I remember that kiddush well.

It was 38 years ago Parshas Vayishlach.

I don’t recall his real name; we boys just called him Frank the Prank.

We kids had nicknames for all of the men in the shul.

There was Harry the Davener about whom it was rumored that he once even opened his siddur. (Most of us did not believe that rumor.)

There was Marvin the Macher. who set up Seudah Shlishis. He was also the one you went to when you needed to get into the shul and he always wore this massive key ring on his belt.

There was Velvel the Cholent Goniff who always went to “taste” the cholent during Kriyas HaTorah.

And there were many more.

However today we are focusing on the kiddush of Parshas Vayishlach.

That Shabbos was a cold day in Brooklyn. When we arrived in shul we already smelled the cholent. At the kiddush we sat down and guess who plops down right next to us? Frank the Prank.

Frank the Prank was always involved in tying the talleisim together on Simchas Torah and he was always joking and acting as mature as his shoe size.

We kids always had a grand time with Frank the Prank.

One boy said to Frank “Hey Frank I saw you on Kings Highway and you weren’t wearing your yarmulke. What happened? Did the wind blow it away?”

We boys broke into gales of laughter.

We’d “caught” Frank the Prank without his yarmulke on!

Although back then many Jews didn’t wear their yarmulkes outside the fact that we were able to laugh at Frank the Prank was too good for us to be bothered by the facts.

But Frank the Prank became serious for once. “What are you kids laughing about?” he demanded. “Didn’t you listen to the Torah reading?”

He then quoted to us: “Yaakov lifted his eyes and looked and behold Eisav came… And he [Yaakov] passed over before them ...and bowedhimself to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother.” (Bereishis 33:1–3)

“Didn’t you guys hear that Yaakov bowed down seven times before Eisav?” he said. “Don’t you guys learn anything in yeshivah? In the galus we have to be subservient to Eisav. So of course you cannot wear a yarmulke in the street; that would be antagonizing Eisav. That is not the way of Yaakov!”

We were all surprised; both at Frank’s seriousness and about his claim.

The next day I went back to yeshivah.

I approached my rebbi and told him about the exchange with Frank and about not antagonizing the non-Jews.

“I was born in Frankfurt in 1930” my rebbi told me “and when I was six years old our rebbi took us on a trip to a park. We the Orthodox boys from the Rav Hirsch school were wearing caps. In the middle of the game my cap blew off. I stopped where I was until another boy brought it to me.

“An older nonreligious German Jew observed the scene. He approached our rebbi and said ‘Herr Rabbiner what right do you have to raise these boys with such archaic and outdated restrictions? This is Germany where we have pride in the Fatherland. You should be ashamed of yourself for coercing these boys to observe primitive and obsolete beliefs.’

“The man then turned and left.

“Yaakov may have bowed to Eisav; however he never sacrificed one iota of what he believed in. Yaakov realized the need to maintain good relations with Eisav; however he never compromised on his Jewish identity at all.”

I never went back to speak to Frank the Prank.

I often wonder whatever happened to Frank the Prank.