Hands down, the highlight of our Succos Trip to Yerushalayim, over twenty years ago, was joining the honorable ranks at the famous Zupnik Daled Minim Shuk.  Coming on the heels of the inspiring and tearful tefillos of the Yomim Noraim, now it was time to act.  To bring out those noble aspirations, brewing since the start of Elul.  To stand shoulder to shoulder amongst Acheinu Kol Beis Yisroel, completely enwrapped in the joy of Hashem’s precious mitzvos. Whose heart does not melt after showing your carefully chosen esrog to the Rav, angelic and adorned with his overflowing white beard, as his sweet Yerushalmi voice proclaims, unequivocally, “Kosher u’M’hudar!” (kosher and beautiful). A kiss from Above.

Fast forward two decades, Pre-Succos 5784.  Coming straight from work, hospital scrubs and all.  Barely making it to the final 10 minutes of Kol Torah’s Daled Minim Shuk.  Here we were, three of us.  Each crowded around the same esrogim table.  The hour was late, the cream of the crop esrogim had already been taken.  So we thought…  Suddenly, in comes Rabbi Mordechai Benyowitz, carrying hot-off-the-press, gorgeous esrogim, three of them.  All eyes shined bright.  All hearts started pumping.  We began rolling up our sleeves. 

But then, a flash of all the holy aspirations from the past month, came crashing forward.  A most beautiful scene developed before our eyes… We looked at each other, looked back at the esrogim.  And without missing a beat, we unanimously proclaimed: “Please, you go first, Please you go first”.  And so it was, as we each chose the esrog of our liking, still infused with feelings of achdus, I could not help but recall those moving words, twenty years earlier, uttered from the holy lips of the Yerushalmi Rav, “Kosher u’M’hudar!”  Yes, “Kosher u’M’hudar” was on my lips.  ”Hashem Yisborach, your Children are so beautiful, so kadosh!”  My heart whispered to me to grab a fellow Yid, to start dancing… 

October 7th, the world changed.  My fleeting inspiration a few weeks prior at Kol Torah’s Shuk, was but a taste, a mere hint of what to come.  And as all eyes witness the tidal wave of achdus and chesed pouring forth from Acheinu Kol Beis Yisroel, from knitted kippot to sable fur streimlach to IDF soldiers, we beseech our Father in Heaven, “Please Totty, look down at your precious Kinder…they are grabbing one other...dancing together, young and old, secular and religious! If only we should be zoche to hear your most sweet words “Kosher u’M’hudar!”, a kiss from Above...and to see the Geula Shleima, speedily in our days.  Amen V’Amen.”