Pure Oil for a Pure Mind: The Path to Love

42aThe commentators answer a question that the Pnei Yehoshua and the Chacham Tzvi asked: Why was a miracle needed for pure oil, when impurity is permitted where the community is concerned?¹ The main reason for the miracle, they answer, was chibuv mitzvah, how dear the mitzvah is. To understand this, we know that there is fear and there is fear: a lower fear and a higher fear. The lower fear is the fear of punishment, when a person is afraid that the "evil strap" of punishment or the like will come upon him. The higher fear is awe of Hashem's greatness, awe before the very Name Havayah, the Four-Letter Name, blessed be He. For the higher fear a person must first repair and purify his mind, as the verse says, "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of Hashem."² But the lower fear can be present even while he is still in his darkness: if harsh judgments pursue him, he is afraid and trembles, as the verse says, "For the calamity of God is a terror to me."³

42bLove of Hashem, though, can come only when a person repairs, purifies and sanctifies his mind, to mend the blemish he caused through foreign loves, Heaven save us. If he loves with the love of Hashem, how great a disgrace it would be for him still to love foreign loves! And if he still loves them, that is a clear sign that his love is sick. As Shlomo HaMelech said, "For I am lovesick":⁴ I am still sick in my love of Hashem, for I still love foreign loves. If a person comes to love Hashem even for one moment, it is better for him than all the life of the world and all the pleasures of this world, for "Your friendship is sweeter to him than the honeycomb and every taste."⁵ This answers the question: when the commentators say the miracle came because the mitzvah is dear, they mean that the miracle of pure oil was needed for the love of Hashem, to repair, sanctify and purify the mind first. Through that purification they could afterward love Hashem with all their heart, with all their soul and with all their might.