All around the wedding hall, male friends, relatives, and acquaintances frolicked and danced as was the custom, steadily encroaching upon the women’s space, forcing them to move aside. The women, crushed together, refused to give way completely, intent on catching every nuance, their faces expectant and amused, but also slightly puzzled. Grandmother and granddaughter wondered if the bride had noticed, praying she had not.

They needn’t have worried. Leah Howard had no eyes for anyone save the man who was slowly, steadily bringing himself to her. She watched, mesmerized, as his face grew brighter with each step, the years sloughing off and the shine of renewal and youth washing over him.

When Yaakov finally came within arm’s length, he stopped, trembling, as he looked down upon her face. This young woman, this stranger, he thought, marveling once again at her willingness to give herself to him, to become part of his pitiful life, in full knowledge of all his shortcomings and tragic mistakes. This lovely woman who knew him completely, yet still could love him so wholeheartedly. How is that possible? he wondered. It was a miracle. A gift from God. He drank in her glowing face, her sweet eyes filled with hope and happiness. My dear God, thank you! Please, please, never let anything happen in our life together to wipe that look off her face.

And then, despite himself, those thoughts were silently pushed out by others that encroached, unbidden, desperately unwanted. He fought against them. No! he exhorted himself, his smile contorting with the effort. He mustn’t think about that time, the very first time he had pulled a bright, white veil over the face of another lovely, smiling young woman who had, in the end, disfigured by despair, become almost unrecognizable. He had not been able to make her happy. He had not been able to save her, the wife of his youth. Zissele. Poor Zissele. Oh no! Not now, please, he begged for the countless time, for absolution, for forgiveness and ultimately for release. Please, he begged some implacable force in the universe that controlled all that was meant to give human beings joy and meaning. Please, let me …

The bride, blinded by love and happiness, saw none of this. Thankfully, the almost-opaque veil was soon gently lifted over her head and pulled down over her eyes, sparing her the astonished looks and pinched mouths of many who followed her progress down the aisle toward the marriage canopy.