36 Arguments for the Existence of God by Rebecca Goldstein

Author:Rebecca Goldstein [Goldstein, Rebecca Newberger]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-307-37890-3
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2010-10-05T22:00:00+00:00

They were across the Larz Anderson Bridge now, heading for the Massachusetts Turnpike, and Cass was finding that his meditative techniques had not improved since the days of Felicia, and Roz’s laughter was still dangerously coiling in the dark water beneath the thin ice, and he decided to visualize the cover that Time magazine had had a few months before, emblazoned with the word “FAMINE” and asking the question “Why are Ethiopians starving again?” with the picture of a mother staring down with eloquent sorrow at the dying child on her lap, his head bulbous compared with the shrunken body, the match-thin arms prematurely wrinkled, and his eyes filled with the precocious knowledge of his own doom. It was surely immoral to use an image of others’ tragedy to counteract the painful urge to laugh, but he was a poor meditator and a desperate man.

Somewhere around the Natick/Framingham exit, Jonas Elijah Klapper broke the silence.

“You are probably wondering how I procured these garments.”

Cass nodded, not glancing over, knowing that Klapper would understand and heartily approve his taking his driving so seriously.

“I had Ms. Cutter arrange for a car service to pick me up and drive me to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to a store that specializes in Hasidic vestments. I was able to purchase the kaputa”—Klapper indicated his caftan with a flourish of his hands—“and the shtreimel—”he gestured upward to his fur piece—“at one place. I had to go to another establishment for the boots.”

Cass nodded his head again, his eyes fixed on the road. He had questions, but he wasn’t sure he could trust himself to ask them. For example, was it Marjorie Cutter who had located a store selling fur hats shaped like giant hockey pucks? Did they have his size of kaputa in stock, or did they need to special-order? Had the money for the car service to and from Williamsburg come out of the discretionary funds that Frankfurter had conferred on Jonas Elijah Klapper? And what species of dead animal was it that was perched on Professor Klapper’s head?

The professor removed the shtreimel, laying it carefully on his lap.

“It is toasty warm. I could have used such a defense against the elements back in frore February.”

Cass had a bad moment as the image came unbidden to him of Jonas Elijah Klapper clambering over the snowdrifts of Plotnik Quad dressed like a Valdener.

“Please be so good as to pull over at the earliest convenience.”

The Charlton Full Service Rest Stop was coming up, and Cass pulled off the turnpike and into the parking lot and turned off the ignition.

“In the zippered pocket at the side of my satchel you will find a large blue plastic bag. Please take it out and place this within it, and then carefully deposit it on the backseat. I know I needn’t tell you, Reb Chaim, that this shtreimel, which is Russian sable and made out of thirteen tails, represents an expenditure in the thousands.”

There was an answer to two of Cass’s questions, and to one that he hadn’t thought to ask.

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