One Friday afternoon, Rebbi Chanina ben Dosa saw that his daughter was sad. He said to her:
“My daughter, why are you sad?”
She said to him: “A vessel of vinegar was switched with a vessel of oil, and I tried to light a fire for Shabbos.”
She wanted to light the oil in honor of Shabbos. However, she accidentally got vinegar, which doesn’t create a fire, and there was not enough time to get oil. He said to her:
“My daughter, what does it matter to you? He Who said that oil should light, He will say to the vinegar to light! Hashem is the one Who makes oil light on fire. Hashem can just as easily make vinegar light on fire.”
This vinegar light stayed lit the entire day of Shabbos until they lit the Havdalah candle from it, because it was still burning at the end of Shabbos!
Reprinted from the Parshas Beha’aloscha 5785 email of Chayeinu Weekly. Stories compiled by Tzvi Schultz.
