And Nochum Walked Alone

Kehillas Kol Yaakov was thrumming with noise and movement. Men and boys passed around baskets of Tam-Tams and containers of herring, elbows bumping and napkins flying.

Taub grinned and handed him the platter. “Don’t fill up too much,” he warned Yehuda with a mock-serious face. “The cholent hasn’t come out yet.”

Eli, Taub’s eldest, rolled his eyes. “You always tell us that,” he said.

“Yeah,” Binyomin, Taub’s second son, laughed. “I think it’s getting old, Ta.”