Dr. Russell Herman Conwell traveled throughout the U.S. over one hundred years ago, telling the story of a man who sold his farm in order to look for diamonds. After a few years, his former farm was found to contain a large deposit of diamonds. The lesson is commonly interpreted as this: If you want to find the good in life, just dig in your own backyard. Perhaps Dr. Conwell didn’t know, but there is a similar, much older Chasidic tale from the shtetl, which adds much more depth to the story.
To appreciate the Chasidic version, we should go back to the original story, which is found in this week’s Torah portion, Vayeishev.
We must note, however, that there are times when we try to find the good in our lives, but for some reason or another, we feel like we’re just muddying ourselves up. Instead of finding the “diamonds” in our lives, all we find are the “rocks” and “sand” of life.
So how do we find the diamonds?
This week’s Torah portion continues the narrative of the children of Isaac. Last week we finished with Esau and this week we start with Jacob. Why does the portion need to spell out all of Esau’s descendants before getting to Jacob’s children, which is really the topic that interests us? The Midrash says that in order to find a diamond, you first must go through the sand and the rocks.
The Midrash teaches us that digging through the rocks and sand is part of the process to reveal the diamonds.
The same is true in life: There are times when we have to muddy ourselves in order to find the blessings in life.
We must remember, however, that not every pile of dirt is a place to look for our blessings. We need to discern the differences in the earth around us. Where to look is just as, or even more, important.
This is why the Chasidic tale is so powerful. The story is told about a Jew who was looking for riches. He turns to his Rabbi for advice. The Rabbi sends him to a certain bridge and tells him to dig near the foot of the bridge. The man goes, and starts to dig when a passerby sees him and asks what he is doing. He responds that he is looking for treasure. The passerby tells him that he is being foolish. He goes on to explain that he once had a dream and in the dream, he was told that if he looked under the stove in a certain house, he would find treasure. The passerby asks, “Do you think I am running to that house? Of course not!” The Jew, hearing the location of the home, drops his shovel, and runs to his own house to claim his treasure.
In this story we see how important it is to be able to find the treasure not only in the holy words of the rabbi, but in the dirt at the foot of the bridge.
You see, there is more than one kind of dirt. Some dirt is meant to be thrown out (as the dirt under the bridge) and some dirt is meant to look within and find the diamonds (as the dirt in his home).
In our own lives we as well have to know that there are challenges and distractions that have to be avoided, and that there are those that have to be sifted through until we find the good.
Let the Chanukah candles guide us in our search!