Penina faltered. Was that it? Would Avi Korman cut funding to the yeshivah because she had a rich cousin?

I

t did rain, at the end. Not a very convincing rain at first, the drops stopping and starting so Sholom wasn’t sure about whether or not to make the Simchas Beis Hashoeivah in the large succah or indoors; every decision he made, he explained to Penina, would have chinuch ramifications well beyond this event.

Once, he told her, when he’d been about 14 or 15 years old, he’d been sitting during Krias HaTorah and the rosh yeshivah had stopped by his seat and whispered, “You should try to stand up,” and since then, he’d always stood. At the time, Sholom reflected, he hadn’t realized that the rosh yeshivah was changing his life, but that’s the effect of a rebbi.

More somberly, he told Penina, “And that’s the achrayus, every decision has to be weighed.”

She nodded. She knew this speech and knew how much he enjoyed giving it.

“It’s like, Penina, imagine we go inside and the boys walk away with a feeling that succah isn’t that important, chas v’shalom, and it’s all on my shoulders.”

She couldn’t help it. “Sholom, if it’s raining, then you’re pattur from the succah, so that’s the halachah, so don’t you have an achrayus to teach them that, too?”

Watching him ponder this, she felt badly that she’d spoken.

“I hear you, it is a big achrayus,” she conceded, but it was too late. He was hurt — which meant he was really nervous about tonight, because normally he would brush it off.

“Look, Sholom, let’s be ready either way,” she said briskly, eager to reconciliate. “I’m going to set the big table in the dining room, I think we should move out the nice chairs and I’ll use folding chairs instead — she has in the garage, I checked.

“I’m running out to buy a box of plastic tablecloths,” she continued, “I doubt Ahuva ever heard of them.” They both laughed; perhaps it was a bit more heartily then the joke deserved, but all was well.

********

At seven-thirty, the scheduled start time, Penina Wasser had a mild panic attack, which was very unusual for her. It was really pouring now, so she’d set up inside the dining room. She was comfortable with the choice of menu, she’d made sesame chicken and kugel — perfect bochur food, she thought — and she and the kids had baked fresh rolls. The Coke was cold and she even had two cases of beer in the freezer, so she had the “rosh yeshivah’s wife” thing down pat. But now she had a sudden fear that maybe Avi Korman would come with his wife, and then what would she do? If Shuey Portman came with his wife — she knew Henny Portman wouldn’t come, but even if she did — Penina would be fine, they had made it work over Rosh Hashanah. But Mrs. Korman, who called her a gardener a groundskeeper, and called the yeshivah “Avi’s little project”? Penina had nothing to serve her and even less to say to her.