"The week in which the rebbes go out to the fields to cut wheat for next year’s matzah is a high point for us"

There’s one season in the year that’s always special for us gedolim-photographers. The week in which the rebbes go out to the fields to cut wheat for next year’s matzah is a high point for us, and we always get beautiful pictures out of it. Here, Pesach is barely gone and already, these elevated people are engaged in the mitzvah for next Pesach, their faces filled with joy as they pick and grind and measure, against the backdrop of an open field with a brilliant sun overhead.

One year, I was asked to accompany Rav Moshe Halberstam ztz”l of the Eidah Hachareidis. The family said he would going out the following week, but the very next day I got a call to get to the field right away. I grabbed my equipment and hurried over, taking this picture.

These tzaddikim seek wheat for matzos that is completely dry, picked before any rain falls, and that year, the farmer had learned of an unusual, imminent spring rain. He hurried to call Rav Halberstam before the drops started to come down.

I watched the Rav lovingly pick the wheat, and after the field was completely empty, the wheat was carried into the storehouse. Only when the last stalk was safely in the bag did the rain begin to fall.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 857)