Why the Jewish People Are Compared to Olive Oil | Rabbi Michael Khaimov

The Midrash in its comparison of the Jewish people to an olive, it explains that when you squeeze an olive, that olive gives you [music] forth its oil. And what happens to that oil? It's not mixed with any other liquids. You put it into water, it floats [music] to the top. So too, a person has to remember that when he's being squeezed, [music] he's going to produce this oil and that oil, it will not mix. Now, in his comparison of this oil to the Jewish people, Rabbi David Abuhatzeira explains that just like oil floats to [music] the top, a father has to teach his child how to float. What does that mean? The Gemara says that a father has five obligations toward his child. He has to teach him five things. Number one is the father has to give his child a circumcision. Lamulo. Number two is a father has to redeem his firstborn child. Number three, his obligation toward a child is to teach him Torah. Hashem gives us children to teach them, to educate them. Number four is to marry him off. And number five is to teach him a trade. Says the great Rabbi Yehuda, also a father, he must teach his child how to swim. So the great Rabbi Rabbi David Abuhatzeira explains, swimming is important, but not only swimming in the physical sense. When a person swims in an ocean, he's able to survive. But we must realize that this world is also comparable to an ocean. And a person has to remember that his children are also going to have to swim. He has to teach them how to keep afloat from all of the influences that surround us, >> [music] >> all of the interesting thought processes of the world. A Jew has to remember, we have [music] to remain above it. We have to have our ideologies like olive oil, we don't mix into the ideologies [music] of the society. We have to float to the top. And the only way we can attain that is [music] by educating our children ourselves at home, and also by getting them the proper Jewish education in the Yeshivot that will prevent them from the mixture into the other nations to elevate, to always walk with their head held high, and thereby to compare to the olive oil.