Kicked Out of Class, a Mischief-Maker Said One Line That Changed His Family’s Future

Some years ago, an engagement party was held in the United States: a rabbinical student got engaged to the granddaughter of the head of the yeshiva. During the celebration, the groom’s grandfather asked to share remarks, which later appeared in the 'Meorot HaDaf HaYomi' bulletin. In vivid language, he carried everyone to a town in Eastern Europe: houses on the verge of collapse, a water carrier and wagon drivers, market day, the tailors’ study hall, the Torah school and the cheerful children who learned there.

One of them was a particularly energetic boy. Many of the peddlers suffered from his pranks, and housewives would lock their courtyard gates the moment they spotted him. His father and mother sank into deep despair.

One day the mischievous boy did the unthinkable and put a goat into the Holy Ark. In the middle of the prayer service, the frightened goat burst out of the Holy Ark before the eyes of the stunned worshippers. That prank led the teachers at the Torah school to expel him permanently.

A few days later, the boy returned to the Torah school and asked to be readmitted. The teachers explained that the decision was final, given his pranks that had gone too far. Even so, the troublemaker would not accept the resolute decision and refused to leave. "I am not willing to be thrown out like this!" he said boldly. "I want us to go together to the town’s rabbi, and whatever he decides—I accept."

The teachers agreed to his request and went with him to the rabbi. When they arrived, one of the teachers began describing the boy’s mischief up to that day. "We decided unanimously," the teacher slapped his palm on the table, "that his place is not in the Torah school. We’ve reached the end of the line. But he," he gestured toward the little one, "claims he wants the rabbi to decide the matter. Let it be so. If he wants the rabbi to sign off on his dismissal from our ranks—so be it."

The rabbi turned to the boy and asked gently: "My child, what would you like to say?", he asked softly.

"Maybe it’s worth consulting with a few more people?" the boy asked.

"With whom?" the rabbi wondered.

With tears in his eyes, the boy replied: "With my children and my grandchildren"…

One of the teachers nearly brought his hand down on him for making sport of the honored rabbi and refusing to behave seriously even at that moment, but the rabbi hushed the teacher and asked the boy: "What do you mean?"

Weeping hard, the boy said: "If they throw me out of the Torah school, I’ll turn outward… And I ask: What fault is it of the generations after me? Sons and daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren—generations upon generations who will stray outside the study hall and wander in foreign fields. Did they, too, put a goat into the Holy Ark?! I promise, in the name of the generations to come, that if you let me study in the Torah school, you won’t recognize me. Please, I ask for a two-week trial, nothing more. Two weeks, for generations of Jews."

His sobbing left no eye dry in the small room, and, years later, neither in the engagement hall in America. Everyone seemed to see dozens of the boy’s descendants filling the room, crowding the door, climbing its windows, and fixing hope-filled eyes on the rabbi’s lips—would he judge them strictly or with kindness.

The rabbi and the teachers did not open their mouths, and a deep silence reigned in the room.

"Two weeks," the rabbi murmured gently, placing his hand on the boy’s trembling shoulder. "I am granting you two weeks to prove that you truly care about the generations to come."

"A complete turnaround, Rabbi," one of the teachers reported to the rabbi a few days later.

"That town has long since been forgotten somewhere in Eastern Europe," the grandfather proclaimed with pathos. "Its Jews were uprooted and left in hard times, but that boy remained true to his word. In the United States of America he built a faithful Jewish home, on the foundations of Torah and reverence."

The emotional grandfather took a deep breath for the closing line and concluded: "Today that once-mischievous boy merits that his grandson, a splendid sapling, is getting engaged to a family of Torah scholars. He fulfilled his promise to the town rabbi completely."