By Kreindy Scharf
Date: 13/09/2005
“Wait for me” shouted Dov as Gavriel brushed passed him on the way home from Yeshiva. “Can’t stop,” said Gavriel urgently as he fingered the crumpled paper in his hand and checked his watch.
Dov watched in hurt amazement as his usually friendly classmate and neighbour strode passed him with quick purposeful steps and half ran half walked across the busy main road. Gavriel, panting with exertion did not slow his pace until he arrived home.
Gavriel put the key into the lock and smiled with pleasure as the door opened immediately. Since they had had a new lock put in he still hadn’t forgotten his previous struggles with the front door key!
He remembered having to say Tehilim and beseeching HaShem to help him get the key into the correct position just this once.
The door closed with a bang and the echo reverberated in the silent house. Again Gavriel had reason to smile, the silence was unusual - his mother had gone out with the family, for a day trip.
That suited Gavriel just fine. Once again He took out the carefully folded paper from his pocket and checked the schedule he had written out q for the day.
With a pen Gavriel carefully ticked off his accomplishments. Up at six for shacharis tick Revise 2 Blatt Gemorah tick (Gavriel still had 5 Blatt to complete before Yom Tov) Learn 2 Halachos of shemiras haloshon tick Gavriel eyed the wall clock nervously.He had only one hour in which to eat and since it was Chodesh Elul he had taken upon himself to learn an extra perek of mishnayos a day.
Before that he still wanted to complete the Tehilim for the day. By the time Gavriel had finished saying Tehilim there was hardly any time left for eating since he davened with great kavonoh, and had added a special 2 extra kapitlach for his uncle who needed a Refuah Sheleimah.
The clock chimed twice. Gavriel knew without checking that it was 2 o'clock. He was out of the house in a flash taking his precious schedule with him. The house was empty once more. It b óraced itself for the siege that was soon to come. The family would be home soon. Shifra felt bad for Gavriel.
As the train sped smoothly towards home she watched dreamily from the window as the scenic mountainous view of Wales gave way to flat land. “Ma,” she said, “we've had such a fabulous time today, thank you so very much. Too bad Gavriel wasn’t with us I’m sure he’ll be sorry.“ “Oh no he won’t” said Shua.
You know Gavriel, he’d be upset to waste precious studying time for something as mundane as climbing the Great Orme.“
Esther didn't say anything whilst Shifra kept up her repeated comments about poor Gavriel missing the tram ride up the mountain, missing the exhilarating walk down to the bottom and having to forego the delicious food mummy had packed for the long three-hour train journey.
Deep down she decided that probably Gavriel was only pretending to love his learning. Who in his right m Zind she thought to herself would want to give up such a wonderful opportunity.
She sighed contentedly as she sipped her drink, whilst trying to concentrate on the word search she had brought with especially for the long trip.
The front door obliged smoothly as once again Gavriel put his key in the lock. At least that part of his coming home would go without a hitch.... “Gavriel” yelled Shifra “you can’t imagine how wonderful it was today. It was better than Switzerland - ten times better.” “It was yummy“ added Esther.
We were right on top of the mountain and there were real sheep there right next to us and we could see the sea and Subject: Article for Mishpacah Junior - Continued Page 2 of 2 mummy had to wear a rain hat cos it was so windy and Zev.....”. “Okay, okay” Gavriel smiled distractedly at their excitement.
He had far more impor ™tant things on his mind. “Where’s the calendar?”, he asked. Moments later he was heavily engrossed calculating how many days till Yom Kippur and whether his daily Halachos of Shemiras Haloshon was running on schedule.
As if in a dream he heard his mother asking if he was hungry, and watched in a detached manner as his family chatted happily amongst themselves. He wanted to be in bed early tonight; he was tired. After all he had been up since five thirty - besides which, tomorrow he wanted another early start. Gavriel had no recollection of eating, although he did bentch with great kavonoh - after all it was Chodesh Elul!
He mumbled a word of thanks to his mother and tried to look interested as Esther showed him the Victorian coin they had brought him for his coin collection. “Look’”, he pointed out to her, “it’s not even authentic it says replica at the bottom which means its fake -its just a copy of what a shilling o )nce looked like.”
With that Gavriel yawned, turned around and headed for bed.
The light in his room reflected dramatically on the poster of Perek Shira hanging opposite his bed. The animals beckoned to him realistically as Gavriel chanted the familiar words of Krias Shema, Suddenly Gavriel felt a cold shiver travel down his spine.
He felt his body go tense as a horrible feeling overcame him.
He was doing something terribly wrong. Standing there in front of the poster a sickening feeling of understanding overtook him.
There it was, the stork Chassidoh. As in a dream, he --- He heard his Rebbe's voice as he had expounded on it. “Why?” the Rabbi had asked, is the Chassidoh not a kosher bird? Because as Rashi explains is called she does Chessed only with her species. “You understand”, the Rabbi had thundered, “a Yid cannot pick and choose who he wants to do Chessed with. A yid cannot decide this mitzvah is important to me this though isn’t....“.
Gavriel sat down with a thud as he thought over his day. In his mind’s eye he saw Dov’s sad face as he had left him walk home from Yeshivah on his own without any explanation. He hadn’t even thanked his mother for supper or even complimented her on having managed to put a meal on the table after a strenuous day out. Esther’s disappointed face loomed before him.
She had tried so hard to make him happy by bringing him a souvenir from Wales and he had been so quick to rebuff her. Gavriel put his hands to his face and groaned loudly. He was trying so hard to be a better boy and look how many people he had neglected in the process!
He felt a piece of paper crackle in his pocket. It was that ã days schedule - torn and scruffy by now but Gavriel could easily make out that every single item had been proudly ticked off by him.
“Thank you Chassidoh”, he murmured to the big stork on the poster, “thank you for warning me before it was too late. I still have time to do Teshuvah”. With pen in hand Gavriel set about preparing the next day’s schedule. Get up at six. Ask mummy if she needs anything on the way home from Yeshivah, Walk home with Dov ask him if he wants to learn with me in our spare time.
Apologise for yesterday and explain..... Play with Zev. Ask Esther, Shua and Shifra about their day out. Thank them for the coin. Say Tehilim.
Divide it amongst the family. Gavriel thought for a while. He eyed the bird on the wall one more time and looked again at the colourful display of all those animals, Then in capital letters at the bottom of his schedule he wrote “BE A MENTCH!
