Rabbi Yaakov Shish relates: Two yeshiva students studied all the laws of the four species for six months. When the holiday of Sukkot arrived, they wanted an etrog that was as elegant as the great rabbis had, but the problem was that such an etrog could reach a thousand dollars or more. What did they do? They went to the orchard that grows etrogim and said to him, "We have studied the laws of the four species for six months, and we are familiar with these laws, let's make a deal." We will sort etrogim in your orchard for 10 hours and in return we will receive two "diamond" etrogs. The deal was executed and at the end of the day, each of them had an etrog that he could only dream of last year...
The night of Yom Tov of Sukkot. It is 12:45 at night. One of the yeshiva students suddenly remembered that they did not enrich the etrogim and they must have immersed! If so, the etrogim are invalid!! What do you do? The second yeshiva student lives in Petah Tikva and he is in Bnei Brak, if he does not go to inform him he will recite a blessing in vain and will not fulfill the obligation of taking the four species. He decided that there was no choice, he was going to Petach Tikva...
2:00 a.m. He knocks on the door of his friend who is sleeping in the sukkah on the balcony and until he wakes up it took a while, the yeshiva student opens the door and is amazed to see his friend Bnei Braki at this hour. "What does my friend have in my house?" the student asks with a half-yawn. "Don't ask," his friend replies, "our etrogim are invalid. Because we didn't enrich them!" The friend couldn't believe what he heard, we worked 10 hours to have an invalid etrog?! What a feeling of missing out! They say goodbye, and the yeshiva student from Bnei Brak returns home. On the way, he passes by Beilinson, almost 3:00 a.m., when an ultra-Orthodox man approaches him and asks him if he can complete a minyan. From where?! At 3:00 a.m.?! The same man tells us that his father is lying in Beilinson before the soul leaves and they are looking for a tenth for a minyan... This night went like this for me, the student thinks, I have nothing to lose ... They stand around the bed, reading what needs to be read, and after half an hour the monitor shows a straight line... The son of the deceased accompanied the yeshiva student to Bnei Brak, and he asked him during the conversation if he needed additional income. The yeshiva said that I have a daughter in shidduchim (in parentheses – among the Ashkenazim if you have a daughter, you need to have a bank as well...), and it won't hurt to have a few more shekels... He tells him that Rabbi Efrati, who is in charge of the kashrut system, is looking for a yeshiva student who will be in charge of the tithes. But he has a condition, that he will be such a yeshiva student who has a fear of Heaven that if he forgets to tithe, he will not be able to sleep at night until he comes and tithes...
Today, this yeshiva student has been in charge of Rabbi Efrati's tithes for several years! What went through the student's mind until the picture became clear at the end? I studied the laws of the four species for six months. I wanted an elegant etrog so much, I worked ten hours for it and what did I get? An invalid etrog! And what really happened? G-d prepared his livelihood for the coming years...
