Prophet Elisha with poor widow.....oil.....vessels....

In Yesterday's haftora we read the story of A poor woman who cried to the Prophet Elisha, that her husband died and now the creditor has come to take her two sons as slaves.
So Elisha asked her what she has in her house. She answered: 'Nothing, but a cruse of oil.'

"He said, 'Go borrow empty vessels and pour this oil into all these vessels.

A woman cries out about her husband's death—it's the death of her divine spark." My soul has become apathetic to any deeper, spiritual reality of life. And the creditor has come to take my two sons as slaves."

The sons are our emotions. My soul is dead, and my emotions have been enslaved.

"Said Elisha to her: what have you in your home?' Meaning, You must search within yourself for the answer to your crisis. The answer to human pain must ultimately come from man himself.

"I have nothing," the woman cries. "There is nothing left of my soul. I am spiritually and emotionally dead." But I do have something, a cruse of oil.

Oil, represents the core of cores of human identity. This core—the essence of human dignity—is the "cruse of oil" that could never be taken from you.

Your emotions may be faint and your soul may be dead, but your "cruse of oil" is always there. That part of your life that stands face to face with G-d's essence — essence to essence — never dies.

The prophet Elisha says "Go borrow empty vessels and pour the oil into all these vessels.'"

Empty and borrowed vessels is a metaphor for uninspired robot-like actions that are empty of passion and enthusiasm, actions which we could never call "our own" since our heart and soul are not present in these actions.

So the prophet says, Just perform G-dly deeds, even if they seem borrowed and empty to you.

When we don't feel G-d; we feel our mitzvot are hollow and empty acts, we are to remmeber that we do have a cruse of oil and we ARE capable of filling our lives with empty vessels with a schedule saturated with meaningful acts.