All I Ask: Chapter 50

“I’ve got a story for you,” said Marianne Bing, sitting down next to Marta, her hostess, with a tall glass of diced kiwi in her hand. “You know we were in Israel for Chanukah? So we’d signed up for one of those menorah tours in Jerusalem, where they take you around to see the old neighborhoods by the light of the Chanukah candles. We wanted the children to experience it.”

Marianne took a dainty bite of kiwi. “It was six in the evening,” she continued, “and we were running around all over Nachlaot, where we were supposed to meet up with our group, but we couldn’t find them. We were a bit late, I guess. So we called the organizer, but by the time we found out where they were and caught up with them, we’d already missed the lighting and the whole explanation. The kids were so disappointed… they’d wanted to see how they light those special oil lamps. And then, all of a sudden Ronnie said to me, ‘Look, there’s somebody who’s about to light his menorah. Let’s go ask him if we can watch.’ So we approached this person, and it was a lovely young man, tying a black sash around his suit jacket and preparing wicks for the oil lamps. And guess who it was!”

“Well, that’s easy,” said Marta, laughing. “There’s only one young man I know who lives in Nachlaot. It was Yonatan?”

“You guessed it! And it was such a beautiful scene, watching him chant the brachot and light the menorah in a glass box at his front gate, in that picturesque little alley, with the Jerusalem stone and the arched windows. Ronnie was so taken by it, he said if we ever make aliyah, he would buy a house in Nachlaot, too.”