The Stones That Shine Like Diamonds

The Bas Ayin did not let his feelings for the Holy Land grow stagnant. His desire to perceive and experience the kedushah of Eretz Yisroel grew day by day and never stopped. Rav Mordechai of Slonim once related the following.

Soon after the Avritcher Rav settled in Tzfas, he locked himself in his room for a while and allowed no one to enter. When the door finally opened he came out radiant with joy and invited his family to a festive meal. A close chassid, Rav Fischel Bernstein, asked him the reason, and the Bas Ayin explained his seclusion.

While still in the Diaspora he had hosted a shaliach derabbonon, a rabbinic emissary from the Holy Land who collected tzedakah for its institutions. In praising Eretz Yisroel the emissary exaggerated and said that even the plain stones cast by the roadside there shine like brilliant diamonds and gems. After the Bas Ayin came to Eretz Yisroel he saw only ordinary stones. When he met the emissary again he told him, “I searched for those gems on the road and could not find them.” The emissary did not apologize but answered that whoever has pure, untainted eyes can truly see the gems.

“When I heard that,” said the Avritcher, “I locked myself in my room and worked on myself until I succeeded. Now I can say that I see even the stones cast by the wayside in Eretz Yisroel shining as brilliantly as diamonds. Having merited this, I must thank Hashem, and so I made this meal.”