Avraham's Healing Stone

The gemara says that Avraham Avinu wore a precious stone that would immediately heal any sick person who looked at it. But chazal also say that in the days of Avraham, there were no sick people!

So how do we explain this special stone that Avraham wore?

The Slominer Rebbe gives an incredible explanation:  

Avraham Avinu, like all great tzaddikim, was compared to the sun. Just like the sun gives life to all of the creations with its light and warmth, so too a tzaddik embodies the middot of chesed and ahava, by giving kindness and love to all people. It wasn’t the stone that did the actual healing, but it was Avraham himself. Anyone who saw Avraham would be healed immediately, because they saw that his entire character was one of kindness and sweetness. The people who were healed by Avraham weren’t those with physical sicknesses, but they were those who were suffering from a broken heart, from being overwhelmed by the stresses of life.  By looking at Avraham these people would recognize that there is such more to live for despite the challenges they were going through.

A true tzaddik will give life to a person by making them feel like a person, like they are worth the whole world. Rav Moshe Weinberger says that “the nature of a tzaddik is not being able to bear seeing people not being who they can be.”

Avraham Avinu teaches us how to be a genuine tzaddik. A tzaddik has the koach to heal broken hearts, to bring out the good in people to enable them to recognize their own greatness.

We should all strive to become a tzaddik, to embody the middot of chesed and ahava and empowering people to reach their potentials!

Have a beautiful Shabbos!

(Based on a shiur from Rav Moshe Weinberger: Avraham’s healing stone)