The story, while silly and ahisorical, has a very different message and is really innocent.
1. Nobody coveted the man's esrog. They wanted him to stay for yom tov to share the esrog with them and they made it worth his while.
2. They refused him hospitality to bring out his greatness to serve as a limud zchuz for Kllal Yisroel.
3. At the end he got what he had been promised and more.
The message of the story is that a yid was willing to give up his olam habo for performing a mitzvah here and now. Snd that is Ahavas Hashem and avodah leshma.
Any chance you could make posts listenable?
The story, while silly and ahisorical, has a very different message and is really innocent.
1. Nobody coveted the man's esrog. They wanted him to stay for yom tov to share the esrog with them and they made it worth his while.
2. They refused him hospitality to bring out his greatness to serve as a limud zchuz for Kllal Yisroel.
3. At the end he got what he had been promised and more.
The message of the story is that a yid was willing to give up his olam habo for performing a mitzvah here and now. Snd that is Ahavas Hashem and avodah leshma.