by Rabbi David Hanania Pinto Shlita
It is written, “A land of wheat, barley, grape, fig, and pomegranate; a
land of olive oil and date-honey” [Devarim 8:8].
This is surprising. For the first five products on this list, it is the fruit
itself (wheat, barley, grape, fig, pomegranate) that is mentioned, but for
the olive the verse mentions only what is derived from it, namely olive
oil. Why?
The Maharsha cites a statement from the Gemara: “Our Rabbis taught:
Five things make one forget one’s learning:
Eating something from which
a mouse or cat has eaten, eating the heart of a beast, frequent consumption
of olives, drinking the remains of water that was used for washing, and
washing one’s feet one above the other. Others say: He who also puts his
clothes under his head.
Five things restore one’s learning: Wheat bread,
and especially wheat itself, eating a roasted egg without salt, frequent
consumption of olive oil, frequent indulgence in wine and spices, and
the drinking of water that has remained from kneading. Others say that
dipping one’s finger in salt and eating is also included.
‘Frequent consumption
of olive-oil’ – this supports the view of Rabbi Yochanan, who said:
‘As the olive causes one to forget 70 years ears of learning, olive oil restores
70 years of learning’ ” [Horayot 13b].
2 comments:
I can already predict that someone will leave a comment and say that olives contain olive oil, so what is the problem? I guess that the process of extracting the oil from the olive has some spiritual connotations that we don't understand. I remember that when my sister a''h used to serve olives to guests, she would pour a very small amount of olive oil over the olives, to counteract the ''forgetting''.
I use only xvirgin olive oil (yum) and coconut oil in food preparation. Yes, it's important to only eat olives that are in olive oil.
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