אות-לז

Hisbodidus can take time to show its effect like dripping on a stone until it carves a niche He said regarding encouragement in hisbodidus and conversing between oneself and his Creator: Even if many days and years pass by, and it seems to him that he still has not accomplished anything with his conversing and his words, even still he should not fall from this whatsoever, for the truth is that certainly the words are making an impression. An allegory for this: Like water coming down on a stone, even though it would seem that the water doesn't have power against the hard stone, and the water has no apparent impression in the stone, even still, when the water comes down on the stone many, many times consecutively, they bore a whole in the stone, as can be seen outright. Similarly, even if one's heart is a heart of stone, and shows no sign of his words and his prayers, even still with the accumulation of days and years his heart of stone will be pierced through his conversing and his words, like (Job 14:19), “stones withered by water,” as mentioned above. (Words of Rabbi Nachman, article 234).