He did know. Even for the most no-nonsense of minyans—prayer gatherings—it would take at least an hour, hour and a quarter to say all the required verses. If someone wanted to add cantorial singing, the service could easily be stretched to two or more hours.

He said, “She isn’t running away from a guy because of that, is she?”

“No. I’m just trying to give you some background.”

“Go on.”

Rina cleared her throat. “Now I’ve known people who stand during the entire service. But Gershon went beyond that. On Shabbos, for instance, he’d attend both the early minyan and the regular minyan. And he’d stand through both of them.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. There is certainly no halachic basis for it. You don’t get brownie points for saying the same prayers twice.”

“So the guy’s a fanatic. Some people would call us fanatical.”

“There’s more, Peter. About a year and a half ago, something very traumatic must have happened to Gershon. Like Honey said, he won’t speak about it, but it must have been pretty bad. Because he changed drastically. He was never a friendly sort of guy, but he’d say hello or shalom aleichem. He was polite. Abruptly, he stopped talking to people, Peter. He stopped caring about his appearance. He stopped bathing—”

“How would the Rebbe know about his bathing habits other than through Honey?”

“Because Gershon started wandering the streets at night, talking to himself.”

Decker made a face. “Great. And we’re letting these people stay in our house.”

“Can you let me finish, please?”

Decker smiled. “Continue.”

“The Rebbe said that if anyone ran into him and asked him what he was doing all alone, talking to himself, he would say he was just trying to work things out. He was…coherent when you talked to him. But his behavior…” Rina bit her lip. “No one, including Honey or the Rebbe, was sure what exactly he was trying to work out.”

“Does he hold down a job?”

“Yes, he’s a diamond dealer—”

“That’s right. And he’s still functional as a diamond dealer?”

“Apparently,” Rina said. “They’re not millionaires, but the Rebbe says he does okay.”

“The Rebbe knows his income?”

“Gershon tithes twenty percent to charity. To the penny. He shows the Rebbe his tax statements, then makes out a check for twenty percent of the gross. By law, you only have to give away ten percent. But Gershon took it a step further. The Rebbe wouldn’t tell me how much he makes of course, but he did tell me that he makes money. That’s not the problem.”

“It could be the problem if he owes money to the wrong people.”

Rina paused. “I wouldn’t know. The Rebbe didn’t mention any threatening phone calls.”

“But Honey did.”