To his shock and amazement, Dovid replied, “I had a great time! It was my best night of the week!”

The clocks had gone back an hour, and Larry (Leibel to everyone out of his immediate family), started getting nervous.

The change to standard time meant one thing to Leibel: The father and son learning program, Avos U’Banim, was beginning again on Motzaei Shabbos, and Leibel was dreading it.

Leibel had become frum at 28. He had only a bare-bones background in Hebrew textual learning, and that was being generous. He hadn’t a clue how to navigate a page of Gemara and could never remember if Rashi was in the inside column or the outside column.

Since his children entered yeshivah, he had managed to struggle through their homework with the help of English translations. When he learned at home with his sixth-grader, Dovid, he used an English Gemara. However, Dovid had pleaded with him not to bring the English Gemara to Avos U’Banim, insisting that he’d be the only one in the class whose father relied on an English translation and would be teased about it at school.

Motzaei Shabbos arrived, and Leibel began to sweat. The thought of trying to learn Gemara with his son while sitting in a room packed with 75 boys between the ages of 10 to 13, all reciting Chumash and Gemara at very loud decibels, was leaving him feeling very intimidated.

When Leibel arrived in shul, he realized that many fathers were using English Gemaras. Dovid’s fears of humiliation were unfounded. But while that would help him for the next week, he still had to get through this one.

He and Dovid found a spot. No sooner had they sat down than all types of raffle tickets were being thrown in their direction. There were raffles for food, seforim, and even an electric bike. Dovid began reading the Gemara before Leibel even figured out what daf they were on.

One boy came over to Dovid and asked if they had to chazer the shtickel Torah their rebbi had said over in the name of Rav Chaim Brisker. Leibel had never heard of Rav Chaim Brisker and wondered if he was related to the family that manufactured Brisk Iced Tea. This was besides the fact that he had no idea what a shtickel Torah was. Finally, the evening came to an end, and they raffled off a biography called Reb Baruch Ber, leaving Leibel wondering if he was related to the famous American football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant.

As the boys were preparing to leave with their slices of pizza, frosted doughnuts, and half-melted ice cream, Leibel was convinced he had totally embarrassed his son with his lack of Gemara learning.

As they entered the car, Leibel haltingly asked his son, “Dovid, did you have a good time?” He braced himself to hear his son say that the pizza and ice cream were good.

However, to his shock and amazement, Dovid replied, “Yes, I had a great time! It was my best night of the week!”

Bewildered, Leibel asked Dovid, “What was so great about tonight?”

Dovid looked up at his father. With the innocence of an 11-year-old he replied, “This was a really special night. For the first time all week, I didn’t have to share you with your phone.”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1089)