Sarah: A Blessing for Holy Oil

Archaeologists in Israel finished excavating the most complete part ever discovered of the foundations of the walls which surrounded Jerusalem during the time of the Hasmonean Kingdom, when the events of Hanukkah took place.

In Hebrew, Hanukkah means “dedication,” and the holiday marks the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in the second century B.C.E. after a small group of Jewish fighters liberated it from occupying foreign forces, and the Hasmonean Kingdom that followed.

Jews celebrate the eight-day holiday, which this year begins on the eve of December 14, with the ritual of lighting candles, in honor of the tiny supply of ritually pure oil that they found in the Jerusalem Temple that lasted for eight nights instead of just one.

Parents love their children very much. Sometimes it isn’t easy to have children. Sometimes people have to wait for many years before they can have a child. That is what happened to Abraham and Sarah. God had promised them a child. But ten years passed and they remained childless.

Sarah was a very loving person. She was kind, generous and very understanding. Sarah knew how much Abraham wanted to have a child. Since Sarah was getting older and older, she also knew that it would be harder and harder for her to get pregnant. So after waiting for ten years to have a child, Sarah told Abraham that he should have a child with Hagar, Sarah’s young maid. It wasn’t easy for Sarah to say this, but she was willing to because she was a kind and generous person.

When Hagar became pregnant with Abraham’s child she began to act very mean to Sarah. Hagar told Sarah that she could no longer cook and clean because she was pregnant. Indeed, although she was much younger than Sarah, Hagar made Sarah do all the cooking and cleaning. While Sarah did all the work Hagar would lay on a couch eating sweets and painting her nails.

The only work that Hagar still did was to make olives into olive oil. Hagar would rub her skin twice a day with olive oil to keep it soft and smooth. Since this was the only housework that Sarah didn’t have to do; Sarah would bless Hagar every time she made the olive oil.

This went on for months. Sarah did not complain to Abraham about the way Hagar was treating her because she didn’t want to disturb him. She also hoped Hagar would realize it was very hard for Sarah to do all the housework at her age. Even a kind, generous and understanding person has to have limits.

When Hagar was in her seventh month her belly became very large. Hagar told Sarah that she couldn’t bend over to paint her toenails anymore and she wanted Sarah to kneel at her feet and paint her toenails every week. Sarah refused. Even a kind, generous and understanding person has to have limits

Finally Sarah had had enough. She told Abraham that Hagar had been looking down on Sarah ever since Hagar had become pregnant, and now she despised Sarah completely.

Abraham told Sarah that she had let Hagar take advantage of her; and now she had to assert herself. When Sarah did, Hagar got very angry and ran away.

A few days later Hagar met a man at a well near Shur Way and Hagar complained to him about what had happened to her. The man advised Hagar to return home and stop treating Sarah so badly. It was not Sarah’s fault she had not become pregnant, and it was not due to Hagar’s virtue that she had became pregnant.

If you return to Sarah and treat her respectfully I promise you that you will give birth to a son who will become the founder of a large tribe of people who will live in freedom in the desert. And since Sarah blessed you again and again for making oil, God will bless your son’s descendants who live in the desert with oil.

In addition, olive oil will be used to make a continually burning lamp in a Jerusalem Temple that will be for your future descendants, and for all non-Jews who want to pray within its walls; and will also be used in a special eight day celebration long after the Temple has been destroyed.

So Hagar returned home, and she no longer despised Sarah. Sarah, in turn, blessed Hagar. Hagar realized that the man who had given her this advice was a messenger from the God of Abraham. When her son was born he was named Ishmael, which means God will hear. Hagar’s descendants are the Arabs who have been blessed with lots of oil.

Sarah’s descendants are the Jews who still celebrate Hanukkah: the rekindling of the Jerusalem Temples continually burning lamp, to this very day.