Selections from classical Torah sources
which express the special relationship between
the People of Israel and Eretz Yisrael

TEKOAH

The oil of the Menorah is the subject of the Chanukah miracle. Where did this oil for the Menorah, and for the flour offerings, come from?

Tekoah was the city in ancient Eretz Yisrael that was the prime source of the olive oil used in the Beit Hamikdash (Holy Temple). (Mesechta Menachot 85b)

The Biblical source for this city as a source of oil is the story of King David's military commander-in-chief, Yoav, who employed a wise woman from Tekoah to put on a dramatic performance before the king in order to effect reconciliation between him and his son Avshalom, after Avshalom's act of fratricide (Shmuel II Chapter 14). Olive oil makes one wise, say our Sages (ibid.), and the abundance of such oil is what produced the wise woman of Tekoah who succeeded in her difficult mission.

Tekoah is today the name of a thriving Jewish settlement established in the Judean Desert shortly after the Six-Day War.