ON A HIGH
There were two chavrusas, Uri and Shragi, who, after learning the halachos of arba minim together, dreamed of taking an esrog for Sukkos that fulfilled all the specifications of the mitzvah and all the hiddurim they’d learned about. They understood, though, that only the gedolei Yisrael merit such an esrog — one that costs more than their Kollel stipends would allow. Not wanting to give up on their dream, they thought of a plan and approached one of the leading esrog dealers in Bnei Brak with the following deal:
“We’ll sort through your esrogim,” they said to him, “without receiving a shekel as payment. Our only take-home will be a single esrog for each of us that we’ll choose for ourselves.” The dealer agreed to their terms, and the two avreichim sorted thousands of esrogim according to their level of hiddur, all the while keeping their eyes open for the two “diamonds in the rough” that they were seeking. Sure enough, each one found his prize, and each came happily into Sukkos with his desired “diamond.”
On the first night, at one o’clock in the morning, a frightening groan emerged from Uri’s sukkah. His wife ran to the sukkah at once. “What’s the matter?” she asked her husband. “Why can’t you sleep?”
“I don’t have an esrog!” Uri complained. “What do you mean?” his puzzled wife asked. “You have an incredible esrog, one worthy of the gadolei hador.”
“Yes, it’s surely beautiful, but it’s not kosher! I took the esrog from the dealer before its terumos and maaseros were taken. It’s tevel and therefore not kosher for the mitzvah!”
Heavily, Uri trudged over to the sukkah of the local rav to confirm his unfortunate predicament. “You are correct,” the rav told him. “As the esrog is still tevel and you cannot take maaser on Yom Tov, you are left with only three minim and will have to receive one from someone else as a gift in the morning.”
Uri returned home, understandably sad that all his work before Yom Tov left him with a unusable esrog for the mitzvah. But then his thoughts turned to a new problem: His chavrusa, Shragi, was in the same situation and had no idea! Come morning, he’d take his problematic esrog for the mitzvah and make a beracha on a non-kosher esrog!
To compound the matter, the chavrusa lived in Petach Tikvah, while Uri lives in Bnei Brak, a walk of at least half an hour, and Uri was exhausted from all the Erev Yom Tov prep. Should he walk all the way there to tell him about the issue with their “diamond?” He turned back and asked the rav, but was told that he didn’t have to. With at least that off his mind, he returned to his sukkah and tried to go back to sleep. For a while, though, he tossed and turned. “What would my Father in Heaven want? That I let my chavrusa lose out by shaking a pasul esrog and make a beracha levatala?”
With that thought, he jumped back up, put back on his clothes, and started walking to Petach Tikvah. Close to two in the morning, he arrived at the chavrusa’s door, and knocked. He knocked and knocked until he thought he would bang through the door, but eventually Shragi opened the door with a joyful expression.
“Good Yom Tov! Are you coming to join me in the mitzvah of yeshivas sukkah?”
“No, baruch Hashem I have my own sukkah, but we don’t have an esrog!”
Uri went on to explain the sad fact that their esrogim were tevel and therefore not kosher. Heavily, they accepted the ratzon Hashem that they would be without their esrogim, and Uri started his walk back.
MINYAN AT MIDNIGHT
He walked down the main street that connects the two cities. As he passed Beilinson Hospital, Uri saw a frum Yid standing outside, calling him over. “Can you help us with a minyan?”
“A minyan?” Uri asked in amazement. “Not even at Itzkovitz (a well-known minyan factory) are Yidden looking for a minyan at this hour!”
“You’re correct,” the Yid said. “My father is on his deathbed with only moments left to live. We’d like to have a minyan present when his soul returns to its Maker.”
Uri didn’t know what to do. He hadn’t expected his Yom Tov night to have such a turnout. The esrog he’d worked so hard for turned out to be pasul, he’d walked in the middle of the night to Petach Tikvah and back, and now he was being asked to join a minyan? Still, how could he say no to a son about to lose his father? He followed the Yid into the hospital to join them for their father’s last moments.
However, the dying father’s neshama wasn’t leaving him too quickly, and the overtired Uri was losing his patience. The children of the father begged him to remain, and so he busied himself with a Mishnah Berurah. When the father’s neshama finally departed, Uri was ready to leave right away, but the son of the deceased further requested that he wait to escort him home to Bnei Brak, and Uri agreed.
Finally, at 3 a.m., the two began their way home. At one point, the Yid turned to Uri and said, “I know why I’m walking on Jabotinsky Street at this hour, but what are you doing out here in the middle of the night?”
Uri explained to the Yid about how he and his chavrusa had learned the halachos of arba minim, how they’d checked esrogim for the dealer to score for themselves a “diamond” esrog, how only tonight he realized its pasul, and how he’d walked all the way to Petach Tikvah to inform his chavrusa of their predicament.
“Do you have parnassah?” the Yid asked Uri suddenly.
Uri was beside himself. “It’s Yom Tov, and it’s the middle of the night. What are you asking, whether my rosh kollel pays on time?”
The Yid said, “I’m not asking for no reason. Tell me your situation.”
MIDNIGHT WORK
Without a choice, the tired Uri told him that finances weren’t going so easily for him and his wife.
“Well then,” the Yid then said, “I have an offer for you. I work in the kashrus department of Rav Yosef Efrati’s organization. The Rav has been looking for a competent talmid chacham to take upon himself the responsibility for the terumos and maaseros of the fruits and vegetables. Usually, the work needs to be done early in the morning and doesn’t require a lot of time. It’s a job that’ll still allow an avreich to continue his learning.”
“So just put an ad in the newspaper. You’ll certainly find someone qualified for the job.”
“It’s not so easy. We’re talking about a very serious responsibility. Such a job requires a true yorei Shamayim who recognizes the severity of the matter — who can wake up early in the morning and ensure that all the fruits and vegetables are tithed properly. Not just anyone who answers an advertisement is fit for such a job. We need someone who can’t sleep at night because he’s afraid of Jews being oveir the issur of tevel, and you’ve proven yourself to be such an individual. If you’re prepared to lose your sleep because of one person’s esrog, then certainly you’ll do the same with the whole country!”
Today, Uri oversees the terumos and maaseros department of the Vaad Hakashrus of Rav Yosef Efrati. He remains immersed in learning and support his family comfortably, all in the merit of his mesiras nefesh for the fulfillment of mitzvos b’hiddur and his desire to bring Hashem nachas ruach.
