The Rock

BS"D

Yom Shishi, 3rd of Tevet, 5771

Once there was a king who had a very beloved advisor, whom he gave very much attention to. The kings other advisers were aware of this special relationship and became very jealous.

One day, the king wanted to send his beloved advisor a gift. He had a dilemma however, because he knew that this would cause even more jealousy and hatred from the other advisers. What did the king do? He prepared the gift that he wanted to give, and then he summoned all of his other advisers to come in and examine it. He told them that he wanted to give this gift to his beloved advisor, and asked them if they had any objection. Upon seeing the gift which happened to be a plain old rock from the road, none of them had any problems with it being given. So the king wrapped it up and sent it off to his beloved advisor.

When the advisor received the gift from the king he was very excited, his excitement cooled down however when he saw that it was only a simple rock from the road. But then he thought to himself, "Wait a minute, the king loves me very much and there is no way he would just send me a simple rock from the road, there must be something more to this than I understand". He then proceeded to take a hammer and smash the rock. When the rock smashed, there was a diamond found inside. This gave the advisor tremendous joy. He then said thank you to the king.

(I heard this story from a friend named Michoel)

Sometimes when we face challenges and difficulties in our lives, we must remember who is sending them our way. It is none other than our beloved Father in heaven who certainly loves us very much. With emunah, we merit to smash through the darkness and see the light and blessing that Hashem is sending us, even within the most challenging circumstances. May we all be blessed to only see happiness and blessings in our lives.