In a long forgotten kingdom, many, many years ago, there lived a very wise king who was loved by all in his kingdom. But, alas, the king had one fault, he was at times selfish.

In his bedchamber, under his bed, he kept a chest and in that chest there was a magnificent stone. Every night he would take the stone out and he would look at it as he turned it around, it caught the light in its many different sides. It was perfect.

One night the king was distracted for the briefest of moments and the stone fell to the ground. When the king picked up the stone, he saw a crack that ran from one end to the other. The stone was flawed.

The king called for all the jewelers and gem setters within the kingdom to repair the stone, but, alas, they could do nothing. The king called for the stone and gem cutters and after looking at it they said the only way the stone could be saved was to cleave it in two.

The king would not hear of it.

The King had a pedestal erected in his throne room, and upon the stand he set the stone with a sign above it that said:

The stone sat upon the stand in the throne room for seven years. In the seventh year there came a rabbi, an old and ancient rabbi, who looked upon the stone and said: "I can fix the stone. I can make it more beautiful than it was before it was flawed."

The guards thought the sage was old and without skill nor reason, but the king invited the ancient rabbi to look at the stone. The rabbi took the stone and carefully looked at it and said he needed but three days to work upon the stone. Then the rabbi covered stone with a black cloth and took it into a chamber which was provided for him. He closed and bolted the chamber door.

The ancient rabbi lifted his hands towards the heavens and he began, "Ribbono she! Olam, Master the universe, give me the strength and the skill to complete the task before me." For a day and a half the rabbi prayed, and for day half scratching, scraping, and sounds of broken glass was heard from that chamber.

When the third day came everyone gathered in the throne room. Every eye watched as the black cloth was slowly removed from the stone and there were oo's and ah's for the stone was indeed more beautiful than it was before it was flawed.

For you see from the crack the old rabbi had etched leaves and out of the top of the stone the rabbi had carved a perfect thirteen petalled rose.

But this is not the end of the tale. For you see that that stone sits in the Crown of Glory. When one looks at a gem stone, one does not look at each facet as an individual, but at the whole stone. If one facet is flawed then the whole stone is flawed.

Each person of Israel is a facet in the stone and that sits in the Crown of Glory, and the day is fast approaching when every Jewish person shall join hands. On that day they will be so strong that no force shall be able to separate them.

Let us all pray for that day to speedily arrive.