Chaim held back, unwilling to do anything to make it look like he wanted to be their rav

There was a little commotion in the back of shul after Shabbos Minchah. Chaim Brucker paused to listen to the heated argument about whether or not to say Yaaleh V’Yavo in bentshing after Shalosh Seudos, since that night would be Rosh Chodesh.

The correct course of action was a very explicit Taz and he was about to share this with them, but then he held back, unwilling to do anything to make it look like he wanted to be their rav. He had a brief internal dilemma, because he knew that he was obligated to share the halachah, but he couldn’t bring himself to speak up: though it was impossible, it still felt like Shaindy had engineered this little dispute just so that he could weigh in.

He was torn, but then Shapiro, who Chaim remembered from the old days in the Mir, passed by and told them the correct halachah and Chaim was off the hook.

His son-in-law Moshe Dovid was looking at him quizzically, and Chaim felt badly. He would have loved to explain his hesitation, his determination to quash whatever candidacy other people may have had in mind for him, but he couldn’t. Because in his heart, he knew that having Moshe Dovid and Brachi — their most visibly yeshivishe children — for Shabbos, was also part of Shaindy’s plan.

Or maybe not? Was he the one who was imagining things?

It wasn’t even five minutes after Havdalah when the phone rang.

Mrs. Dina Walburger was the social coordinator of Alameda Gardens, and Akiva Putterman knew to expect the call. The thing with using a marketer was that you never knew what was real and what was fake, so as many bookings as you got, it didn’t do anything for your ego.

Ben assured him that this wasn’t true, and if someone wasn’t a winner, you couldn’t make them a winner regardless of budget, but Akiva also knew that there was no such thing as “regardless of budget.”

His son-in-law had taught him well.

The Tuesday night shiur, Mrs. Walburger informed him, was the event for the women of Alameda Gardens. “Literally can’t-miss. Women skip simchahs for it. It’s the high point of the week.”

She wanted him to give the shiur this week, but seemed not to understand that chinuch was not only his career, but also his passion.