“Throw the dice, it’s your turn,” I urged Shmuli who was lost in thought. Shmuli jiggled the dice in his hands, then tossed them on the board. He got “snake eyes” (six and six).
“Wow, you get another turn,” enthused Mendy, my brother who is two years younger than me. Shmuli’s soldier landed on a street in Yerushalayim.
“Great!” exclaimed Shmuli. “The city of Yerushalayim is now part of my property.”
Shmuli quickly handed me some mitzva bills and I gave him the deed for the Holy City. Shmuli played another turn and his soldier landed on the policeman’s square. “Go to jail,” Mendy declared in a policeman’s voice and handed me the dice. “Now it’s your turn Berel, go.”
You’ve probably figured out by now that the game we were busy with that afternoon was the popular Monopoly board game, but it wasn’t the regular Monopoly. It was a redone version of the game and we kids were the first in the world to play it! Sounds like an exaggeration? Let me tell you how we got this special Monopoly:
As you remember from previous weeks, Shmuli and I became friendly with the older Sholom, the owner of the print shop. You might also remember the nickname we gave him, “the suspender man.” On our last visit to the print shop, when we discovered what the special books with the holes are (they were Tanyas written in Braille for the blind), Sholom made another offer.
“Follow me. I want to show you something that will definitely interest you,” he said mysteriously.
We followed Sholom across the large shop, being careful not to get too close to the huge machines that were all over the place. Sholom stopped next to a wooden office desk and we saw a game board on it. He opened the board on the desk and said, “This is a new version of Monopoly that I want to print. What’s special about it is that all the properties are concepts from the Geula.”
We studied the board and saw properties like the Beis HaMikdash and Mt. of Olives Museum. Sholom gave us time to look it over and then said, “I came up with this version and most of the details fit the world of Geula but the square with the policeman saying “Go to Jail” is still there like in the old version. Sholom pointed at the policeman on the board and said, “I would like you to take the board, play with it and come up with an idea for Geula squares. If you have an idea by tomorrow night, I will give you both a new Monopoly.”
We hurried to my house and began to play. It soon became nighttime and Shmuli had to go home. You can guess what I was thinking about until I fell asleep and then also in my dreams! Right, I thought and dreamed about the policeman and about what would be a good substitute.
The next day I met Shmuli in class and was disappointed to learn that he still had not come up with an idea, like me. We decided to tell some friends what we were looking for. We told them about the challenge. When we finished, Shneur, who is known for his sense of humor, said, “I suggest that we put an ad in the paper: A position in the Monopoly game has become available. Whoever wants to submit himself as a candidate should speak to Shmuli and Berel. Good terms for those who qualify.”
We burst out laughing at this original idea and then suddenly noticed the quiet in the classroom. We looked toward the door and noticed, to our surprise, that the teacher had already walked in. Recess was over without our realizing it. We were embarrassed, but our teacher realized that we simply hadn’t noticed and he merely asked us to sit down.
Then he said, “Maybe you can tell me what is keeping you so busy that outstanding students like yourselves are not ready for class on time?”
After being embarrassingly late, we did not feel like telling the class about our assignment but we had no choice and Shmuli urged me to get up and tell them all.
“Maybe the teacher will help us come up with an idea,” he whispered encouragingly.
I stood up and told about yesterday’s visit to Sholom’s print shop and I showed the teacher the new board. The teacher looked at it, copied the general idea on the board so everyone could see it and then said, “I think I have an idea, but before I say what it is, I would like you to try and come up with something too.”
All the kids wracked their brains and then, all of a sudden, I have no idea where it came from, an idea flashed into my mind.
“One minute, we just learned about this!” I exclaimed. The teacher smiled and said, “I think you are heading in the direction I was thinking.”
I concentrated for a while and then the idea became clear. I asked the teacher permission to speak and then said, “In Parshas Shoftim we learned the Rebbe’s sicha about ‘restore our judges as at first and our advisors as in the beginning.’ In the sicha it says that in the Geula there won’t be policemen because there will be no evil and there will be no need for policemen to arrest criminals. The policemen will be replaced with advisors who will give good advice that people will accept because it will be given with thought for the welfare of the person receiving it.
“So the square on the board with the policeman should be changed for a square with an advisor! The card that goes with it (Go to Jail) only pertains to galus, a time when it is necessary to force people to obey the law. It can be exchanged for an ‘advice’ card which someone who lands on that square will pick up. There is no need for the jail, of course. It can be exchanged for a ‘session of the Sanhedrin’ – the ‘judges,’ who issue instructions and piskei Torah to the Jewish people.”
I finished my speech and sat down. The class applauded.
“Great idea,” said my teacher. “I will add that now, when we are on the very threshold of Geula, we already have a sort of start to the situation that will be in the time of Geula, and we already have the advisor of our generation, the Nasi Ha’dor, the Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach.”
That night, we went to the print shop and after Sholom heard the idea he also said, “That’s a terrific idea. Now the Monopoly board will look exactly as our world will soon look, a world of Geula.”