29 Years After Winning a Watermelon-Eating Contest, He Finally Receives His Tanya
A nearly three-decade-old promise was finally fulfilled last week in Massachusetts. In 1997, during a Lag BaOmer celebration organized by the Rebbe’s Shluchim in Massachusetts, young Bezalel Reis took part in a watermelon-eating contest and won first place. His prize was supposed to be a copy of the Tanya, but amid the excitement of the event, the book never made it into his hands • Full Story
A nearly three-decade-old promise was finally fulfilled this week in Massachusetts. In 1997, during a Lag BaOmer celebration organized by the Rebbe’s Shluchim in Massachusetts, young Bezalel Rais took part in a watermelon-eating contest and won first place. His prize was supposed to be a copy of the Tanya, but amid the excitement of the event, the book never made it into his hands.
Twenty-nine years later, Bezalel has become a familiar figure in the American Jewish community, known by the nickname “The Fish Guy” through his food and herring business. This week, during a chance visit to Chabad of Worcester, Massachusetts, he met the local Shliach, Rabbi Mendel Fogelman.
During a nostalgic conversation, Reis recalled the old contest and jokingly told Rabbi Fogelman that although he had won back in 1997, he had never received the Tanya he was promised.
Rabbi Fogelman immediately went into his office and returned moments later with a brand-new copy of Tanya, finally settling the 29-year-old debt.
The moment became even more meaningful when it was discovered that the Tanya given to Bezalel was an edition printed in nearby Holden, not far from the location where the original watermelon-eating contest took place in 1997.
What began as a simple childhood contest ultimately became a touching reminder that a promise made to a child nearly three decades ago can remain in someone’s memory—and eventually be fulfilled, even after all these years.
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