Bubbe's Place: Stories

The Boys of Koshovato

Menashe Korostoshevski and Yussel Gubenko met in chedar (Hebrew school). They started Hebrew school together at age five. They didn’t study the Russian language, geography or history. They studied Hebrew and the Bible. They learned to pray and to conduct themselves as pious Jews. But when the doors of the Hebrew school opened, they shook off their solemn and sober shells and became shkuzim (mischief-makers).

One of their favorite past times was to collect ripe fruit from their neighbors’ trees, When caught in the act they were not above pelting the neighbor with his own fruit.

They had one poor neighbor who was blessed with seven daughters. At that time in our history, religious Jews thought that no family was complete without a son. The neighbors pitied this pious couple that seemed unable to produce a son. Menashe and Yussel, young hellions, took special delight in tormenting the parents and their seven daughters. In America, they might have rung their doorbell and run away or made phony phone calls, but this was Koshovato and there were no doorbells or telephones. They did other things. Every Passover when one of the daughters would open the door to invite Elijah to enter, the boys would shove a goat through the door. The following morning, the neighbor would visit Israel and Shlomo, the boys’ fathers, and complain that he had been the butt of a terrible goat, I mean joke. Menashe and Yussel would be beaten and lectured at length. From one Passover to the next was a long time. The bruises faded and the lectures were forgotten. The following Passover they would do it again!

Once when Menashe and Yussel were ten years old, they pooled their money with two friends and bought a horse. It wasn’t much of a horse, but at ten they were not very good judges of horseflesh and besides their capital was limited. Proudly, they displayed their purchase to the father who they hoped would house their investment. As he examined their purchase critically and vocally, they decided that maybe they had overpaid. Quickly they agreed that they would claim they paid half the true amount.

“So, how much did you pay for the mitzia (bargain)?”

“Only five rubles.”

“Only five rubles?” With that question he lifted the tail and studied the horse’s hindquarters.

“What is wrong?” demanded the boys.

“For five rubles the horse shouldn’t have a backside. A tail maybe … but no backside.”