Yitzy did not want his parents to know that he’d overheard them talking. He stayed in his bedroom for 20 more minutes and then came out, pretending he had just woken up.

Yitzy had expected his parents to be shocked when they realized he had woken up on his own. He was surprised to see that they hardly even noticed. Then he spied the letter clutched tightly in his mother’s hand.

Now he knew why. They were too worried about the letter to notice anything else.

Yitzy couldn’t blame them. He was very worried too. What would happen if they were kicked out of their wonderful apartment? Where would they go?

He didn’t want to bother his parents when they were so worried, so he got himself ready to leave quickly. Luckily, he was able to find his glasses and sneakers right away. Yitzy found himself walking out the front door at a much earlier time than usual.

Today, his problem might be coming to school too early, instead of too late.

Suddenly, he heard a familiar voice behind him. “It looks like we’re leaving together today, Yitzy,” said Rabbi Levinson.

Yitzy turned around and saw his father walking out of the apartment, right behind him.

“I’m proud of you for waking up early on your own this morning.”

“Thank you, Tatty,” answered Yitzy. “I guess we can walk to yeshivah together.”

Even though Rabbi Levinson was a second-grade rebbi in Yitzy’s yeshivah, the two very rarely walked to school together. On most days, Rabbi Levinson left long before Yitzy was ready.

“I’m sorry, Yitzy,” answered his father. “I would be very happy to walk with you, but I’m not going to yeshivah right now. I have an appointment downtown instead.”

Yitzy knew exactly where his father was going, but he didn’t say anything.

“Oh,” he said. “Okay, Tatty. Goodbye, have a good day.”

“Have a good day, Yitzy,” said Rabbi Levinson as he hurried down the block to catch the bus.

As he walked toward yeshivah, Yitzy reviewed the events of the last week in his mind.

Until recently, his life had been so normal and happy. Now, everything had changed.

He was under pressure from everyone to study for a competition that he did not want to participate in. His newfound friend, Mr. Greenbaum, had been taken away by ambulance and had mysteriously disappeared. Now, on top of all that, he’d learned that his family might get kicked out of their apartment.

Yitzy sighed. There wasn’t much he could do about any of those problems…. Or was there?

Maybe there was something he could do. His father always spoke about the power of davening. He could daven for all these problems to go away.

Then he remembered what his father had said the night before. He had mentioned that learning Torah was a very big zechus. His father had urged him to learn mishnayos as a zechus to help Mr. Greenbaum get better. Today, he would try. He would try as hard as he could to pay attention when his rebbi taught Mishnayos. Maybe in that zechus Hashem would solve all his problems.

(Excerpted from Mishpacha Jr., Issue 750)