247. The Man Who Brought Bikurim To The Previous Rebbe

00:16 Shalom Aleichem, kinderlach. Last Shabbos we read about a special mitzvah that was only a mitzvah in Eretz Yisroel. At the time of the Beis Hamikdash, when Yidden, many Jews had farms where they grew fruit and grain and, uh, the mitzvah is that a Jew who is a farmer and he works a whole fall and winter to plow the field and to take care of his, of his farm, and he works very hard, and he plants seeds in the ground so that when the spring comes and the summer comes, things begun- begin to grow, and then you can eat the beautiful fruit. So the Torah tells us that the first fruit that a farmer sees in his field, right in the beginning when it starts getting ripe and f- and completely grown, so the first fruit that become completely grown and they become ripe to pick up, to pick, uh, to pick the fruit and eat it, they should take that first fruit and take it to the Beis Hamikdash and give it to the Kohen to show appreciation to Hashem that even though the farmer worked so hard, but it's not just his work, it's Hashem giving him the berachah that his work would really, really produce all the grain and all the fruits that he managed to grow. That is known as the mitzvah of Bikkurim. So the story is like this. The Friediker Rebbe, the Rebbe Rayatz, in 1929, tav reish pei tes, he traveled to Eretz Yisroel. And on your way to

02:14 travel in those days, Eretz Yisroel wasn't an easy trip. He traveled first to Italy, from Russia to Italy, from Italy to Egypt, the city of Alexandria. Alexandria was a major city of Egypt, and the Rambam lived there many years ago, and there was still at that time in tav reish pei tes, 1929, there were still a lot of Jews. Alexandria was a big Jewish community. And he went by train to Alexandria. From Alexandria, he was supposed to go to Eretz Yisroel, where he was going to visit for a few weeks. When the train arrived at the train station of Alexandria, Alexandria was a very big city, so you can imagine such a big city that the train station of that city was a very busy place. Thousands of people walking back, back and forth. Now, the train stopped for a little while, and then it was supposed to travel again all the way to Eretz Yisroel. While the train was waiting, somebody came onto the train with a beautiful big basket with the most gorgeous, most beautiful fruit, and he's like very excited, and he says, "Where's the Rebbe? Where's the Rebbe?" And they show him where the Rebbe, the Friediker Rebbe is. And he brings the fruit, and he's crying. He's crying. He starts crying and crying. He says-- He, he gives the Friediker Rebbe the fruit and he cries. Finally, he calmed down, and the Friediker asks him why he's crying. He said, "Because I, I remember as a child, when I was

04:01 a little child, a little boy, my grandfather..." He says, he says, "I was born in Russia." This l- this, this man who brought the fruit was born in Russia. "When I was a little boy, my grandfather was a Hasid of the Rebbe Maharash," the grandfather of the Friediker Rebbe. "So my grandfather was preparing to go to the Rebbe Maharash, and he told me he's gonna take me with him. I was very excited. Before we left to go to Lubavitch, to the Rebbe Maharash, my grandfather had a beautiful garden with many different fruits. He had beautiful fruits. He picked the nicest, nicest fruits from his garden, put it in a beautiful basket, and that's how we traveled to Lubavitch." He says, "I'm gonna give these fruits as a present to the Rebbe Maharash, like Bikkurim. Like in the time of the Beis Hamikdash, every Jewish farmer brought the first ripening fruit, the most beautiful fruit he brought to the Beis Hamikdash first to give to the Kohen. So we don't have a Beis Hamikdash today, so I'm gonna give it to the Rebbe." "And when we came to Lubavitch with the beautiful basket of fruit, my grandfather went straight to the Rebbe's room. He asked the gabbai if he can go in for yechidus to give him a, a time when he can go in. And when we went in, I-- my grandfather took me with him, of course. We went to see the Rebbe, and he also took his basket of fruit. When they came

05:33 into the room, there was a little boy there running around the room. The Rebbe Maharash was sitting by the desk, by his table, and there's a little boy running around there. So my grandfather reached to the Rebbe Maharash and gave him the basket of fruit. So the Rebbe Maharash thanked him and said, 'May Hashem help that your grandson, who is with you here, will one day bring bikkurim, these beautiful fruits, also to my grandson.' And he pointed at the little boy in the room." Turns out that this little boy was the previous Rebbe. When he was a little boy, he used to, you know, run around the room of the Rebbe Maharash. So this man says, "I l- I came from Russia, but I moved to Egypt because of my business. I had to move to Egypt. Lately, recently, I heard a rumor that the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who is the grandson of the Rebbe Maharash, is supposed to go through Alexandria in Egypt on his way to Eretz Yisroel. He's only gonna stop for a few hours. So I suddenly remembered the story when I was with my grandfather in the Rebbe Maharash's room and how the Rebbe Maharash was telling my grandfather that one day your grandson will bring bikkurim to my grandson, that little boy over there. So I realized that now is my chance to go and fulfill this promise and this berachah of the Rebbe Maharash. So I went quickly and bought the nicest, nicest fruit I could find, and here

07:19 I'm bringing bikkurim to the Rebbe."