A
s he opened his Mishnayos, Yitzy could feel every cell in his body screaming, No! Don’t do this! You just got home after a hard day, and you need to relax.

He tried very hard to ignore the voices, but they kept getting louder.

Yitzy forced himself to turn the pages to the Mishnah his class had learned that day.

“Is that where you’re up to in class?” asked his father.

Yitzy nodded.

“I’ll say the Mishnah first,” said Rabbi Levinson, “and then you’ll try to repeat it after me.”

“Okay,” Yitzy answered softly.

As his father said the first words of the Mishnah, Yitzy tried to focus on what he was saying. Suddenly, he noticed the wall behind his father.

That wall was part of a building. A big building that might very soon belong to him. The building was made of hundreds of bricks. Could it really be that he would become the owner?

Yitzy stopped himself in mid thought. He looked up at his father, who was trying so hard to teach him the Mishnah. How could he waste his time thinking about bricks when his father was trying so hard to learn with him?

He glanced into his Mishnayos.

“Whew!” he breathed a sigh of relief. Luckily, he had only missed the first line of the Mishnah.

He put his right hand onto the Mishnayos and pointed to the place. He put his other hand on his forehead. He used the fingers of his left hand to rub his forehead over and over again. He hoped that this motion would remind him to keep paying attention.

Soon, Rabbi Levinson finished saying the Mishnah. He looked up at Yitzy. “Do you want to give it a try?” he asked.

Yitzy nodded his head. He really wasn’t sure how well he knew the Mishnah, but he at least wanted to try.

As the words came rolling out of his mouth, Yitzy was surprised. The words all seemed to make sense. He glanced up at his father. Rabbi Levinson was grinning from ear to ear. He looked very happy and proud. Yitzy felt himself begin to smile. It felt good to make his father proud.

He looked back into his Mishnayos and kept reading. Word after word, line after line, he made his way through the Mishnah. He stopped to breathe a happy sigh when he finished.

“That was great Yitzy!” said Rabbi Levinson. “I didn’t realize you knew the Mishnayos so well.”

“I didn’t realize either,” muttered Yitzy.

“Why don’t we go back to the beginning of the masechta and start reviewing from there?”

Yitzy nodded his head.

“Okay,” he said.

Father and son took turns saying each Mishnah. From time to time, Yitzy got stuck on a word and his father had to help him, but overall, he was surprised at how much he knew.

Until now, Yitzy had been under the impression that he hardly knew anything at all. The Mishnayos competition had seemed like an impossible dream. Now, for the first time, he felt a faint glimmer of hope.

After what seemed like a short time, Rabbi Levinson stopped and closed his Mishnayos.

Yitzy looked up at the clock on the wall. He couldn’t believe it. They had been learning for over an hour. It hadn’t seemed that long at all. Yitzy was surprised to feel a twinge of disappointment as he closed his own Mishnayos. Until now, ending a learning session had made him feel relieved and happy. Tonight, he felt disappointed. He wondered what had changed.

How come he was suddenly able to learn?

Was it because he wanted to win the building?

(Excerpted from Mishpacha Jr., Issue 756)