Mrs. Levinson pinched herself to see if she was dreaming. When she knew that she was awake, she grabbed her son and gave him a big hug

Yitzy and Yossi sat down to learn together.

“Remember,” Yossi said, “let’s learn as a zechus for Mr. Greenbaum to have a refuah sheleimah.”

Yitzy smiled. Yossi had the right idea. Tonight, Yitzy would not be learning so he could win a building. He would be learning so Mr. Greenbaum would get better. That was much more important than any prize, even one worth a million dollars.

With this thought, Yitzy put all of his energy into focusing on the Mishnayos.

At first the learning went slow, but the more they learned, the more exciting things got. Yitzy and Yossi got into heated discussions about each Mishnah. Every word on every line seemed to come alive. “What if they built a succah this way, or that way? Was it kosher, or not? Why was this one kosher and this one not?”

Yitzy found the debate and discussions to be very exciting, even fun. This surprised him. Learning was not supposed to be fun.

Suddenly, Yossi looked up at the clock. “Uh oh,” he gasped. “It’s late. Very late.”

When Yitzy saw the time, he was shocked. They had learned for an hour and a half straight. It hadn’t felt that long at all. In fact, it felt like they had only just started learning.

The boys quickly put away their seforim, and raced home.

When Yitzy walked down the hall to his apartment, he was surprised to find his mother standing and waiting in front of the open apartment door.

“Yitzy!” she cried. “Where were you? Do you have any idea how late it is? I was so worried about you.”

Yitzy felt bad he had made his mother so upset.

“I’m sorry, Mommy,” he apologized. “I guess I just lost track of the time.”

“What in the world were you doing for so long?” she asked.

Yitzy looked up at his mother in surprise.

“What do you mean, Mommy?” he asked. “Yossi and I were just learning.”

“For so long?” asked Mrs. Levinson.

“Yeah,” answered Yitzy, “it was great. It was so much fun we didn’t realize how late it had become.”

Mrs. Levinson froze. Her mouth fell open in shock. Was this her son Yitzy talking? Her Yitzy, the boy who never wanted to learn anything?

She rubbed her ears hard. It had been a long evening. Maybe she was hearing things?

“What did you just say, Yitzy?” she asked.

Yitzy paused.

“Um... I think I said that it was so much fun we didn’t realize how late it was.”

Mrs. Levinson pinched herself to see if she was dreaming. When she knew that she was awake, she grabbed her son and gave him a big hug.

“I’m so happy and proud to hear you say that, Yitzy,” she said.

(Excerpted from Mishpacha Jr., Issue 762)