125. What's Your Yichus?

The Ruzhiner Rebbe had a royal lineage from King David himself. But when his granddaughter married the son of Rav Hershele of Rimanov, the Rimanover’s “yichus” wasn’t a scroll—it was how he bought an extra apple each week l’kavod Shabbos. 
 
Sometimes the holiest legacy isn’t inherited....it’s lived.

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Short, soul-stirring stories from across the flavors of Chassidus—Breslov, Chabad, Ger, and more. In just a few minutes, Rav Shlomo Katz brings the heart of Chassidus to life, one tale at a time.

The great צדיק, רבי ישראל מרוז'ין, always took great pride that he had a מגילת יוחסין. He had a tree of lineage which showed how his family comes directly from King David and King Solomon, from דוד המלך and שלמה המלך. And at the family weddings in Ruzhin, the מנהג was that at the wedding itself, you read, you pull out that book of lineage, and you trace back that here the great, great, great, great, great grandson or great, great, great granddaughter of King David is getting married. But what happens when the other side doesn't have that kind of lineage? So it happened that the granddaughter of the Ruzhiner Rebbe married the son of רב הרשל'ה מרימנוב.

And at that wedding, the Ruzhiner pulled out his מגילת יוחסין, his lineage, and he read it. And then it was the רימנובער's turn to read out his lineage. And he said, my lineage is that when I was privileged to be the משמש of רב מנחם מנדל מרימנוב, I would go to the שוק every Friday, and I would ask each person in the שוק, in the marketplace, can I have two apples, three apples? And then I said, can I have one extra apple לכבוד שבת קודש? I would do that with the fruit. I would do that with the fish.

I would do that with the bread. I would do that with everything. That's the only thing I could say about the יחוס of this חתן. The lineage of this חתן.

Ah, רבי ישראל מרוז'ין looked at him and said, with that kind of יחוס, what else do you need in the world? So dearest friends, it's always a big honor to come from prestigious and glorious backgrounds, but we all know that the greatest moments in life of creating future lineages can happen at any given moment.