|
|
The Flawed Stone |
|
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.
Courtesy of
Project Shalom
This site is © Copyright Project Shalom 2006-2019, All Rights Reserved.
