Shalom!
Welcome to Clifton Park Chabad Jewish Center! Here at Chabad, you will find a wide array of programming designed to enhance Jewish life in southern Saratoga County. We strive to create an environment where every person is welcome, every individual Mitzvah is cherished, and where Judaism is an accessible reality to all Jews regardless of background, affiliation or age!
Through Shabbat Dinners, Holiday events, Jewish Womens circle, Chabad Hebrew school and everything in between, we are cultivating a community together. We look forward to meeting you in person at a Shabbat dinner, Torah class or a casual coffee date.
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Clifton Park Chabad
Where every Jew is family! Come join our ever-growing family in Southern Saratoga County.
This week’s Torah portion describes the oil used to light the menorah in the Holy Temple. The Torah says the olives had to be crushed to produce the purest oil.
The Talmud takes that image and applies it to us: just as olives release their finest oil when pressed, we often reveal our deepest strengths under pressure.
It’s a powerful metaphor, but also a dangerous one. It’s easy to say, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” It’s much harder to actually live with this message. Judaism is not blind to that pain, but neither do we glorify suffering as an ends of its own. The question is not why life is hard, but what can help us endure when it is.
The Torah adds a detail that changes everything: the crushed olives were brought to Moses. Moses wasn’t just a lawgiver; he was described as a shepherd, attentive to each individual. When the people felt broken, he didn’t lecture them about resilience; he lifted them. The same was true generations later with Mordechai and Esther in the Purim story. They didn’t explain away the danger; they led by example and gave the people faith and a path forward.
Crushing alone does not make us great; it’s the connection that does. When we attach ourselves to something higher, we discover reserves of light and strength we didn’t know we had.
May we soon see a world where no one is crushed at all, and where our light shines without pressure, with the coming of Moshiach!
Shabbat Shalom!
Light candles at 5:24 pm
Shabbat ends at 6:26 pm
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