Tekoa's Oil: Wisdom Found Through Nothingness

147“Tekoa is alpha for oil”:¹ the aleph (א) alludes to Chochmah and Binah, wisdom and understanding, as in aleph Chochmah, aleph Binah, “learn wisdom, learn understanding.”² “And wisdom, from where (me'ayin) shall it be found?”³ Through ayin, nothingness, the attribute of Chochmah is found; that is why, in the holy Zohar on Vayikra, Chochmah comes in a word of smallness, ze'ira. What is left over, nosar, teaches the same, as the Gemara says: “For whom does He bear iniquity?” That is, He lifts (nosei) the iniquity up to a place no accusation reaches, “for one who regards himself as shirayim,” mere leftovers.⁴ So too “Elazar and Isamar, his remaining (hanosarim) sons.”⁵ “Wisdom sings aloud outside; in the broad places she gives forth her voice”:⁶ from Chochmah the light shines even to those who stand outside, whom the cloud cast out, the nechshalim, the stragglers.⁷ And afterward, “in the broad places (rechovos) she gives forth her voice”: it grows broad for them from Binah, which is called Rechovos HaNahar, the broad places of the river.⁸ Through this they come to receive its light, by way of the streams of faith. “One who wants to grow wise should face south,” and the sign is “the Table in the north and the Menorah in the south” [wisdom goes with the Menorah's light].^{9 10}