A Diamond in the Rough

On the verse “But for all of Bnei Yisroel there was light in their dwellings” (Shemos 10:23), the Rizhiner told of a miner who spent weeks digging in the dark until his pickaxe struck a hard, dirty lump. His fellow miners saw only a rough stone, but he knew that once it was cleaned, cut, polished and set in gold, it would shine. A diamond must first be chipped out of the wall, then scrubbed, then cut, and only in the right setting does its splendor show. The Rizhiner read the verse to mean that Bnei Yisroel have light in their settings. Every Jewish soul is a diamond in the rough. Even in lowliness and suffering, a Jew must remember that he has a lofty soul that Torah and mitzvos can clean and polish. But much depends on the setting: a Jewish neighborhood, a Yiddishe home, the beis medrash, yeshiva or kollel. In the right setting the Jewish soul shines with an otherworldly brilliance.