It was that line that effectively ended the conversation, the menahel using Heshy’s own words to checkmate him

"Akiva, trust me, this is something unhealthy,” Reuven insisted. “My only question is what I’m seeing and how to react”

“But then I’ll never know what a Leil Shishi is,” she said playfully, but he missed that it was a joke and got all serious

Chedva was keeping the rule — the one rule! — sitting in her seat quietly the entire lesson, but she was wrecking everything

Every single person in the room was transfixed. Reuven had never seen anyone speak this way, so honest and raw

There it was, that same sarcastic tone. He would have to make sure he didn’t sound that way tonight

He would start out playing clueless yeshivishe yungerman, and if the situation called for it, he would let it slip that he got it, he’d been around the block, too

This whole neighborhood, he believed, had the making of a success, but there was something missing, some element that wasn’t there yet

“Don’t you think the people here will resent a group of noisy teenagers in the shul every night?"

This was Akiva’s territory. “I teach stuff like this, I would love to hear some of your best ideas, it’s so relevant to what I do. Tell me a chiddush”

She couldn’t meet her son’s eyes, knowing that she had just interrupted his kiddush and sort of killed the atmosphere