Chapter Two
As with most boys, our teen years were the most awkward and me and My Brother were no different to anyone else, in that respect. While the Temple now recognized us as men, we knew in our heart of hearts that we were far from being the men that we saw about town. First off, our dad and our uncles were strong hard working guys that never complained. They had plenty of reasons to complain, but it just seemed that they had reached a point in their lives that complaining just no longer made sense.
Secondly, were the Roman soldiers. Those fuckers were M-E-N. I shit you not, I peed once when one of them looked at me and I was 15 at the time.
Lastly, our sisters and girl cousins were different as they grew up. They seemed to go from girls to women over night and we noticed it and certainly the real men around us noticed it, but they made our situation worse by looking down on us like we were still little boys.
So, My Brother and I moped about the carpentry shop carrying and fetching, occasionally being asked to actually cut, pin or build something that when we were 6 we would have done anything to be allowed to do, but at the moment, we could not have cared less about doing. As teenagers working a crappy service job often do, My Brother and I would fantasize about alternative lives or more specifically how would we create an alternative life.
My Brother went through a period where he was angry that he wasn't born into the Levite tribe and therefore couldn't become a Rabbi. For some stupid reason, he seemed to think that he was born for the job of interpreting God's message to his chosen people. Theoretically, we were of David's line and therefore had access to kingship, but neither My Brother or the Empire seemed too keen on supporting Jim Christ on his quest of ruling the land of God.
We spent our days dodging as much work as possible and brainstorming ways for My Brother to become the Rabbi that he always wanted to be and for me to become a King of something, anything.
It was easier for me, because I convinced dad that I could sell furniture. I got lucky one late afternoon and sold some off spec chairs to a semi-blind guy for full price. After that, I carved out my "kingdom" as the family furniture salesman.
Clearly, My Brother was jealous. Sure, he'd say that he was motivated by his Father, but I know that it was me that gave him the focus that he needed to chase his impossible dream.
As we discussed how My Brother could become a Rabbi, we always came back to two fundamental problems. First, this was never going to happen inside the Temple or be sanctioned by the Temple authority and secondly, he'd have to make his own rules. I'm not exactly sure how this all started, but you know what it is like. You get some ideas in your head and the next thing you know, you are running down a path of no return.
Soon, My Brother was out of the house, living off of strangers and trying to be something that he wasn't allowed to be. You can imagine how happy mom and dad were?!
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