The olive tree teaches us about resilience. It's incredibly tough - we see this in the story of Noach, when the dove brought back an olive leaf. That tree survived the mabul. The message? So will we.
Olive oil doesn't mix with water. No matter what, it rises to the top. That's us as a nation - we don't blend in, we don't dissolve. We stay distinct, we rise.
The gemara says: "Five things cause one to forget their learning... one who regularly eats olives... Five things restore one's learning... regularly consuming olive oil."
R' Yochanan: "Just as olives cause one to lose seventy years of learning, so olive oil restores seventy years of learning."
The Maharsha on this gemara explains that's why the Torah says "shemen zayis" (olive oil) in the sheva minim instead of just "zayis" (olives) - because olives themselves are problematic for memory, but the oil is beneficial. The halacha says you must add olive oil to a can of olives before eating them. Why? Because the point isn't the olive itself - it's the oil.
The gemara tells us that olive oil's main purpose is for lighting, not for food. Think about the menorah in the Beit Hamikdash - pure olive oil, bringing light to the world. That's what we're meant to do.
Olives start out bitter and need time to become edible. It's like a life of Torah - hard work at the beginning, sweet results at the end. The process of curing olives takes patience and the right conditions. Same with our spiritual growth.
Olive oil comes from crushing the olives. The Kedushat Levi teaches that when we're crushed by life's challenges, that's when our purest essence comes out.
Segulot: Eating olive oil before learning helps with memory and retention.
Photo by Roberta Sorge on Unsplash
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