“Okay, Yitzy,” he said, in a very serious voice. “Tell me the truth. What in the world is going on?” 

Yitzy closed his eyes and pinched himself.

“Aha,” he said, when he opened his eyes again, “I knew this had to be a dream.”

He stared at the whiteboard in front of the classroom.

Every day, his teacher wrote a list naming the “Math Students of the Day.” Those were the boys who worked the hardest on their math work. Usually there were two or three names on the list. Often, they were the same boys every day.

Today, there was only one name on the list. His name.

He stared at his name, rubbed his eyes, and stared again.

This is impossible, he said to himself. This could only be happening in a dream.

Suddenly the bell rang.

Before he could get out of his seat, Yitzy found himself surrounded.

Every boy in class was standing around his desk.

“Hey,” cried one boy, “I thought you were allergic to math!”

“Yeah,” said another, “what happened to you? First you were asking rebbi questions in the morning, and now you’re doing math?”

“Maybe he’s an alien from another planet disguised as Yitzy Levinson,” said a third boy.

Yitzy didn’t know what to answer.

Suddenly the crowd began to stir. Someone was pushing their way toward Yitzy.

“Everybody out of the way,” yelled Yossi. “We have an emergency situation here. Yitzy has got to get home right away. He has a hamster to feed.”

“Huh?”

“What?”

“A hamster?”

Before anyone had a chance to react, Yossi grabbed Yitzy by the hand and pulled him out of the classroom. They raced down the stairs together and began walking very quickly away from yeshivah.

“Thanks,” said Yitzy, who was still in a daze.

“No problem,” answered Yossi. “I couldn’t let my best friend be squashed by the whole class.”

“I appreciate that,” said Yitzy.

“You know,” said Yossi, “when I saw your name go up on the Math Student of the Day chart, I was sure that I had fallen asleep and was dreaming.”

Yitzy stopped walking. “You too?” he asked.

“What do you mean?” asked Yossi.

“I mean that I was also wondering if I was dreaming.”

Yossi looked Yitzy in the eye.

“Okay, Yitzy,” he said, in a very serious voice. “Tell me the truth. What in the world is going on?”

Yitzy got nervous. “What do you mean?” he asked.

“I mean,” began Yossi, “that today you were the best learner in the class for Mishnayos and math. To me, that sounds almost impossible.” Yossi stopped and studied Yitzy’s face very carefully. “Are you sure that you’re Yitzy Levinson? Maybe you’re his twin brother that no one ever told me about?”

Yitzy started to laugh. Yossi wasn’t amused. “I’m not joking, Yitzy,” he said. “You’ve been acting really strange lately. Are you okay?”

Yitzy’s mind raced. He very badly wanted to tell Yossi the whole story. He wanted to tell him about the trip to Mr. Blum’s office. He wanted to tell him about the letter from Mr. Greenbaum, but he knew he couldn’t. That was one of the conditions. On the other hand, he didn’t want to lie either.

“Okay, Yossi,” he said. “Let me tell you the truth.”

(Excerpted from Mishpacha Jr., Issue 761)