In Parashas Devarim, when the Torah tells us that the Bnei Yisrael conquered Og Melech HaBashan, conquered the land from Og and his whole nation, so the pasuk there in קפיטל ג', פסוק ג' וד' says that \"ונלכוד את כל עריו\", we conquered all of the cities, and it mentions \"כל חבל ארגב ממלכת עוג בבשן\", the whole area of Argob, which was in the malchus, in the kingdom of Og in Bashan. Concerning this city of Argob, we find a special din in the Mishnah. The Mishnah says in Menachos, in the eighth perek, the third Mishnah, or in the Gemara really it's ninth פרק, דף פ\"ה עמוד ב', so there it says that תקוע אלפא לשמן, the city Tekoa was the אלפא, was the best place from where to take oil for the Beis HaMikdash. אבא שאול אומר, Abba Shaul says, שניה לה רגב בעבר הירדן, that second to it was the city Regev, which was in Ever HaYarden. And the mefarshim explain that this city of Regev in Ever HaYarden really is the city of Argob, and there is no problem that in the Chumash it's called Argob and here in the Mishnah it calls it Regev, because the Ibn Ezra already writes in Chumash that sometimes we take off an aleph, etc., etc. So b'meila, the city Regev is the same city as Argob. So Abba Shaul says that the oil that was brought from the city of Regev in Ever Hayarden, the other side of the Yarden, which was in the מלכות of Og, that was second to the city of Tekoa concerning the oil for the בית המקדש. It seems from the Mishnah that there is a machloket here between Abba Shaul and the first opinion. Since first the Mishnah says, the Tanna Kama says, תקוע אלפא לשמן, that Tekoa is the best place for oil, then אבא שאול אומר, Abba Shaul says that second to it is רגב בעבר הירדן, is משמע, it seems as if the first opinion, the Tanna Kama, holds that there is no שניה לה. As the rule is that whenever there is an opinion mentioned, and then there is a second opinion mentioned with the expression that this and this person אומר, says, that means that this person argues on the first opinion. Because if he's just adding, the expression usually is אמר, etc. Here it should have said אמר אבא שאול, Abba Shaul said, but first the word אמר and then the name. Then it would mean that he is just adding something that the first Tanna did not mention, but it doesn't mean that they are arguing. But since it says אבא שאול אומר, the word אומר, the word says, after his name, the rule is that that means that he argues on the first Tanna. So obviously there must be a machloket here that the Tanna Kama, the first Tanna holds that Tekoa was the best place for the oil, and Regev was not second best, there is no second best, but Abba Shaul holds that Regev was second best for the oil for the בית המקדש. What we have to understand here is, what is the reason behind this machloket, this argument between Abba Shaul and the Tanna Kama, whether Regev was second best for the oil for the בית המקדש? And especially when this is a machloket, an argument במציאות. In fact, we know the rule that there is no such thing as a machloket in a fact when you are able to verify the fact. So here too, it seems as if the argument is whether Regev actually had good oil to be considered second best to the oil of Tekoa. So this is a מחלוקת במציאות, it's an argument in fact. So how could it be an argument? Why can't they just verify and find out to see whether the oil of Regev is so good that it could be considered second best to the oil of Tekoa? So obviously there must be something else here to be the reason for the machloket between the Tanna Kamma and Abba Shaul whether Regev is considered second best for the oil.

So one of the peshatim that could be said is that the machloket, the argument is not whether the oil of Regev was good or not, but as Abba Shaul says, his expression in the Mishnah is that שניה לה רגב בעבר הירדן, that second best was the oil from Regev, which was in עבר הירדן, the other side of the Yarden. In פשוט פשט, it seems that the reason he mentions that Regev is in עבר הירדן to tell us which Regev he means, or where Regev was. Maybe at that time it wasn't a famous city, so that's why he mentioned Regev which is on the other side of the Yarden. But we could say more than that: the reason why the Tanna Kamma held that Regev was not second best was because it was עבר הירדן, was because it was not ממש ארץ ישראל. It was the other side of the Yarden, which is a lower level of קדושה לגבי the rest of Eretz Yisrael, and that's why the Tanna Kamma said that that's not second best, which means that if you can't get oil from Tekoa, you shouldn't go directly to Regev, because it's better to bring it from another city in Eretz Yisrael even though the oil wasn't as good. And that's what Abba Shaul says, that רגב בעבר הירדן, even though Regev is in עבר הירדן, but nevertheless he holds that you could bring from Regev, that is second best to Tekoa. Which means that there is no מחלוקת במציאות, there's no machloket, no argument in the facts. They both agree that as far as the quality of the oil is concerned, the oil of Regev was second best to the oil of Tekoa. The machloket is whether it's considered second best, meaning that if you can't get oil from Tekoa, then you have to try to get oil from Regev, the machloket is in halachah. According to Tanna Kamma, he holds since Regev was in עבר הירדן, was not in Eretz Yisrael, therefore if you can't get oil from Tekoa, try to get it from another place within Eretz Yisrael, and not to try to get it from Regev, even though the oil, the quality of the oil was second best to the oil of Tekoa. And Abba Shaul holds that nevertheless, being that the oil was so good, even though it was בעבר הירדן, nevertheless if you can't get oil from Tekoa, then you have to try to get the oil from Regev. What is the reasoning behind this machloket? Whether we care that it's עבר הירדן, or we say that even though it's עבר הירדן, nevertheless you should take it from there?

So the explanation the way it's explained in חסידישע ספרים could be as follows: It is known that the inyan of oil represents bitul, which means self-nullification to Hashem. As we see that the way you make the oil, you get the oil, is through squeezing the זית, squeezing the olive, as the pasuk says כתית למאור, it's squeezed to use the oil to light. Now squeezing always shows bitul. When you squeeze somebody, you break, you bend his מציאות, you squeeze his being, that represents bitul. And we actually see that the way the oil burns is that it's pulled through the wick by the fire, and it gets used up and burned up so that there is nothing left of it. So the inyan of oil shows bitul. And we also see what it says in the Zohar, in the third חלק, דף ל״ט, עמוד א׳, that the way a fire burns through oil is בחשאי, is quiet. When fire is caught onto wood, it makes noise. But the fire that comes through oil is quiet, without any רעש, without any noise. This shows on the bitul of the מציאות, the nullification of the being. Which is a remez, which is a hint, to way as person is supposed to be. As a person is supposed to be in a level of bitul b'metziut, and he's supposed to be מבטל, nullifies all מציאות. Which, in simple words, means the inyan of anavah, to be humble. But being humble is not enough. Humble could mean that you feel yourself as a being, you are something, but you are humble. The true level a person is supposed to reach is a true level of bitul, that he's supposed to be מבטל himself, he's supposed to feel himself as nothing so much as if he doesn't exist. He is supposed to feel as an existence only in order to fulfill the will of Hashem, to learn Torah, to do mitzvot, to do in עבודת השם, to serve Hashem. But that's the only thing that he exists for. His whole being is only in order to serve Hashem. But anything else, his own his self-being, as a being in itself, he is supposed to feel as nothing. And the remez to this, the inyan of oil.

But it's self-understood that in order for a person to reach to such a high level of bitul, of ביטול במציאות לגמרי, to be completely בטל במציאות, cannot come through the person himself. Even though we know that a person is supposed to, before davenen, think about רוממות הקל ושפלות האדם, the greatness of Hashem and how low the human being is, as the Rema says in Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim סימן צ״ח, סעיף א׳, and this would bring a person to bitul, when a person thinks about it once, twice, and many times and meditates on it, it brings a person to feel the nullification of himself, but nevertheless it is impossible for a person to come to a point of complete bitul, which means to feel his metziut as nothing, because after all, being that the bitul comes as a result of his own understanding, so how could it bring him to self-nullification? In other words, it's impossible for his metziut to bring him to ביטול במציאות. And since the remez that the שמן shows us is that it has to be a bitul completely, just like by the oil, when the oil burns, the fire burns, it burns it completely till there is nothing left of it, and the remez is that a person is supposed to be mevatel himself, the ultimate level he's supposed to reach is to be mevatel himself completely, now that is impossible to come from within the person himself, because as long as it comes from within him, from his understanding, from his feeling, then there is this feeling that he has, and this feeling is his metziut, so his metziut cannot bring the ביטול במציאות, it's a contradiction within itself, because whatever he's going to do will come from him, so there is a him Similar to what the Chazal say in ברכות דף ה׳ עמוד ב׳, אין חבוש מתיר עצמו מבית האסורים. A person who's in jail can't get himself out, because whatever he will do, since he is in jail, he won't be able to get himself out of the jail because whatever he is, he's in jail. Similar to as if someone would want to say that he's going to pick himself up off the ground by pulling himself by his ears. Since he is pulling himself and he is on the ground, he's not able to get out of it. The only way a person is able to reach the true bitul of his whole metziut is when it comes from Hashem. Just like when a person wants to pick himself up, so then he has to hold onto something which is out of him and pull himself up through that, or someone else will pull him out, or when a person is in jail, he has to have somebody who is out of jail, who is free, to be able to free the person who's in jail, the same thing when a person has to get out of his own metziut, it's only possible if Hashem pulls him out. So the concept of true bitul only could come as a גילוי, as a revelation of Hashem. On the other hand, we know that a person has to work on it, work on himself in order to bring himself to the proper bitul, but the pshat is that a person has to make himself into a keli, into a vessel, in which the גילוי, the revelation of Hashem could bring him to bitul. When a person works as much as he can to bring himself to bitul as much as possible, so then when he does everything that he can, then Hashem, מלמעלה, from above, is able to pull him out completely from his metziut. He, as far as his metziut is concerned, works as much as he can to get rid of his metziut as much as he can, so he reaches a level of bitul in the level of the person, and this makes the person a keli, a vessel, in which Hashem will bring His גילוי, His revelation, and bring about the complete bitul in the person.

So now that we come to this understanding that the true bitul only could come מלמעלה, from above, we'll understand why really the שמן, the oil for the בית המקדש, should come from Eretz Yisrael, not from Ever Hayarden. We know that Eretz Yisrael, even though it's a physical land, it represents a high level of kedushah. Eretz Yisrael is a place where there is גילוי השכינה, the revelation of the Shechinah. As the פסוק says that Eretz Yisrael is a land that ארץ אשר תמיד עיני השם אלוקיך בה. Constantly the eyes of Hashem are there. As the פסוק says in עקב, קפיטל י״א, פסוק י״ב. It's a level of גילוי השכינה, the revelation of the Shechinah. And this is the difference between the kedushah of Eretz Yisrael and the kedushah of Ever Hayarden. Because as the Chazal say in Bamidbar Rabbah, פרשה ז׳, ח׳, and it's also brought down in Sifrei Zuta, נשא, קפיטל ה׳, פסוק ב׳, and the Ramban in Chukat brings it down, etc., etc., that ארץ כנען מקודשת מעבר הירדן, ארץ כנען is holier than Ever Hayarden, because ארץ כנען כשרה לבית שכינה, ארץ כנען is fit for the Shechinah. We know that Ever Hayarden also has a level of kedushah, not the same level of kedushah as Eretz Yisrael, but nevertheless it has a level of kedushah. What is the difference between the kedushah of Eretz Yisrael and the kedushah of Ever Hayarden? So we know that Eretz Yisrael was given to the Yidden only through Hashem. He chose this land out of all the lands, and He gave it to the Avot for אחוזת עולם, for an, for inheritance forever. But Ever Hayarden, the way it was given to Yidden was as it says in the Sifrei, פרשת כי תבא, קפיטל כ״ו, פסוק ג׳, also brought down in the Ramban in חוקת, and also it's seen in ירושלמי ביכורים, פרק א׳, הלכה ח׳, that נטלו מעצמן, they took it by themselves. The Bnei Gad and the Bnei Reuven, they took it, they asked for it. They said, יותן את הארץ הזאת לעבדיך לאחוזה. So it comes out that the kedushah of Eretz Yisrael, being that it comes milma'alah, completely from above, so that is a higher level of kedushah, because kedushah and bitul go together. When a person is batel, he has self-nullification, then he is a keli for the Shechinah. When a person is a baal gaavah and thinks himself as a metziut, then there will, cannot be any kedushah, any Shechinah. As Hashem says concerning a בעל גאוה, אין אני והוא יכולין לדור, Me and him cannot live together. And it says a person of baal gaavah is כאילו דוחק רגלי השכינה, as if he pushes away the Shechinah. So in order to have the gilui haShechinah, you must have proper bitul. And therefore Eretz Yisrael, which was completely milma'alah, so that could have the complete bitul, so that has a higher level of gilui haShechinah. As we said before that the true bitul could only come milma'alah, so the true gilui haShechinah could only come if it comes from above. So Eretz Yisrael, which was given only by Hashem, that has the true level of bitul, so there you have a higher level of gilui haShechinah. But in עבר הירדן, being that there it came from the people themselves, They asked for it, so there the bitul is not so great, and therefore the gilui haShechinah is not so great. And this is the machloket between the Tanna Kamma and Abba Shaul. The Tanna Kamma holds that the best oil is only if it comes from Eretz Yisrael, because oil, as we said before, represents bitul. Now the true bitul is only in Eretz Yisrael, because Eretz Yisrael was given from Hashem, and the true bittul could only come from Hashem, as we explained before, but not from עבר הירדן. But Abba Shaul holds that nevertheless, in עבר הירדן, even though the kedushah is not as great as in Eretz Yisrael, but it could be second to it, because even in עבר הירדן, even though we said that it's נטלו מעצמן, they took it themselves, but what is the pshat they took it themselves? It's not the pshat they actually went and took it themselves. It means that they asked for it, but the reason they got it was because it was given to them by Hashem. So it comes out that it was actually given to them milma'alah. But why did Hashem give it to them? Because they asked for it. So therefore, Abba Shaul holds that even in עבר הירדן you also have a true level of bittul and a true level of גילוי השכינה. It is שניה לו, it is actually second to it, and it's not the same as in Eretz Yisrael, where it came directly from Hashem without even anybody asking for it. But still, in עבר הירדן, at least it's second to it, because even though it came because they asked for it, which means it started off milmatta, from people, but nevertheless, it was given milma'alah. After they asked for it, this was given to them, but they didn't take it by themselves. Similar to what we said before by a person, that a person has to work himself on bringing himself to a level of bittul that he's able to, then Hashem will give him the ביטול מלמעלה. And the same is with עבר הירדן. The truth is, anywhere a person is able to reach a level of bittul. As the famous expression, that once someone went to a גדול בישראל, and he said he wants to go to Eretz Yisrael, so he said, \"mach dah Eretz Yisrael, make Eretz Yisrael here.\" Which means a Yid is able to make Eretz Yisrael in חוץ לארץ. But when a Yid makes Eretz Yisrael in חוץ לארץ, it is completely what he does, only what he does. And therefore, the level of kedushah is limited to the level of what a person can reach. But עבר הירדן, even though it came as a result from a request of the Bnei Gad Bnei Reuven, but nevertheless, afterwards it was given to them milma'alah by Hashem. So therefore, Abba Shaul holds that רגב is שניה לו, that רגב is second to it even though it's עבר הירדן, because even עבר הירדן also has a very high level of גילוי השכינה, because it is a גילוי that came מלמעלה, it is a place that was given to them by Hashem, even though it came as a result from their request.