by Roger Herst
From a cluster of members, an Israeli born congregant belted out at Stan. "Mah Pitom, Why now? I mean, what happened to caused this change of mind?"
A few moments elapsed while the president absorbed the question and fashioned a response. "You have to understand, Danny, that Ohav Shalom has an awesome team of lawyers working hard for its welfare. The firm of Delew, Samis and Quine has been advising us and Dominion Mutual Insurance Company's counsel, Horace Corcoran, has assembled formidable experts. While one doesn't like to think of bargaining in matters such as this, you can be assured that these lawyers kept Mr. Sutterfeld and his people's feet to the fire. In the end, apparently reason prevailed. My guess is that the family didn't want take Ohav Shalom to court. That wouldn't have served anybody's interests, especially Tybee Morgenstern's."
Gabby hid her amusement. Lawyers, she knew, were fond of boasting about their intellectual skills and Stan couldn't resist the opportunity. There was no way to deflate his hubris without telling him of her meeting with Marc Sutterfeld and that she had no intention of doing. Her gamble that Sutterfeld would not face a jury with the new evidence had paid off. She sighted Chuck staring at her, his smile sealing their conspiracy.
The musicians broke out an unscheduled round of energetic Israeli dances. Chorrah dancers assembled, casting arms around each other in a circle.
Gabby and Stan met in a congratulatory mood. "One question," she asked. "You just dropped a bombshell when you said, a little higher than the insurance company offered. How much higher than the ten Ms, Stan?"
He glanced around to make certain nobody nearby might overhear, then whispered for her benefit. "A million bucks."
"Wow," she gushed. "That's more than a little. Where did Sutterfeld come up with that sum?"
"Easy," he replied. "There's a ten percent fee tacked on for the services of Grand and Morrison. We're going to have to do a little negotiating on that matter. Since we're not going to court, Grand and Morrison isn't entitled to a million dollar windfall. In the end, I can assure you, Ohav Shalom won't pay more than a fraction of that for legal fees."
Anina Norstrom circled back to cut Gabby off from another discussion with Stan, Shirley Delinsky and Marvin Jankelrod. "I still want to talk with you, Rabbi Gabby," she said, her hand tugging upon her arm.
Gabby respected Anina as an ambitious, highly intelligent woman, who wouldn't be foolish enough to let a man as good as Asa slip away to California without first making a claim to him either with engagement or wedding plans. In that respect, Anina was far ahead of Asa. They left the social hall to speak in private and found a religious school classroom, then sat in small grade-school chairs with their knees near their chins, their backs arched forward – stimulating for memories of childhood.
Anina could barely wait to be settled before talking. "Rabbi, I'm sure you're wondering what will happen between Asa and me. Everything's up in the air. California works for Asa, but not for me at this time. I'm not normally the jealous type, but the idea of him in the West with all those sexy girls with 34 inch boobs and 21 inch waists doesn't give me the warm and woolies – if you appreciate where I'm coming from. Whatever happens between us, I imagine you and I won't have the same opportunities to talk. You understand I'm not a religious person and don't come to the Temple often. Asa re-introduced me to Judaism and that, I regard, as something very positive."
"I appreciate that, Anina. I wish only for what is best for you guys. Still, I'd like you to know I think the world of him. And that was before we all came to appreciate his musical talent. I'll be available to you, irrespective of what happens with Asa."
Sensing a false start, Anina cleared her throat twice. "Thanks, Rabbi. You're the only rabbi I know other than Asa. But that's not why I want to speak with you, though this might be considered a violation of a professional code between physicians and their patients. We're not supposed to talk about our patients without specific authorization. We can discuss them with other physicians, but it's not clear if that leniency includes other professionals or members of the clergy. Nevertheless, sometimes rules must be broken. I don't like to think of myself as a ridged person. What I'm about to say, I'm sure you won't misuse."
Gabby improved her position in the school chair to give maximum attention.
"Seven weeks ago, Kye Naah called my office. My receptionist made the appointment and I had no idea why he sought my services. Turns out, he had learned from Asa that occasionally I perform circumcisions on adult males and wanted to know what was entailed in the procedure. I told him how working on an adult male is different than an infant. I have a demonstration model in my office and I explained it to him. I inquired why he was interested. He told me he wasn't circumcised at birth and was seriously considering having it done. I referred him to a male surgeon at Georgetown Hospital who also performs the operation."
Gabby's mind flooded with questions, most of which she would wanted to ask Kye.
"It's a surprise to me," she said, not feeling surprise at all. The subject had come up between them in an uncomfortable way.
"But that's not the end of the story," Anina read Gabby's reaction on her face, adding, "The following week, he called again. He said he wanted me to perform the operation on him. Since we've developed a professional relationship, I had my reservations. He said he felt confident of my surgical skills and wasn't the least bit embarrassed. I told him that before I could consider this, he'd have to undergo an examination. That didn't bother him either, so he came again to my office. The examination went well. Excellent blood pressure. Strong heart. Not overweight. Everything a surgeon looks for in a surgical candidate. I performed the operation three days later at Suburban Hospital. Everything went well. He stayed overnight to ensure his urinary flow was okay. We released him the next day."
When Gabby fell into her own thoughts, Anina apologized for perhaps overstepping the lines of propriety.
"No, no, thanks for telling me," Gabby appeared appreciative through her mind was already sailing through clouds of memories, one that stuck – the image of Kye Naah standing naked before his mirror and looking at himself. She blamed herself for revealing why circumcision was so important to her, perhaps making him feel deficient. Certainly, she never suggested he undergo an operation. What motivated him remained a mystery, though it dovetailed with his study in Israel. Anina's disclosure led Gabby to believe that she had been wrong in her original assessment – he was not running from her, but moving with deliberate steps toward her. The chasm separating them was closing. And that, she confessed without reservation, was exactly what she wanted.
That night, before going to bed, Gabby dispatched an email to Kye in Jerusalem.
Knowing others might read it at Yeshiva Shomer-Mitzvot, she exercised restraint. After explaining the positive outcome of the Morgenstern settlement, she wrote:
Anina and I talked last night and I now know what happened at Suburban Hospital. While I never asked you to do this, I am humbled. Why was it necessary?
Gabby
His response arrived in twelve hours.
Because when I looked in the mirror I needed to be honest with myself. I understood then the difference between having you and holding on to you. I knew then that holding on would require me to be Jewish in body as well as in soul. I'm almost there now.
Love, Kye
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
FINALLY A TOUCH OF HEAVEN
Gabby went to the Izaak Walton League Rifle Range in Seneca, Maryland to share her happiness with Joel Fox. It was 7:30 a.m. on a May morning. A brisk mountain wind blew through the flowering dogwoods. Blossoming white and cardinal red azalea punctuated the green landscape with dashing color. No cars were in the parking lot and, at this early hour, the range stood deserted. She sat beside Joel's monument, occasionally stroking its granite surface and talking about dreams she and Kye had come to share. "You made this happen for me, Joel," she whispered. "Without you, I wouldn't be here. Thank you, my dearest friend."
When the ti
me came to leave, she planted both hands on the monument to his memory and recited "she-he-che-ya-nu ve-ki-man-nu, ve-hi-gi-a-nu, la-ze-man ha-zeh, Blessed is the Lord who has sustained us until this happy time." At that moment, a most extraordinary event occurred. Unbeknownst to her, a rifleman must have been sighting his high-powered deer rifle on the long sighting range. A single shot shattered the silence and seemed to echo in the confinement of the trees. She expected to hear a follow-up shot, but there was none. In years past, the crack of a rifle would have frightened her. Today, her reactions were different. Nothing could disturb the internal fullness she felt. This gunshot portent no danger. Just the opposite. She interpreted it as an omen from the grave, a signal of Joel's approval of her marriage to Kye Oliver Naah.
On her wedding day, Gabby traded her black rabbinical gown and multicolored yarmulke used in hundreds of weddings, for a sleeveless silk-duchess-satin gown with a scoop-neck bodice, cut very low in the back. Years of careful attention to her body filled it with nubile beauty. Her dark hair, longer than she usually wore it, was pulled back behind the ears, with a flowing white veil held in place by a thin golden tiara. On the very pulpit from which she has spoken for so many years, officiated at hundreds of weddings, funerals, bar and bat mitzvoth, she abandoned all signs of her rabbinic persona to be, what she had always longed to become, a simple bride.
The wedding of Gabrielle Lewyn and Kye Oliver Naah occurred on Sunday morning, June first before multitudes of family and friends, predominately Korean and Jewish, but certainly not exclusively. Of Gabby's friends, several you would recognize. Her original rabbinical mentor and close friend, Rabbi Dr. Seth Greer, flew from Israel to officiate at the ceremony, as he had pledged when, years before, he had fled Washington in disgrace. During the intervening years, the indiscretions that resulted in his resignation as Senior Rabbi of Ohav Shalom had lapsed into historical memory. Even the old families who were deeply offended at the time were now willing to forgive. Time has a way of eroding outrage. An old member of the synagogue who had witnessed the unfortunate episode with Seth Greer's womanizing and inevitable resignation wisely quipped to all who would listen, "It's always better to forgive before you forget."
The erstwhile Rabbi Dr. Greer, now a celebrity political satirist and radio-television raconteur, no longer conveyed the persona of rabbi. But for Gabby's wedding, he dusted off his old clerical robe, tallit and yarmulke. "This," he said in the brief service, "is the summit of my rabbinical career. How long I've waited for this moment."
Many who attended the ceremony had never actually met, though they knew of each other through Gabby's elaborate descriptions.
Dr. Samual Lewyn from Los Angeles gave his daughter away, though bad knees obliged him to totter down the aisle beside her with the aid of a thick cane. Her sister, brother-in-law, and their three children arrived from Cleveland, laden with good wishes and much unsolicited advice about marriage. Zoe Mountolive, the New York attorney who defended Noah Zentner at his trial, came, escorted by a wealthy investment banker, sixteen years her senior, and her 17-year-old daughter, Clementine, thin and stunning, with double earrings in pierced ears and a tattoo on her bared shoulder. Noah and Morgan Zentner, now the parents of two sons, were ebullient with wishes for Gabby's happiness. By now tension between Noah and Gabby had long since lapsed and they could look fondly at each other not as jilted ex-lovers, but old friends who had shared a traumatic experience. Though stooped and in constant pain from acute arthritis, Ephraim Rothman spoke eloquently about Gabby, as though he represented the custodial memory at Ohav Shalom. Rabbi Dov Shellenberg, now Lieutenant Governor of Indiana, arrived from Indianapolis and immediately began hobnobbing with members of the congregation who remembered him as Gabby's junior associate. Lydia Browner, Gabby's tennis coach and sometimes doubles partner, whose physical beauty Gabby believed could still launch a thousand ships, brought her steady companion, Daisy Seasongood. Her brother, Chuck, had promise to attend with his significant other, Lawrence Bourne. At the last moment, the two had quarreled about something and he came alone.
On Kye's side of the aisle, half of Washington's Korean American community was present, including many from the Korean Baptist Church of Bethesda. Friends and associates in the high tech industry came, whether or not they had received invitations. Most gratifying to Kye was a generous gift received from his ex-creditors, all of whom he repaid with proceeds from the sale of Politicstoday assets. They were so thrilled at getting their original investment back that they chipped in to pay for a week's honeymoon at the Four Seasons Hotel on the Caribbean Island of Nevis. Kye's associates insisted on putting the ceremony on the Internet to share with their friends abroad. Their Facebook entry was titled: "The Giant and the Rabbi.com"
As a tribute to Gabby, Asa Folkman wrote a peppy ballad, which he played on the piano as Reuben Blass sang. Family and friends applauded so strongly that he and Reuben agree to an encore – a short number they had worked up for another performance.
During toasts, Kye beamed with happiness, toasting two treasures – his new wife and Judaism. He was witty and yet humble. Though brides often remain silent, Gabby's friends demanded that she say a few words. It proved difficult for her to move around in the long silk gown, so she stood behind the wedding table to toast her family and friends.
The woman who used words so fluently was tongue-twisted. Her eyes were weepy and her voice cracked. She could do no more than raise her champagne glass in a trembling hand. "To those I love… and who, during the long dark and dreary hours, have given me life and sustained me. To my husband, Kye, whom I adore, L'chayyim!"
Chuck Browner jumped up from the head table to add a final observation. "No, No, No," he was gasping on the way to his feet. But the mood had already shifted. The joy felt by Gabby's family and friends erupted into spontaneous cheers. The celebrants were kissing and embracing those beside them as though they themselves had been readmitted into the most sacred bond of intimacy. Chuck's plea for an additional moment of their time went unheeded. Glasses of champagne rose in toast not just to the beautiful bride and the male who had eventually won her heart, but to the mystery of relationships that bind lovers.
Cheers of those enthusiastically shouting Mazel Tov to the couple drowned out Chuck. He pivoted around to acknowledge that events had sped past him. And in a mellow, resigned voice that nobody could possibly hear, uttered what was his intention to say aloud, "No. Gabby, to the contrary. It wasn't we who gave you life and sustenance, but you, who gave it to us."
End
THE RABBI GABRIELLE SERIES
Book I: Rabbi Gabrielle's Scandal
Rabbi Gabrielle, a young female rabbi in Washington DC, is called upon to defend an accused rapist in court, imperiling her career. She must negotiate a hostile climate both in her synagogue and in the community, while attempting to live a normal life as an attractive, unmarried woman. Here is a chance to have an internal look at the life of a clergywoman in a profession that has long been a man's proprietary domain.
Book II: A Kiss for Rabbi Gabrielle
Rabbi Gabrielle succeeds the senior rabbi a Congregation Ohav Shalom and in this new role must perform a funeral for her favorite Bar Mitzvah boy, now a young man recently murdered in a remote Washington DC park. This death brings her to a ghetto high school where the victim coached its struggling tennis team. An avid tennis player herself, Gabrielle attempts to keep the tennis team going and, because the police are unable to apprehend the murderer, investigates the crime. This brings her into conflict with Washington's thriving gun trade. Pursuit of the killer thrusts Gabrielle into the nation's spotlight, exactly where she doesn't want to be.
Book III: Rabbi Gabrielle's Defiance
Rabbi Gabrielle continues her personal and professional odyssey, this time toying with running for a seat in Congress. In the process she becomes entangled with a Korean computer geek who operates a successful on-line political campaign website for underfunded, unknown candidates. At the same time her congrega
tion has lost a child burned to death in an accident lighting Hanukkah candles. Gabrielle must grapple with accusations against her talented but sensitive associate rabbi for unprofessional incompetence and a nasty law-suit leveled against Ohav Shalom. Arson is the subject and Rabbi Gabrielle becomes a hound dog on scent, all the while wrestling with a new romance in her life.
Book IV: Rabbi Gabrielle Commits a Felony
A prized Torah scroll is stolen from Ohav Shalom. The FBI determines the event to be a "Hate Crime" and initiates an investigation. But Rabbi Gabrielle unearths clues into the theft that lead in another direction. While intensely active in her daily rabbinical duties, her attention is drawn back 65 years to the origin of the stolen Torah in the Ukraine. The discovery brings this liberal rabbi into conflict with the powerful and well-organized Orthodox Jewish community in New York. Internecine warfare between Jewish denominations must be pacified before Rabbi Gabrielle can return to her post at Ohav Shalom.
Book V: Rabbi Gabrielle Ignites a Tempest
Rabbi Gabrielle takes leave from her rabbinical duties to pursue a doctorate in biblical studies at the University of Chicago. She is summoned to Israel by the Director of Antiquities in Jerusalem when her scholarly live-in boy friend cannot be found to help investigate the robbery of a newly discovered cave at Qumran, site of the famous Dead Sea Scrolls. In the search to find him, Gabrielle becomes aware of her friend's involvement in this robbery and while attempting to shield him, gets swept into a cloak and dagger intrigue involving the Catholic Church and the Government of Israel.