It states (31:46) אֲב ָנִים וַיִּק ְ חוּ אֲב ָנִים לִק ְ טוּ לְאֶח ָיו יַע ֲקֹב וַיֹּאמֶר, "Yaakov said to his brothers, 'Collect stones,' and they took stones..." Notice that Yaakov asked them אֲב ָנִים לִק ְ טוּ, to collect stones. However, אֲב ָנִים וַיִּק ְ חוּ, his sons took stones. Rebbe Aharon of Belz zt'l asks why the words are changed, from לִק ְ טוּ to וַיִּק ְ חוּ?
I heard from a gadol that ָנִיםאֲב, stones, represent tzaros. (As in the pasuk 29:2, ֵרה ַבְּא פִּי עַל גְּדֹלָה וְהָאֶבֶן, a huge rock was upon the mouth of the well," and the miforshim say that this hints to the tzaros Yidden suffer in galus.) Yaakov Avinu knew that all tzaros have a purpose and that something good will come from them. This is why he said אֲב ָנִים לִק ְ טוּ, collect stones. People collect precious items, and Yaakov instructed them to collect their tzaros. He should feel that each tzarah is like a precious gem. But this is a very high level, and not everyone understands this. For them, it was ָנִיםאֲב וַיִּק ְ חוּ, taking the stones, just for the sake of removing them. They didn't cherish the benefits of the tzaros. Their focus was to remove them as quickly as possible.
This gadol (who told me the difference between לִק ְ טוּ to וַיִּק ְ חוּ) added that he heard from an elderly woman, a Holocaust survivor, who suffered a lot in her lifetime, during the Holocaust and afterwards, that it states in Tehillim (91:12) ָר ַגְלֶך בָּאֶבֶן ת ִּגֹּף פֶּן ָיִשׂ ָּאוּנְך כַּפ ַּיִם עַל, "On their hands they will bear you, lest your foot stumble on a stone." Metzudas Dovid explains, "The malachim will carry you on their palms of their hands; they won't let you walk on the ground, lest you stumble on a stone on the earth. This is describing, as a mashal, the great protection and hashgachah you will receive." She asked: Why didn't Dovid request that the stones shouldn’t be there at all! The answer is that those stones are a great favor for us. We request that Hashem help us rise above them and keep us from stumbling over them.
