High Stakes in Vegas

But Anshi, a close relative, would be attending the annual JCK convention there — the leading jewelry event in North America, open to all jewelry professionals and something no one in the diamond industry wants to miss. There’s quite a “matzav” there on Shabbos as well (Shabbat dinner and lunch are elegantly penned into the printed schedule), and while many dealers travel with their spouses, my relative was there by himself. Maybe, he asked, I could spend Shabbos with him? He’d order me hotel accommodations and Shabbos meal tickets — and guaranteed it would be an experience.

I took the last flight out of L.A. on Thursday night, but a several-hour delay meant I arrived in Vegas in the wee hours of the night. You’d never know, though. The noise, the traffic — it could have been the middle of the day. And then, like in an early chassidic tale, I hear the honking as a rental car pulls up alongside the curb. “Shalom aleichem, kumt arein!”

It’s Anshi, with his long peyos and buttoned vest over wool tzitzis — a comforting, if not incongruous sight in these parts. I feel the cool air-conditioning and smell the leather seats, as the notes of Shulem Lemmer’s “Tniyeleh” play softly in the background. The words seem to have been written especially for this night:

“Oifen Veg Aheim… S’kumt a shvere tzeit / Fun Bashefer azoi veit / S’kumt a shvere tzeit / Nisyonos fun yeder ziet / Beim amud einer alien/ Zei ich mein rebbe shtein — On the way home / A hard time comes / And you feel so far from the Creator / A hard time comes / Challenges from every side / A single person stands at the amud / I see my rebbe standing…”