The Pure Jar of Oil ◇ The Gaon and Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a

Last night, Wednesday, the eve of the 21st of Kislev, a ceremony for blessing the oil was held for the avreichim (married Torah students) of "The Union of Avreichim" under the Shuvu Banim institutions. This was in preparation for the Chanukah preparation conference to be held tonight, Thursday night, the eve of the 22nd of Kislev.

During the ceremony, our teacher the Rav shlit"a blessed hundreds of jars of oil that will be distributed to the avreichim at the conference. He also added from his own wisdom several words of the Living God regarding the matter of the pure oil on Chanukah. Here are the words delivered at the ceremony:

One jar remained. For one hundred and eighty years there were Greeks. Antiochus defiled all the oils. The Greeks didn't touch the oil, only Antiochus; for three years he defiled all the oils, and he placed an idol in the Heichal (Holy Temple sanctuary), and then the rebellion broke out. When they slaughtered a thousand people, people hid in a cave, then they [the Greeks] lit the cave from the outside and they [the Jews] suffocated from the smoke.

The Questioner: Who hid the jar of oil?

This is the jar of oil that descended to Yaakov (Jacob). That is why he went back to take the small jars and he fought with the angel. How much is a jar of oil worth? 2 shekels? For this one goes to fight with Yaakov? Take two shekels and buy a jar of oil—he has endless money, he has a hundred thousand sheep, a hundred thousand goats! Rather, this is a jar of oil that Hashem threw to him from heaven. It is written that the moment he prayed at Mount Moriah at the Even HaShetiyah (Foundation Stone), and Hashem said to him, "And behold, I am with you and I will guard you wherever you go" (Genesis 28:15). As soon as he left Mount Moriah, a jar of oil fell to him from heaven—so it is written in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer. And this remained until the Second Temple; this jar was preserved. And throughout the entire First Temple, they poured and anointed the kings and the High Priests with this, and this was a jar of oil where the oil never ran out. Whoever finds it, the oil will not end. Now it is hidden; in the Second Temple they hid the jar of oil. So this is the jar of oil that descended from heaven, and over this jar of oil he struggled with the angel—these are the "small jars." Reb Noson brings it all in Likutey Halachos (the primary work of Reb Noson of Breslov).