29 Aug KI SAVO: THE GREATNESS OF EVERY YID

Many yungerleit in Eretz
Yisrael don’t own a car.
Although financially
easier, and the bus
system is good, taking
buses can make traveling
long and tiresome.
Sometimes, a person
can spend most of his
day on busses.
Such happened to a
yungerman from
Kiryat Gat. After he
davened shacharis at
the netz, he took a bus
to Yerushalayim, to be
menachem avel a
friend. As soon as he
arrived at his friend’s
house and sat down, he got a phone call. He
would have ignored it, but it was his father, so
he went to the back of the room and answered
the call.
“I have a medical procedure in Ramat Gan
today, around noon, and I want someone to be
there with me. Can you be there?”
“Certainly. I’m in Yerushalayim now, but I’ll
be there as soon as possible.”
He apologized to his friend that he couldn’t
stay longer, was menachem avel quickly and
left to catch the next bus to Bnei Brak, from

where he would take yet another bus to Ramat
Gan.
On the bus to Ramat Gan, his father called to
tell him that the procedure was completed.
and that he didn’t need to come. As it turned
out, he spent half of the day on buses, and the
only mitzvah he performed was a brief
nichum aveilim.
He got off the bus and crossed the street. It
was time to head home. He would take a bus
back to Bnei Brak and then another bus to
Kiryat Gat. The automated sign at the bus
stop showed that the next bus would arrive in
half an hour. He had some time to refresh
himself. He went to a convenience store and
asked the non-religious storekeeper if he
could use the restroom. The storekeeper
readily agreed.
The yungerman asked, “Can I leave this bag
with you for a moment until I come out?”
“Why don’t you take it into the bathroom with
you and watch it yourself?”
“I have my tallis and tefillin in this bag, and it
isn’t proper to bring them into the bathroom.”
The storeowner’s eyes sparkled. “Can I put on
your tefillin?”
“Of course! It will be my privilege.”
When he returned, he found this irreligious
Yid wearing tefillin on his tattooed arm on his
bald-shaven head, wearing a tiny kipa.
The storeowner said, “I’m not religious, but I

put on tefillin every morning. Today, I didn’t
have time to put on tefillin in the morning,
and I came to work without tefillin. I prayed
that Hashem help me wear tefillin today. I
was certain Hashem would help. And as you
see, now I’m wearing tefillin.”
The yungeman thought, “I thought I did
almost nothing this morning, but I helped a
Yid wear tefillin.”
And then the yungerman had another inspiring
thought: “Yesterday, if you would have asked
me the worth of an irreligious Yid’s mitzvas
tefillin, I would have said not much. How
precious could it be? But I discovered how
important it was for him to put on tefillin, and
Hashem had me make this long trip just to
help him. So, I guess I misjudged to what
extent Hashem loves our mitzvos.”
Bikurim teaches us this lesson as well.
The Mishnah (Bikurim 3:3) states, “When the
people bringing bikurim arrived close to
Yerushalayim, the [elders from Yerushalayim]
came out to greet them. All craftsmen in
Yerushalayim stood up for them and greeted
them.” They received immense honor. The
Yismach Yisrael (Savo 1) explains that this is
to teach us the value of every mitzvah
performed by any Yid. It is to let us know that
one deserves endless respect for every
mitzvah he performs.
The mitzvah of bikurim is relatively easy. It

isn’t expensive. The first phase of this mitzvah
can even be performed in one’s thoughts. If
one thinks, “This fruit should be bikurim,” it
becomes bikurim. The immense honor they
received teaches us that there is no such thing
as a simple mitzvah. Every mitzvah is
extremely precious.
The Yismach Yisrael writes, “The honored
kohanim and gizbarim (gabaim) of the beis
haMikdash came out to greet them to show
them that even a simple mitzvah from the
simplest person — and even just a good
thought — is accepted by Hakadosh Baruch
Hu with desire and compassion. All malachim
put many crowns on his head. Each person,
no matter who he is, can get chizuk from this.
Even if he only performed one mitzvah during
his entire life or had one good thought, it is
also enough. He should be embarrassed about
all the times he didn’t grasp an opportunity to
perform a mitzvah. Now that he sees the vast
value of the mitzvos, he should be embarrassed
that he lost out in the past on opportunities to
perform mitzvos.”