Once upon a time, there lived the old Rabbi Eisik in a
wretched little tenement flat in the city of Krakow in Poland. Eisik lived in
extreme poverty with his wife and children. Through all the hard times, Eisik
had kept his faith and looked after his family as best he could.
And so it was that he believed, when he had a dream one
night, that the dram contained a message from God. In the dream, he had a
vision of a chest of gold, hidden beneath a particular bridge in the grounds of
the royal palace in Prague.
At first, he hesitated to believe in what he had dreamed.
But when the dream recurred a second time, and then a third time, he decided to
make the journey to Prague.
But when he found the bridge of his dreams, he found that it
was guarded day and night by sentries, and he didn’t dare to start digging.
Nevertheless, he came to the bridge every morning, and walked around it all day
until evening.
Eventually, the chief guard, noticing the rabbi’s odd
behavior, asked him, in a very friendly way, whether he was searching for
something there, or perhaps waiting for someone.
Something prompted Rabbi Eisik to tell the friendly guard
about the dream that had brought him all the way to Prague from Krakow. The
guard laughed: ‘Oh dear,’ he said. ‘You poor old fellow with your worn-out
shoes – you have tramped all this way for the sake of a dream. Well, more fool
you, for trusting a dream. I can tell you that if dreams were to be trusted,
then I’d be on the road as well, because I once had a dream that told me to
walk to Krakow, and to search out a hovel in the poorest district, belonging to
someone called Rabbi Eisik. There I was supposed to search behind the stove, where
I would find hidden treasure. Just imagine how I was supposed to find that
treasure in a strange town, where there must be hundreds of Rabbi Eisiks!’ and
he laughed again.
Rabbi Eisik bowed graciously, and turned back home, to find
the treasure hidden closer to him than he could ever have imagined.
(Author/Source Unknown)
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