
supporters.

The secret of victory is of course in the spirit and
carrying over to our age, the thirty-six candles that
we light on Chanukah relate the stories of the
thirty-six tzadikim, the righteous individuals, in
whose merit the world exists. One might think that
stories about tzadikim are about personal secrets,
revealing how each tzadik exercised his attributes of
love and fear in order to serve God. Actually,
though, the candles are meant to reveal the tzadik’s
military secrets—his tactics for winning the war
against exile and bringing the final redemption.
Some tzadikim also have personal secrets, stories
that tell us how they carried out their own personal
rectification. Personal rectification relates to the
soul as it exists after the contraction—a personal.

T


Secret reveals the soul’s root in Primordial Man (Adam Kadmon).

But the tzadikim, disciples of the
Ba’al Shem Tov, dedicated their lives not to their
own personal rectification, but to actions on behalf
of the entire Jewish people, actions that would lead
to tikun olam (rectifying the world) under the rule of
the Almighty.

One of the military secrets passed on to us by the
Chassidic masters is that we must be willing to give
up our entire part in the World to Come in order to
bestow kindness on even a single Jew. Devotion to
acts of loving-kindness at this level is a top secret
military secret used by Tzivot Hashem, the armies of
God, who must be devoted to one another like
soldiers on the battlefield.

Following the above distinction between wine
and oil, personal secrets pertain to the rectification
of the individual, but the secrets that come from
prior to the contraction, the Torah’s military secrets
relate to the redemption of the entire Jewish
people. Revealing these top secret secrets taught by
our teacher the Ba’al Shem Tov and demonstrated
by the Chassidic masters is likened to a king
wasting his most valued treasures in wartime in
order to force a victory.

Military Secrets in Pharaoh’s Dream

Military secrets also play an important role in this
week’s parashah, Mikeitz, which is always read over
Chanukah. All of Pharaoh’s advisors interpreted his
dream as revealing a personal secret (seven
daughters, etc.). Only Joseph the tzadik, was able to
interpret it as revealing a military secret—an
interpretation that affected Egypt at large, not just
Pharaoh personally.
There is a well-known question regarding
Joseph’s apparent chutzpah in offering Pharaoh
further advice on how to prepare for the imminent
famine.4 Following our present discussion, the
reason for this is that revealing the military secret
in Pharaoh’s dream required Joseph to assume a
leadership role. Knowing military secrets 'elevates
the private individual to his soul’s root prior to the
contraction, requiring him to take responsibility
and act. Furthermore, even though, according to the
laws of Egypt, a slave was restricted from political
power, once Joseph had revealed the military secret
and became essential for Egypt's emergency
plans, this restriction was cancelled.

Forget the Cup-Bearer

We can now understand in more depth why
Joseph had to be forgotten by Pharaoh’s cup-bearer.
The cup-bearer was responsible for Pharaoh’s wine,
which we already know represents only personal
secrets. If Joseph had been brought before Pharaoh
thanks to the cup-bearer, he would have been
limited to revealing only personal secrets,
specifically his own personal secret as a man
kidnapped from the land of the Hebrew, an
innocent man placed in prison. But, he would not
have been able to reveal his higher source before the
contraction—the man destined to save Egypt,
Pharaoh’s greatest military secret. Indeed, when
Joseph eventually comes before Pharaoh to
interpret his dream, there is no mention of Joseph’s
personal secrets, they are forgotten and instead
Joseph becomes the voice for God’s words.
Finally, the value of “military secret” ( סֹוד צְבָאִי ) is
the same as the all important initial three words of
the Ten Commandments, “I am Havayah your God”5
אָנֹכִי י ־הוה אֱ ־לֹהֶיךָ) ). It also equals the words, “Open
my eyes”6 ( גַל עֵינַי ), which begin our prayer to God,
“Open my eyes so that I may behold the wonders of
Your Torah.” May we merit revealing the top secret,
military secrets of the Torah that guide us in how to
influence all our Jewish brothers and sisters to
return to God in preparation for the complete and
final redemption.

Notes: 1. Deuteronomy 29:28. 2. Eiruvin 65a 3. See in
Bati Legani, c. 11. 4. See Likutei Sichot 15, pp. 339ff. 5.
Exodus 20:2 6. Psalms 119:18.