In chassidic literature, however, oil traditionally refers to wisdom. The Alter Rebbe explains that the light of the Shechinah must garb itself in wisdom, which is oil.
Oil is transformed into light through the medium of a wick.
It is the wick, which itself is burned, which keeps the fire from being extinguished. In spiritual terms the wick refers to the vivifying soul which provides the person with physical life. This wick is burned through Torah and mitzvot. Just as the physical wick burns and is annihilated by the fire, so do the garments of thought, speech and action of the vivifying soul become burned in the light of the Shechinah through the Torah and mitzvot which a Jew studies and performs. For only through the action required by the mitzvot will the light of the Shechinah be drawn down into the wick - the vivifying soul.