SUPPLEMENT to
https://thinkforyourselfn8.blogspot.com/2019/10/joy-for-bible-day.html
dear diary--"joy for bible" day
soon after starting third grade, i enjoyed a special emotional experience.
i had already switched schools, from the jewish institute in new york city to the jewish academy. briefly, the boy who convinced me to switch was in fourth grade so a bit older than me. he warned me that the rabbi in the third grade used a wood pointer rod for hitting the students so i feared the physical pain that i had already suffered by the first grade rabbi who used his hand to hit me many days nd each day repeatedly series of crule hits body pain and emotional helplessness of the big man over a child. wen the other students played at recess this rabbi led me to a room. probably the one he knew had no police cameras and there each time hit me a long series of repeated hits. the pervert rabbi did not suffice with sadastic pain but wanted the direct contact on the bare bottom of a young boy. but enuf of those painful memories of physical pain from cruel rabbis.
the background was: i told my parents i wanted to switch skools for that reason and the cruel parents responded, scoffingly "big deal... we also hit you." i felt betrayed and abandoned by those heartless parents, who doomed me to this painful fate. so i returned to the older boy and asked him to help me convince my parents to agree to the move for other reasons. so he did the study and taught me to explain, that the academy was better "quality academic" in general subjects and that his parents were switching him so i should switch too.
this was the factor that swayed my cruel parents to move me from the violent-adult-rabbi place because the cruel parents would not move me to protect me from pain. so the real reason I wanted to change school was to save me from body pain from the wood rod, justifyd by bad relijin that bad to "spare the rod". this older boy switched to be with me. I then began third grade and he began fifth.
our frendship was special. on the first day of skool at the academy, i was in the third grade. the rabbi lebstein explained that he expected us to know the prayers and trusted us to read them. then rabbi l. left the room. no adult supervision. we began the long readings many, many pages of hebrew words.
i found that also at this skool i read the hebrew words slower than the other students who probably skipped words to shorten the time and daily burden of reading around ninety pages of hebrew words. the same pages day after day was a boring burden. and so many pages. jeez.
the leader was already on page thirty, and loudly read the sentence that marked the section while i still was on page 9. then my savior came.
in the door walked the boy not named shalom-not his real name. i chose this name because one boy named shalom was my frend at the institute. he was the only kid who was not mean to me but only because he was a cripple with leg defect.
the other brats at the institute attacked me using hurtful words and even physical pushing me down which is greater force than a hit. and you thought jews were taught to "love your nebbor"... ha.
also at the academy in new york city a boy named shalom [real name in my grade but older] was polite to me. he explained to me that the reason nobody invited me to their birthday parties, including his party, was because i never invited anybody to mine. wen i explained that my birth date was on a day of jewish fasting so i never had a party, he was a frend enuf to explain that my parents COULD celebrate a few days before date, same as wen his birthday was on Saturday. I then realized that clearly my parents were too stingy, even more than typical jews, to buy me a birthday present or buy decorations. and i thought they had a good excuse. until he explained this.
that is why i chose the name shalom as the pen name for the older boy. he used the opportunity wen the adult rabbis were not watching the class students, to come to visit me. he waved to me by the door and i hurried toward him to say hello and thank him for aiding me to switch skool. he urged me to come with him and play checkers.
i hesitated because i thought i needed to read prayers but for gratitude joined him. we went to a section of the school that he knew was empty during class time and he opend a small game of magnetic checkers. while we played i asked him about the law of reading prayers and he assured me that the following day he would show me the source that we were "not truly obligated." so we played checkers and i enjoyed the fun eventhough he won.
next he gave me pencil and paper and said write every two letter word that begins with letter a. again his list had more words and he gave me his list and said learn them in the dictionary. we listed a few more letters until his watch beeped. yes the new fangled technology of the 1980s.
he walked back to the fifth grade room and i walked to the third grade room.
i was just in time for the whispering part. everybody in the room stood quietly swaying as they had seen their dads sway. i started reading that section and same as in the previous skool the other brats finished reading the 20 paragraphs and i had only read around 14. i had a new idea. instead of trying to finish all 20 as i had done in the institute, i would complete the others the next morning.
from that moment the following paragraphs of that day prayer, i only read the beginning of each paragraph, a few lines, until the leader read the verse marking the end then i skipped until that place and read with the group. a rabbi had once told me to 'read with the group by doing that" but i did not like skipping. until that day when I heard shalom said i was not obligated.
then we had math studies in the morning and the boy next to me made a mark " so i learnt to use that mark for the repeating sentences.
in hindsight we see the idiocy of the lady teacher who told us to write with no number digits:
1 "one plus one equals two"
2 "two " two " four" etc.
after lunch, rabbi l. read the hebrew of the bible book genesis, phrase by phrase so we heard and repeated. then he added the rabbis commentary to the story. at recess none of the brats included the new kid me in their game because they "already had teams from last year". at least nobody hit me during recess in contrast to first grade holy rabbi.
the next morning as planned, the other brats read the prayers but i started my reading at the end of the "silent prayer" meaning i continued from paragraph 14 and finished that set of 20. then i waited for shalom. he arrived and led me to the relijis library. he showed me the source that said in the reliable religious library that the things in book "brakhos" are for "whoever wants to be a hassid" so not everybody wants to be that category named hassidim. i certainly did not "want" to be hassidic nor read so many pages of any book and certainly not the dull repetition of the same words daily.
so no obligation only a lie to the students "everybody reading blessings and silent prayers" the jewish tradition itself said "certain people who want" therefore the lie gets reveald.
so we went to the hiding place and played checkers with magnetic peses. then word challenges until we finished two letters words and then three letter word lists I askd if any word is one letter and he said two. a and I. smart kid. each night in addition to the school homework I learnt the short words that we had listed.
day after day for around one month, until the vacation for the "joy of the bible" called simhat tora.
rellivit to that festival, shalom had warned me, before the school vacation, that dinner would be delayed that holiday so i must eat at normal time.
as planned, on the afternoon before simhat tora i obeyed my parents to shower during the afternoon. i dressed in the bothersome fancy suit i was forced to wear. then my parents showered and dressed.
i removed the suit jacket and tie. i quickly spread peanut spread on bread. then i shoved the samwij in plastic and into the jacket pocket.
i grabbed a book and pretended to read. then i walked with dad to the prayer building. i read from a certain psalm. wen dad stood and silently read the "afternoon week" prayer i relied on his faith not to move. i went out and ate the samwij before the festival started.
sure enuf as shalom had warned me we did not go home for dinner after prayers. I shoulda rememberd from the previous year but did not. after many pages of reading they had auction selling ideas for real money. this took time and finally singing time.
for a long time. the clock showed an hour passed and they just kept dancing in circle. the time was so long even my samwij was not enuf and i felt hungry again. i was allowed one piece of cake but i recalled from last year that the sugar in cake was so much that i had felt dizzy.
note: in hindsight i was truly dizzy from hunger that year, not from sugar, but as a child did not know that.
then my savior-ettes came. the girls not named adina and atara in the above event.
story at
https://thinkforyourselfn8.blogspot.com/2019/10/joy-for-bible-day.html
there.
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