“It’s Rav Miller,” Jacob told him.

Decker shook his hand. “Pleased to meet you, Rav Miller.”

“Shragy, please! This is my wife, Rivka, my daughter, Rachel.”

Miller was squat, dressed in rabbinic black. His wife was tall and bone thin, and was wearing a shaytl. Her features were as pinched as her husband’s were round. The daughter’s face had combined the best of her parents—regular features, sparkling hazel eyes, and hair the color of chestnuts. She was very pretty, and Decker wasn’t the only one who had noticed. Sammy had made eye contact with her. Now he was looking at his napkin.

The adjacent table had just opened up. The obvious thing to do was invite them to sit down. Rina did exactly that. She introduced herself to Rivka, and after a few disorganized minutes, everyone was seated. The girl actually managed to speak with Sammy without looking at him. A pretty neat trick; Decker supposed that she had learned it in Being Frum 101.

She asked, “So where do you go to school?”

“One guess.”

“YU.”

“So what else is new?”

“YU and Columbia,” Jacob added.

“Ah,” Rachel said. “One step above the riffraff.”

“I am the riffraff,” Sammy said. “YU was a little weak in my major, so they let me do a joint program.”

“What’s your major?”

“Neuropsychophysiology…premed. But I didn’t want to take the YU premed major. I actually wanted a real major.”

“Yeah, I’m trying to do that with Stern, but I’m getting a little resistance.” There was tightness in her voice. “I don’t suppose you had problems, being male and all.”

Sammy was quick with the comeback. “I’m sure some of the older rabbis at Stern have some antiquated notions of what girls can and can’t do.”

“If you come from a black-hat religious family, they have definite ideas.”

“You have to know where to finagle.”

“Any pointers?”

“A few if you want them.”

“That would be nice.”

Rina said, “You know, kids, why don’t you all sit on one side, and let us sit on the other side?”

Another several minutes of reorganization; this time, Rachel and Sammy sat next to one another.

“Lucky me,” Rav Miller announced. “I get to sit next to this motek.”

“Say hello, Hannah,” Decker said.

“Hello.”

“And what are you learning in school?” the rabbi asked.

“Right now, the dinim of Pesach. And the Haggadah of course.”

“And what can you tell me about the Haggadah?”

“I know that Hashem had to take the Jews out of Egypt very fast.”

“Yes, and why is that?”

“Because the Jews were so bad that if Hashem didn’t take them out real fast, they would have been stuck in the lowest level of Tumah—sin. That’s why Hashem took them out after two hundred ten years and not four hundred years.”

Everyone burst into laughter. Rina blushed. “I think the rav was referring to taking the Jews out quickly before Paroah changed his mind about letting the Jews go.”

“Oh,” Hannah said. “Yeah, that too.”