He can’t daven and it’s the Yom Hadin!

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olden beads of honey trails form patterns across plates and cutlery. The apples have been dipped, pomegranate arils eaten. Shanah tovah cards have been oohed and aahed over, fish eyes squealed at, bad simanim puns made.

The children’s attention wavers now that we’re on the next course, so my cousin, hosting us for Yom Tov, coaxes it back with a story.

“Yossel,” he says, “was a simple, yet pious man. What does a pious man do to prepare himself for the Yom Hadin? Teshuvah, yes! Tzedakah — of course! And lots and lots of davening! And when it’s almost time to go to shul, he goes to the mikveh to make sure he’s completely pure and ready, right, children? Afterward, Yossel gets dressed in the bathroom in his new Yom Tov clothes, goes to open the door… and it’s locked.

“He bangs and shouts, and rattles the door handle, but it won’t budge.

“Imagine that, children? Yossel is locked in a bathroom! He can’t daven and it’s the Yom Hadin!”