You’re a police officer. That’s why you’re here. It’s why you’re researching this subject.

Manning makes no reply for long moments.

MANNING

Why would anyone want to kill the Righteous Men? What possible motive could they have?

INSTANCER

To create the conditions under which God is obligated, by His own promise, to bring about the End Times. That’s what the Orthodox believe. They’re terrified.

Instancer’s eyes meet Manning’s.

JAKE INSTANCER

Have you heard of the Lubavitcher Rebbe?

MANNING

I thought he died years ago.

JAKE INSTANCER

The Great Rebbe, the seventh, passed on without a successor in 1994. But the Merkaz, the Council of Elders, appointed an eighth Rebbe in 2024—a renowned scholar of the same ancient line.

Instancer tells Manning that the new Rebbe has achieved in just ten years a stature nearly equal to that of his beloved predecessor.

JAKE INSTANCER

The Rebbe is a true sage. A “Righteous Man” if there ever was one. He’s the spiritual leader of the largest Orthodox community in the United States.

A trio of black-clad Chasidim happen to pass at this moment. Manning’s glance tracks them.

JAKE INSTANCER

There are over a hundred and fifty thousand Chasidic Jews in the city. Most live in the neighborhoods of Crown Heights and Borough Park, Brooklyn. For the past month, both communities have been buzzing with rumors about something terrible happening to the tzadikim. But the police won’t take our fears seriously, and there’s not a mention of the story anywhere in the press.

The professor sees that he has struck a nerve with Manning.

JAKE INSTANCER

The Rebbe is speaking tomorrow night in Borough Park. I’ll take you if you want.

Instancer explains that this is a regular event called a farbrengen, a Chasidic gathering.

JAKE INSTANCER

The Rebbe gives a talk called a sicha before an invited audience, then afterward he may speak privately, offer spiritual counsel to individuals or families. It’s quite interesting actually. Sometimes these events go on all night.

MANNING

Would the Rebbe speak to me? A non-Jew? A cop?

JAKE INSTANCER

I’ll see what I can do. But you can’t bring a weapon—or a cell phone.

Manning and Instancer exit the café. In the hall the professor pauses. “If you can tell me,” he says, “how many murders is your department investigating?”

Manning answers four.

JAKE INSTANCER

The community says six. Some say as many as twenty. The Rebbe will speak about it, I’m sure, tomorrow night.

BOOK THREE

THE REBBE

12

THE REBBE

THE REBBE STARTS SPEAKING before we even see him. There’s a podium on the east side of the auditorium but the sage hasn’t mounted to it yet. Where is he? We hear his microphone-augmented voice, but can’t locate him yet among the throng.

Our party is Manning, me, and Jake Instancer, the young professor Manning met at the Dorot Library.