It was the last day in Iyar, and Eliyahu Kohanim was back in
Israel.
There was something about this place. Was it the tangy smell
of citrus fruit in the dry air or the thousands of people
speaking Hebrew? Was it the white-stoned apartment buildings
and youngsters playing outside? Was it the sacred feeling he
got when he thought about his forefathers who had walked upon
this soil as well?
Or was it all of these?
There was no sense denying it. New York, where Eliyahu lived
now, and Tehran, where he had grown up, paled in
comparison.
Eliyahu gathered his luggage and was off to Yerushalayim. An
hour later, he had reached his destination, his alma mater of
sorts, Ohr Somayach. He had called the office earlier in the
week and they had said it would be alright if he dormed with
them until after Shavuos when he would leave. Eliyahu quickly
deposited his luggage in his dorm and then went to the Bais
Medrash.
He was reviewing the mesechta he was learning that
month, when suddenly he felt a tap on his shoulder. He
quickly turned around.
There was a tall, broad-shouldered, young man with a grizzly
sefirah beard. "Kohanim!" he said warmly. "What are
you doing in the Holy Land? Last I heard you were in
Brooklyn!"
Eliyahu hesitated for a moment. Who was this boy? He looked
so familiar. Eliyahu smiled and looked directly into the
young man's piercing blue eyes. No, it couldn't be...
"Berliner! Naftali Berliner!" Eliyahu said, as he quickly
stood up to shake Naftali's hand.
Naftali laughed. "I thought you didn't recognize me! That
would have been a nice story to share with the
chevra."
Eliyahu laughed too. Naftali and he went back, way back to
the days when Eliyahu had newly immigrated from Iran and was
learning in Ohr Somayach. Naftali had been his first
chavrusa and he had welcomed him into the group.
"It was the beard that threw me off," Eliyahu admitted.
"I just might keep it then," Naftali said with a smile.
They both sat down at the bench.
"Let's learn!" Eliyahu said with a newfound vigor. He had
never found a learning partner as compatible as Naftali and
sorely missed him.
After a few hours of poring over the gemora, it was
time for supper.
"So, what's doing with the chevra?" Eliyahu asked as
they both took plates of fried fish and salad.
"Well, David Lupine got married two months ago, right before
Pesach. You remember, David, don't you?" Naftali said as they
both sat down.
Eliyahu nodded. "Quiet genius," he said, swallowing a
mouthful of salad.
Naftali seemed to be enjoying the fish. "Yeah," he said as he
took a big bite. "That's him, as brilliant as ever. And Chaim
Klein, well he's married, and his wife just had a baby
girl."
"Mazel tov," said Eliyahu, also taking a bite of fish.
Naftali filled Eliyahu in a little bit more. It was amazing
how much had happened in the past year. Eliyahu was sorry he
was not still learning in Eretz Yisrael, but his parents and
siblings had emigrated from Iran last year as well, and many
of Eliyahu's relatives lived in New York.
"So, tomorrow," continued Naftali, "you'll come with us,
right?"
Eliyahu was a bit confused; he obviously had missed a crucial
point in the conversation. Wasn't Naftali just talking about
Yosef Solomon's engagement?
"Tomorrow what?" he asked.
Naftali laughed, "Tomorrow we're all going to Tzefas for a
day of learning, a yom iyun seminar, to give the
yeshiva in the north some chizuk; you'll come, won't
you? Our whole group is going. It'll be a nice reunion."
Eliyahu shrugged. "Sounds good to me," he said. "Just as long
as we learn on the way, too."
"New York hasn't changed you, Eliyahu," Naftali said, "and
that's a good thing."
Very early the next morning, Rosh Chodesh Sivan, Eliyahu and
Naftali, Yosef Solomon and Levi Dubliner, boarded a bus to
the north; the boys learned the entire way there.
When they got to the yeshiva, Eliyahu saw that many of his
old friends were already there. Some had even come with their
wives.
It was a great day. There were inspiring speeches and great
food. Someone had even pushed Eliyahu up to speak! He gave a
short droshah on what he was learning in
Sanhedrin. Before they knew it, it was time for
minchah. Afterwards, Eliyahu found Naftali.
"So," he asked. "How are we getting back to the yeshiva? By
bus again?"
Naftali shook his head. "No," he said. "We're all going by
train from Haifa."
On the train, the married men sat with their wives, and the
others learned together. They were discussing the dvar
Torah Eliyahu had given, when suddenly the train doors
slid open. They had arrived at the next stop.
A group of Israeli teenagers got on. The girls were dressed
in the latest neon, fashions. The boys, whose heads were
either covered with small, colorful, crocheted kippot
or uncovered, were dressed in varying baggy or tight pants.
They were all laughing and talking loudly. They looked like
nothing but trouble. Eliyahu could not help but groan
inwardly.
"Look at these yeshiva bochurim," one of the newcomers
said in an affected accent. He was tall and broad-
shouldered, with an assertive look on his face and was
obviously the leader of the gang. He stroked his chin, as if
he had a beard, and furrowed his forehead. "And it says, in
the Toy-rah . . . " he said in a high-pitched, nasal
voice.
The boys snorted and the girls giggled appreciatively while
some of the other boys made rude remarks.
Eliyahu and his friends ignored the boys, although Eliyahu
noticed that Mrs. Lupine had a frightened expression on her
face. So did a lot of the other women.
Then the gang started to pretend that they had pistols and
were shooting the yeshiva boys.
"Pow! Pow!" they said, aiming here and there.
"You know," said the leader of the gang, and they all quickly
quieted down. "I always wondered why these yeshiva boh-chu-
rim wear those hats. Are they cowboys?"
He got up and walked toward David Lupine. "Are you a cowboy?"
he said peering under the hat. David ignored him.
The boy tried to grab the hat off David's head. Eliyahu could
hear the women gasping and he could feel his blood boiling.
This was it. That was the last straw.
He remembered how in Iran, the Muslims had tried to grab his
kippah off his head. They called him 'yahud'
with an evil sneer. Now, in Eretz Yisrael, a fellow Jew was
trying to grab his friend's hat and was calling him a
cowboy?! He wouldn't stand for it.
"Chantarish!" Eliyahu bellowed as he stood up. "Stop
it!"
The boy looked surprised. "You talking to me?" he said.
Obviously, he was not used to being reprimanded.
"Yes, I am!" Eliyahu said. "What do you want, anyway?"
The boy looked shocked. There was anger in his eyes and
Eliyahu thought, "Oh, no, now the gang is going to start up
with us."
He was silent for a second. "I want to put on
tefillin," he said.
Now it was Eliyahu's turn to be astounded. "What?" he
asked.
"You heard me. I said I want to put on tefillin!"
"So, go wash your hands and come back," Eliyahu said
authoritatively. "And hurry before it's too late."
Everyone was looking at them now, watching to see who would
make the next move.
The boy went to wash his hands. Eliyahu sighed with
relief.
He took his tefillin out of his backpack. The boy was
back quickly and Eliyahu told him to say the blessing.
"I don't say no blessings," the boy said shaking his head.
"You have to say the brachah if you want to put on my
tefillin."
"Okay," he finally grumbled.
There was an incredulous murmur from his gang, "Hey, Danny's
going to make a brachah?!" Eliyahu took his
siddur out of his backpack, opened up to the correct
page and pointed. "Nu . . .".
Danny began slowly at first, unsteadily. But, his voice grew
more confident toward the end.
"Amen!" was the resounding answer.
Eliyahu wrapped the leather straps around the boy's tanned
muscular arm while Danny watched intently.
"Wait," said another boy, obviously a sidekick. "If Danny
gets to put on tefillin, I want to put them on,
too!"
"Yeah, me too!" said another boy.
"Yeah, same here!"
They all wanted to put on tefillin.
"Listen," Eliyahu said, "You can all put on tefillin;
you just have to wash your hands and promise to say the
brachah, but quick, before it's too late."
The boys all agreed. They lined up and took turns putting on
the tefillin. With a good thing going, Eliyahu
encouraged all the boys to say Shema and they
complied.
Finally, they were back in Yerushalayim.
Naftali gave Eliyahu a pat on the back as they stepped off
the train.
"You did a good job in there!" Naftali said. "We sure were
scared of those guys."
"Yeah, thanks for saving my hat, and me," said David Lupine
as he walked off the train.
Eliyahu smiled and nodded modestly.
He realized that Danny was walking off the train with his
cronies. "You know," he heard Danny say, "I kind of liked how
that felt. You know, good all over. I think I may put it on
from now on."
"Yeah, and me, too!" said the sidekick.
"Are you sure your father won't mind?" one of the girls said
in a teasing voice.
Eliyahu knew from the look on Danny's face that it would give
his father all the joy in the world, to say nothing of his
grandfather, but most of all, his Father in Heaven.
That Shavuos, Eliyahu was learning in the yeshiva. There was
a fire within him, burning ardently while he learned. Eliyahu
knew there was a small spark in Danny's soul burning, too.
Hopefully one day, it would turn into a mighty fire.
Bracha Goykadosh [making her debut with Yated
Neeman] is a regular contributor to Hamodia, The
Jewish Press and Shoshanim. Her novel,
Footprints in the Sand, is now available in bookstores
and from www.feldheim.com.
