The Never Ending Story
Some stories have a definite beginning and ending. This one one does not.
I'm the oldest of seven children. I have four younger brothers. The reason I tell you this is because two of those brothers are very involved in this story. There is Yaakov, my brother who is about 4 years younger than me, and Shauli, my brother who is about 8 years younger than I am. If you want to make fun of Shauli for having a girl's name, go ahead. We have been making fun of him for years. But that has nothing to do with this story. Shauli isn't even in the first part of the story.
It began about 17 years ago. I was 14. Yaakov was 10. We were walking home from shul in the snow. I doubt if we were wearing boots, or anything more than an overcoat and possibly gloves, because my mom usually didn't see us on Shabbos morning when we went to shul, and my dad didn't really notice what we were wearing when we went outside.
Anyway, on this Shabbos morning, for some reason, my Dad says to me me that he'll give me a $1 if I push Yaakov into the snow. I don't remember the context of the event. I had no idea that i would still remember this story seventeen years later.
I didn't really need the dollar motivation. Yaakov probably yelled, ran behind my dad for safety, was caught, and tossed into the snow.
Somehow that became a tradition. I was away at Yeshiva for a few winters after that, and then he was away at his yeshiva, and there weren't very many opportunities to throw each other into the snow.
I should mention that while I peaked at 5'9", he blossomed into a 6'3" adult.
Sometimes when we would see each other in the winter, we would remember that Shabbos, and sometimes I would toss him into the snow, and sometimes he would get me. I do remember picking him up and throwing him into a snow covered bush one wintry day.
Like all great family legends, this was told to my oldest son. Yaakov lives in Boston now, and we don't get to see him during the winter very often, but Shauli lives here, and last winter, we would usually walk to and from Shul with him.
My son wanted to recreate the pushing into snow, and tried to come up with elaborate plans for distracting my brother, giving me an opportunity to push Shauli into the snow. Sometimes he would throw a snowball to get shauli's attention, otehr times he would talk to shauli hoping to distract shauli long enough for me to push him into the snow.
Most times, though, it was my son who ended up in the snow. I guess all his whispering about the plan would make shauli suspicious, and when my boy would get close enough, Shauli would toss him into the snow.
There were times when I did get shauli, and times when he got me, but the person who got the worst of it was always my boy.
Which brings us to Thursday, when 6 inches of snow caused school to be cancelled, and Yaakov's visit with his daughters coincided. We all went sledding. We got to the hill before Yaakov did, and immediately my son started talking about plans to knock Yaakov into the snow.
Plan A was my son would smack Yaakov in the butt, run away, and when yaakov was chasing him i would tackle Yaakov.Plan B was to knock him into a sled, and push the sled down the hill.
I nixed plan A. We are big on respect here, and I didn't think that was respectful. Plan B didn't really work like we had hoped either, so my son just attacked Yaakov. When Yaakov was distracted, I moved in, and we ended up wrestling and falling down the hill, Yaakov knocking me down and then me pulling him into the snow.
Which brought us to Friday. My son wanted to visit hi Bubby. I was already there, as was Yaakov, Shauli and a bunch of other people. As soon as he walked in through the back door, my brothers both picked him up, started talking about "the plan," carried him out the front door, and threw him into the snow covered bush.
I told my son that since he was so much smaller than his uncles, he needed to have a sitdown with them to reach a peace agreement, which he is against, or he should wait because revenge is a dish best sevred cold, which my son also opposed.
He wants revenge, which will be hard to come by since Yaakov is going back to Boston on Sunday, and we no longer live near Shauli, so we don't walk home from shul with him. But this story is never ending. Yaakov's daughters are gettting old enough to knock down, and one day Shauli's baby will be the perfect age to terrorize.
In the meantime, though, he had to settle for the next best thing.
Grabbing his brother and tossing him into the snow.
I'm the oldest of seven children. I have four younger brothers. The reason I tell you this is because two of those brothers are very involved in this story. There is Yaakov, my brother who is about 4 years younger than me, and Shauli, my brother who is about 8 years younger than I am. If you want to make fun of Shauli for having a girl's name, go ahead. We have been making fun of him for years. But that has nothing to do with this story. Shauli isn't even in the first part of the story.
It began about 17 years ago. I was 14. Yaakov was 10. We were walking home from shul in the snow. I doubt if we were wearing boots, or anything more than an overcoat and possibly gloves, because my mom usually didn't see us on Shabbos morning when we went to shul, and my dad didn't really notice what we were wearing when we went outside.
Anyway, on this Shabbos morning, for some reason, my Dad says to me me that he'll give me a $1 if I push Yaakov into the snow. I don't remember the context of the event. I had no idea that i would still remember this story seventeen years later.
I didn't really need the dollar motivation. Yaakov probably yelled, ran behind my dad for safety, was caught, and tossed into the snow.
Somehow that became a tradition. I was away at Yeshiva for a few winters after that, and then he was away at his yeshiva, and there weren't very many opportunities to throw each other into the snow.
I should mention that while I peaked at 5'9", he blossomed into a 6'3" adult.
Sometimes when we would see each other in the winter, we would remember that Shabbos, and sometimes I would toss him into the snow, and sometimes he would get me. I do remember picking him up and throwing him into a snow covered bush one wintry day.
Like all great family legends, this was told to my oldest son. Yaakov lives in Boston now, and we don't get to see him during the winter very often, but Shauli lives here, and last winter, we would usually walk to and from Shul with him.
My son wanted to recreate the pushing into snow, and tried to come up with elaborate plans for distracting my brother, giving me an opportunity to push Shauli into the snow. Sometimes he would throw a snowball to get shauli's attention, otehr times he would talk to shauli hoping to distract shauli long enough for me to push him into the snow.
Most times, though, it was my son who ended up in the snow. I guess all his whispering about the plan would make shauli suspicious, and when my boy would get close enough, Shauli would toss him into the snow.
There were times when I did get shauli, and times when he got me, but the person who got the worst of it was always my boy.
Which brings us to Thursday, when 6 inches of snow caused school to be cancelled, and Yaakov's visit with his daughters coincided. We all went sledding. We got to the hill before Yaakov did, and immediately my son started talking about plans to knock Yaakov into the snow.
Plan A was my son would smack Yaakov in the butt, run away, and when yaakov was chasing him i would tackle Yaakov.Plan B was to knock him into a sled, and push the sled down the hill.
I nixed plan A. We are big on respect here, and I didn't think that was respectful. Plan B didn't really work like we had hoped either, so my son just attacked Yaakov. When Yaakov was distracted, I moved in, and we ended up wrestling and falling down the hill, Yaakov knocking me down and then me pulling him into the snow.
Which brought us to Friday. My son wanted to visit hi Bubby. I was already there, as was Yaakov, Shauli and a bunch of other people. As soon as he walked in through the back door, my brothers both picked him up, started talking about "the plan," carried him out the front door, and threw him into the snow covered bush.
I told my son that since he was so much smaller than his uncles, he needed to have a sitdown with them to reach a peace agreement, which he is against, or he should wait because revenge is a dish best sevred cold, which my son also opposed.
He wants revenge, which will be hard to come by since Yaakov is going back to Boston on Sunday, and we no longer live near Shauli, so we don't walk home from shul with him. But this story is never ending. Yaakov's daughters are gettting old enough to knock down, and one day Shauli's baby will be the perfect age to terrorize.
In the meantime, though, he had to settle for the next best thing.
Grabbing his brother and tossing him into the snow.
posted by Air Time at 10:43 PM
5 Comments:
Yaakov's Daughters! hello, girls don't get thrown in the snow!! I know, i've been a part of the family for a really long time, and i've never seen any of the girls thrown in the snow in the brothers' game.
I don't believe the rules can stay stagnant like that. It is apparant that as time goes on and certain brothers have only daughters that it would be unfair to not through them in the snow. Obviously if they were very delicate then they should be placed nicely in the snow, but they certainly should have some snow action.
On that note. Galililean girls don't see snow very often, though the boys can probably hold their own.
I agree.
Just because Yaakov isn't man enough to have a son doesn't give his daughters some kind of special protected status.
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That's a great story. Waiting for more. »
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