What’s up with that anointing oil?
One detail about the coronation of Kings Charles III and The Queen Consort piqued my interest.
The oil that will be used to anoint him as king was consecrated in Jerusalem’s Old City, two minutes away from my office, at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Anointing oil? Consecration? Crowning a king? It all sounded so well; biblical. I was curious to delve into Jewish sources about the oil used to anoint Jewish kings and explore the deeper meaning behind the oil.
The new “sacred oil” — that’s how it’s being referred to in mainstream press — was created from olives harvested and grown on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, under the order of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who will officiate at the coronation.
He said, “This demonstrates the deep historic link between the Coronation, the Bible and the Holy Land. From ancient kings through to the present day, monarchs have been anointed with oil from this sacred place. As we prepare to anoint The King and The Queen Consort, I pray that they would be guided and strengthened by the Holy Spirit.”
I wouldn’t have expressed quite that way, but the Archbishop of Canterbury was actually onto something.
The anointing oil is referred to in the Torah (Exodus 30:22-33) when God instructs Moses to produce it to consecrate kings and high priests as well as the Tabernacle and its utensils (such as the ark, altars and menorah). That’s a lot of anointing! But the Talmud states that the original oil Moses produced in the desert, though only 12 logs (around 1 gallon), miraculously lasted for all of Israel’s history and exists in its full quantity today (Horiyot 11b).
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No, King Charles can’t get his hands on some of it. The oil was hidden away by King Josiah towards the end of the First Temple era — when he hid the Ark of the Covenant and some other sacred items, knowing that the Temple was soon to be destroyed.
When the Temple is rebuilt, the oil will be revealed from its hiding place — together with the Ark — and the future King of Israel (aka the Messiah, Mashiach in Hebrew, which means “the anointed one”) will be anointed with it.
Why were Jewish kings anointed with oil specifically? And what’s the significance of the miracle of Moses’s oil lasting forever? (Seems like a far bigger miracle than the flask of oil burning for eight days!)
In Judaism, anointing with oil signifies the endowment of divine power, authority, and blessings upon the new king. Oil, which was also used to light the menorah in the Temple, represents the light of Jewish wisdom that illuminates the world. Accessing the pure oil requires squeezing the olive, symbolizing the necessity to put in maximum effort to attain wisdom.
The Talmud (Yoma 72b) states that the crown of Torah is available for anyone who wants to take it. It doesn't matter what your IQ is; if your yearning for Jewish wisdom is so strong that it translates into blood, sweat and tears, God will open up the gates of wisdom and crown you with the Crown of Torah. Accessing the wealth of Jewish wisdom is totally yours for the taking if you want it badly enough.
Perhaps that is why Moses’ oil will never be depleted. The oil represents the infinite Torah that is available always, to everyone, for all time.
But there’s one more catch. You can only attain it through humility. In the verse, "Where shall wisdom be found" (Job 28:12), the Hebrew word for "where" is "me’ayin" which also means "from nothingness". The Talmud (Sotah, 21b) says that Torah wisdom can only be found in one who "makes nothing" of himself. That is why a king was commanded to write his own Torah scroll and carry it at all times next to his heart, reminding himself that he is not above God.
May the lessons of the anointing oil rub off on King Charles, and may God bless him with clarity and wisdom in these confusing times.
