Ludkia Needs Oil

This story takes place in a country called Ludkia, during the time of the Beis Hamikdosh.

One day, Ludkia ran out of olive oil. Usually, that would never happen, because new oil was always being pressed.

Well, why weren’t more olives being pressed? Because, the olive trees in Ludkia were not growing. For whatever reason, they were just not growing.

Today, that would not be such a problem, but in those days, everybody needed oil. They needed oil for light, oil for cooking, and so on. Who could live without oil?

The people of Ludkia called an emergency meeting, and everyone attended. They decided that they would send someone to go to the neighboring countries to buy oil for everyone. Then, they would not have a problem with oil.

One man volunteered to travel to buy the oil. Everybody gave him money, so that he would be able to pay for the oil.

So, the next morning, the man set out, to buy oil with the money that he had been given.

In the first country that the man arrived at, he went to the marketplace. He found the oil merchant, and told him how much oil he needed. The oil merchant said: “I am afraid I cannot help you, because we do not have any oil in our country.”

The man had no choice but to continue on to the next country. There, he again found the oil merchant, and explained his situation. “Well,” the oil merchant said, “you need a lot of oil. I don’t have so much oil. Maybe someone else will be able to sell you that much oil.”

So, the man went on to the next country, and the next and the next, only to find out that he could not acquire any oil.

One day, the man arrived at a certain country. There, he was not able to buy any oil either, but someone told him: “Why don’t you go to the northern part of Eretz Yisroel? They have a lot of oil there!”

The man thought to himself: “Yes! Why not? After all, I still can’t find anyone who is able to sell me the amount of oil that I need. Maybe in Eretz Yisroel they will have enough oil for everybody in Ludkia!”

So, the man set out on his way to the northern part of Eretz Yisroel, where Shevet Asher lived. When he arrived in Eretz Yisroel, he was so surprised. He did not see any oil merchants, or anything like that. All he saw were farms and houses!

He thought to himself: “What a waste of time! I came to Eretz Yisroel, and I don’t even see a marketplace here!”

Since the man had already come so far, he decided that it would not hurt to ask one of the farmers for olive oil. He went over to a farmer and said: “Excuse me, sir. I come from Ludkia, and in our country we ran out of olive oil. We need a lot of oil. Would you be willing to sell us some oil?”

“Sure,” came the reply. “How much do you need?” asked the farmer.

The man didn’t really think that he would get enough oil but said: “Hmm, I need about eighty barrels of olive oil. Do you think that you have that much?”

“Why not?” asked the farmer. “Come with me.”

The farmer then led the man to a big storage house. There, the man saw hundreds of barrels of oil! The farmer gave him the eighty barrels he needed.

The farmer asked: “Is that it? You don’t want any more oil? After all, you’re a whole country.”

“I do not think I have enough money to pay you for so much oil. I will just take eighty barrels,” answered the man.

“Do not worry about paying me,” said the farmer. “I have plenty of olive oil here.”

So the man took a few more barrels. He asked the farmer: “From where did you get so much oil?”

“Well, I got them from the olives, of course,” replied the farmer.

“But all the other countries hardly have enough olives. In our case, we don’t have any olives at all!” said the man.

“By us it is different. We are from Shevet Asher, and Shevet Asher has a special brocha for olive oil. Our olive trees are no ordinary olive trees,” explained the farmer.

Now, the man from Ludkia had a big problem. How was he going to get all the oil back to Ludkia?

Well, the farmer helped the man from Ludkia rent many wagons, and they loaded the barrels onto the wagons. Then, they made a big procession back to Ludkia with all the oil.

When the procession reached Ludkia, everybody was so happy, because they had oil. Some people asked: “From where did you get so much oil?” The man told them the whole story, and then everyone in Ludkia knew about Shevet Asher’s brocha.