Rabbi David Hartman, Trusting in a New Beginning in A Different Light
In considering the miracle of the cruse of oil, our Rabbis asked why the holiday of Hanukkah was celebrated for eight days rather than for seven days. Since there was, by all accounts, sufficient oil for one day, only seven of the eight days of burning may be designated as miraculous days. Though several ingenious explanations were offered, what strikes me as being the miraculous feature of the initial day was the community's willingness to light the lamp in spite of the fact that its anticipated period of burning was short-lived. The miracle of the first day was expressed in the community's willingness to light a small cruse of oil without reasonable assurance that their efforts would be sufficient to complete the rededication of the Temple. Hanukkah celebrates the miracle expressed by those who lit the lamp and not only the miracle of the lamp's continued burning for eight days.
In considering the miracle of the cruse of oil, our Rabbis asked why the holiday of Hanukkah was celebrated for eight days rather than for seven days. Since there was, by all accounts, sufficient oil for one day, only seven of the eight days of burning may be designated as miraculous days. Though several ingenious explanations were offered, what strikes me as being the miraculous feature of the initial day was the community's willingness to light the lamp in spite of the fact that its anticipated period of burning was short-lived. The miracle of the first day was expressed in the community's willingness to light a small cruse of oil without reasonable assurance that their efforts would be sufficient to complete the rededication of the Temple. Hanukkah celebrates the miracle expressed by those who lit the lamp and not only the miracle of the lamp's continued burning for eight days.
מאי חנוכה דתנו רבנן בכ"ה בכסליו יומי דחנוכה תמניא אינון דלא למספד בהון ודלא להתענות בהון שכשנכנסו יוונים להיכל טמאו כל השמנים שבהיכל וכשגברה מלכות בית חשמונאי ונצחום בדקו ולא מצאו אלא פך אחד של שמן שהיה מונח בחותמו של כהן גדול ולא היה בו אלא להדליק יום אחד נעשה בו נס והדליקו ממנו שמונה ימים לשנה אחרת קבעום ועשאום ימים טובים בהלל והודאה
What is Chanukkah, that our Sages taught: On the 25th of Kislev - the days of Chanukkah, they are eight, not to eulogize on them and not to fast on them? When the Greeks entered the Temple, they polluted all the oils in the Temple, and when the Hasmonean dynasty overcame and defeated them, they checked and they found but one cruse of oil that was set in place with the seal of the High Priest, but there was in it only [enough] to light a single day. A miracle was done with it, and they lit from it for eight days. The following year [the Sages] fixed those [days], making them holidays for praise and thanksgiving.
Darren Dochuk, Blessed by Oil, Cursed with Crude: God and Black Gold in the American Southwest
~Pre–Civil War western Pennsylvania~
There, in 1859, Edwin L. Drake, a wild-eyed entrepreneur from Connecticut, used what limited funds he garnered from a New Haven banker and information he gathered from local citizens to erect a makeshift oil rig on the outskirts of a sleepy logging town called Titusville. Even as he paused for worship on Sunday, August 28, 1859, Drake’s well site began to bubble over with a dark greasy substance. Summoned by his assistant, Drake hurried to his derrick and there encountered the liquid gold that would make him famous. Drake’s success was indeed epic: as Brian C. Black explains, “for the first time in human history, oil had been intentionally struck beneath the earth’s surface.” Drake’s discovery seemed to awaken Americans to a metaphysical force.Oil had always elicited otherworldly fantasies; years before Drake’s breakthrough, “medicine men” had peddled the “rock oil” they found along Pennsylvania’s creeks as a transcendent elixir and illuminant.
Still, Drake’s discovery set something unprecedented in motion. In the decades that followed, men flocked to the Alleghenies in search of an ancient substance that boasted fantastic possibilities for the future. Using divining rods and “doodlebugs,” devices thought to have supernatural powers, they hunted a treasure that could make them healthy and rich. Watching from a distance, average citizens awaited news of the next find in hopes that their lives too would become healthier and richer. Widely read magazines such as Harper’s Weekly kept them educated in all things oil. “The Indians and first settlers … used it for medicinal purposes,” Harper’s explained in 1878, and “it was also used by the Indians in their weird exercises and devotions.” Countless start-up companies, meanwhile, commandeered the magazine’s pages to boast of their product’s revolutionary uses. “It is perfectly pure,” the boosters of Pratt’s Astral Oil insisted in 1870, “it gives a clear … and beautiful light” and is “free from objectionable odor… . It is always uniform in quality.” Pristine, wild, and demanding of a pioneering spirit, yet efficient, unobjectionable, and pure: this was the sacred promise that oil offered a society thrust into the dehumanizing and frenzied machinations of the industrial age.
Darren Dochuk, Blessed by Oil, Cursed with Crude: God and Black Gold in the American Southwest, Journal of American History, Volume 99, Issue 1, June 2012, Pages 51–61,
~Pre–Civil War western Pennsylvania~
There, in 1859, Edwin L. Drake, a wild-eyed entrepreneur from Connecticut, used what limited funds he garnered from a New Haven banker and information he gathered from local citizens to erect a makeshift oil rig on the outskirts of a sleepy logging town called Titusville. Even as he paused for worship on Sunday, August 28, 1859, Drake’s well site began to bubble over with a dark greasy substance. Summoned by his assistant, Drake hurried to his derrick and there encountered the liquid gold that would make him famous. Drake’s success was indeed epic: as Brian C. Black explains, “for the first time in human history, oil had been intentionally struck beneath the earth’s surface.” Drake’s discovery seemed to awaken Americans to a metaphysical force.Oil had always elicited otherworldly fantasies; years before Drake’s breakthrough, “medicine men” had peddled the “rock oil” they found along Pennsylvania’s creeks as a transcendent elixir and illuminant.
Still, Drake’s discovery set something unprecedented in motion. In the decades that followed, men flocked to the Alleghenies in search of an ancient substance that boasted fantastic possibilities for the future. Using divining rods and “doodlebugs,” devices thought to have supernatural powers, they hunted a treasure that could make them healthy and rich. Watching from a distance, average citizens awaited news of the next find in hopes that their lives too would become healthier and richer. Widely read magazines such as Harper’s Weekly kept them educated in all things oil. “The Indians and first settlers … used it for medicinal purposes,” Harper’s explained in 1878, and “it was also used by the Indians in their weird exercises and devotions.” Countless start-up companies, meanwhile, commandeered the magazine’s pages to boast of their product’s revolutionary uses. “It is perfectly pure,” the boosters of Pratt’s Astral Oil insisted in 1870, “it gives a clear … and beautiful light” and is “free from objectionable odor… . It is always uniform in quality.” Pristine, wild, and demanding of a pioneering spirit, yet efficient, unobjectionable, and pure: this was the sacred promise that oil offered a society thrust into the dehumanizing and frenzied machinations of the industrial age.
Darren Dochuk, Blessed by Oil, Cursed with Crude: God and Black Gold in the American Southwest, Journal of American History, Volume 99, Issue 1, June 2012, Pages 51–61,
The Benefits of Ayurveda Self-Massage “Abhyanga”
There is no greater expression of self-love than anointing ourselves from head to toe with warm oil—this practice is called Abhyanga. A daily Abhyanga practice restores the balance of the doshas and enhances well-being and longevity.
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The Sanskrit word Sneha can be translated as both “oil” and “love.” It is believed that the effects of Abhyanga are similar to those received when one is saturated with love. Like the experience of being loved, Abhyanga can give a deep feeling of stability and warmth.
Abhyanga Routine
There is no greater expression of self-love than anointing ourselves from head to toe with warm oil—this practice is called Abhyanga. A daily Abhyanga practice restores the balance of the doshas and enhances well-being and longevity.
~
The Sanskrit word Sneha can be translated as both “oil” and “love.” It is believed that the effects of Abhyanga are similar to those received when one is saturated with love. Like the experience of being loved, Abhyanga can give a deep feeling of stability and warmth.
Abhyanga Routine
- Warm the oil (pour approximately ¼ cup into a mug and warm using a coffee-cup warmer.) Test the temperature by putting a drop on your inner wrist, oil should be comfortably warm and not hot
- Sit or stand comfortably in a warm room
- Apply oil first to the crown of your head (adhipati marma) and work slowly out from there in circular strokes—spend a couple of minutes massaging your entire scalp (home to many other important marma points—points of concentrated vital energy)
- Face: Massage in circular motion on your forehead, temples, cheeks, and jaws (always moving in a upward movement). Be sure to massage your ears, especially your ear-lobes—home to essential marma points and nerve endings
- Use long strokes on the limbs (arms and legs) and circular strokes on the joints (elbows and knees). Always massage toward the direction of your heart
- Massage the abdomen and chest in broad, clockwise, circular motions. On the abdomen, follow the path of the large intestine; moving up on the right side of the abdomen, then across, then down on the left side
- Finish the massage by spending at least a couple of minutes massaging your feet. Feet are a very important part of the body with the nerve endings of essential organs and vital marma points
- Sit with the oil for 5-15 minutes if possible so that the oil can absorb and penetrate into the deeper layers of the body
- Enjoy a warm bath or shower. You can use a mild soap on the “strategic” areas, avoid vigorously soaping and rubbing the body
- When you get out of the bath, towel dry gently. Blot the towel on your body instead of rubbing vigorously https://chopra.com/articles/the-benefits-of-ayurveda-self-massage-abhyanga