Anshel Holtzbacher walked out of Kever Rabbi Meir Baal Haneis with his son Ari. It was so great to be visiting Eretz Yisroel and getting to daven by so many kivrei tzadikim.
Just then Anshel Holtzbacher’s cell phone rang.
“Hello?” he said, answering the phone. “What? Did you say Glatt Inc. wants to back out of the deal? Oh my, that’s terrible! Thank you so much for letting me know!”
Anshel Holtzbacher looked worried as he hung up the phone and quickly dialed the Horki Rebbe’s gabbai.
“Is everything okay, Totty?” asked Ari.
“I hope so,” his father replied nervously. “Hello? Yes, I need to speak with the Rebbe immediately!”
“I’m sorry,” came the voice of the gabbai on the other end. “The Rebbe is currently unreachable. He doesn’t want anyone to know where he is.”
“But this is an emergency!” Anshel Holtzbacher pleaded. “I just got a call that a 50 million dollar business deal I’ve been working on is about to fall apart and I need a brocha from the Rebbe right away!”
“Oh, it’s you, Reb Anshel? I didn’t recognize the Israeli number” the gabbai replied. “I’ll tell you where he is, but I don’t know how you’ll be able to reach him. The Rebbe is by Nachal Amud, just outside of the Kibbutz of Ginosar.”
“Ginosar? That’s only fifteen minutes away from me! Thank you so much!”
Anshel Holtzbacher quickly hung up the phone, as he and Ari jumped into their rental car and hurried to meet the Rebbe.
The Holtzbachers reached the Nachal Amud stream which led down to the Kinneret just outside the Ginosar Kibbutz and immediately heard the Rebbe’s singing in the distance. Following the sound of his voice, they passed beautiful fruit trees and arrived to see the Rebbe next to a basket of fruit, holding a half-eaten pear in his hand and dancing and singing as he ate.
Ari and his father watched in confusion for a minute. When the Rebbe finished singing his song, he noticed his audience.
“Reb Anshel! What a surprise! How nice to see you here! And how are you, Ari?”
“Boruch Hashem, I’m doing very well,” Ari replied respectfully. “But can I ask why the Rebbe is singing and dancing with all of this fruit?”
“Ah, I’m doing what Hashem commanded Adam Harishon to do in this week’s Parsha,” the Rebbe answered warmly.
“But Hashem told Adam not to eat fruit - from the Eitz Hadaas! I don’t remember Him specifically saying to eat fruit.”
“But He did! Right before he told Adam not to eat from the Eitz Hadaas, Hashem said “ןָּ‚ַה-ı≈ﬠ לָּכƒמ ל≈כ‡ֹּ ̇ לֹכָ‡” - that he should eat from all of the trees of Gan Eiden.”
“I thought Hashem was just saying that he’s allowed to - not that it was a Mitzvah.”
“Ah but listen to this story from the Gemara in Brachos: Rabbi Yochanan and Reish Lakish used to take trips to Ginosar - right around here - and they would come and eat the delicious fruit that grows here. And they would enjoy the fruit so much that they would go wild with excitement over the incredible treats that Hashem put here in this world for us to enjoy”
The Rebbe bent down and picked up an orange from the basket at his feet.
“Look here,” the Rebbe said, handing the orange to Ari. “Hashem put an amazing plastic cover on this orange to keep it fresh and juicy. And He went even further to make the plastic cover a beautiful delicious-looking orange color - just the color makes it even tastier to us. But of course you know that the beautiful color is only on the outside - the inside of the orange peel is white, because we don’t see that part when it’s on the tree.
“And then, inside are little seeds, which are factories that, when put in the ground, produce an entire tree which makes even more oranges! But unlike the fruit, which is deliciously sweet, Hashem made the seeds sour so people and animals don’t eat them - this way they get dropped on the ground so that more orange trees will grow!
“Hashem wants us to enjoy the delicious fruit that He put here in this world, so he told us: ‘You are my guests in this world - eat! Enjoy yourselves!’ And when we consume the delicious fruit that Hashem put here for our enjoyment - if we do it properly - we gain even more awareness of Hashem’s wonderful chessed, and thereby come closer to him.
“So come, Anshel, Ari, take some fruit, make a brocha, and join me in singing and dancing our thanks to the Borei Olam.”
The Rebbe paused before adding “Oh, and Anshel, Hashem will bentch you with brocha and hatzlocha, everything will be smooth and glatt - there is no need to worry about anything.”
Have A Wonderful Shabbos!
Let’s Review:
- Is there a mitzvah to eat fruit?
- What should we think about when we eat fruit?
