In the shtetl of Vaysechvoos, Jewish boys are like Jewish boys everywhere. They start their education with a taste of honey from the pages of Chumash when they are four years old. By the time they are eight, they are already studying Gemara.

Nine-year-old Yonkel protested to his father. He pointed out that Sascha, the son of a peasant family that lived at the edge of the shtetl, didn't have to go to school. He got to work with his father on the job. Yonkel was not allowed to enter his father's trade. Instead, it was cheder every day. Sascha went to school, too, but his school only lasted a half day except during planting or harvest or when the snow was too deep.

"Papa,

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