Come to the Galilee - And Get Crushed

We live in the Galilee, surrounded by olive trees.

In the late fall, these trees are heavy, laden with plump dark fruit.

I'm often tempted to reach out, grab one, and pop it into my mouth.It's a good thing I know better - I would have spit it out in disgust.

Olives straight off the tree are inedible. Even ripe, they are bitter and hard.

What good could something like that be?

But look deep within, and you find a stunning secret.

Hidden within that bitter hard fruit is light. Blazing. Shining. Warm. Powerful.

Light.

Turning olives into olive oil is an astonishingly slow, labor-intensive process. It's actually a little rough - involving hitting or shaking (the tree) crushing, squeezing, and separating.

And waiting.

Sound familiar?

Realizing the true potential that lies inside the bitter and the hard, bringing out its power and using it to change the world is a tough job.

Perhaps the challenges and difficulties each of us face are really just part of that very process - the process of finding our own light. We ourselves also get crushed and squeezed, not - heaven forbid - to harm us, but to bring out our power, our warmth, our light.

So that we can see. So that we can help others to see. So that we can stand out as lights to each other, as reminders of what truly lies inside each one of us.

So this Channukah? Stay warm. Stay light.

And maybe get ready to get a little crushed.