A king once lost a precious gem from his ring, and many of his subjects—servants, ministers, generals, and so on—volunteered to search for it. However, the king refused to allow them to. Instead, he instructed his precious only son to search for the lost object and return it.
The king did not do so because he suspected that his other subjects might pocket the gem. Rather, he wanted to be able to give the opportunity to his son to find it, so that his son would receive the credit. Moreover, he even dropped his son several hints as to the whereabouts of the gem. But how did the king know so well where the gem was to be found? In fact, it was all a setup. The king had deliberately feigned to have accidentally lost the gem only so that his son would find it, and so that the father could beam with pride at his son’s accomplishment.
The Baal Shem Tov offered this parable for the spiritual process by which the sparks of holiness came into our physical world:
G-d deliberately caused the sparks of holiness to fall into the physical world, and then insisted that only the Jewish people, of whom it is said, “You are sons of Hashem, your G–d,” be charged with the mission of refining them.
Refining the lofty sparks of holiness trapped in the physical world is a task and privilege specifically assigned to the Jewish people.
Wow what a privilege. And how do we refine these sparks? By doing Mitzvot and living holy.
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