Jessica Hecht

This spiel of his would take stamina.

Elvis Presley, he said, which wasn't where I expected him to stop, Martin Scorsese, American Christians who at one point in time generously executed the services you were about to perform according to the rules of Jewish law, it is possible for a non-Jew

to complete certain tasks which Jews are forbidden to perform on the Sabbath, having to do with labor, using electricity, handling money.

I am told when Al Gore and Joseph Lieberman were in the American Senate, Lieberman, who is Shomer Shabbos, would sleep on his couch in his office before Saturday votes, and Gore would turn the lights off for him.

Even the President of the United States, here the rabbi could not wring the pride out of his gentle voice, President Obama did such charitable acts as a young man with loving kindness in his heart.

I could never have requested this of you outright.

A Jew may only accept the work of a non-Jew if it is in his or her own free will and for his and her own gain.

But you volunteered.

Yes, indeed.

Out of regret and existential fear or maybe just ennui, clearly I was ready to volunteer for anything.

He reached into his pocket for his handkerchief once more and wiped away at that indelible, hateful spittle.

That next week, he said a man and a woman were to be married in the rabbi's shul and the bride's American relatives had rented a flat in my very building through the same website that I had, Paris Oulala.

As with many apartments in Paris, the outer door to the building was unlocked only by pressing a series of numbers on a matrix that then buzzed one inside.

The lock itself was electric, as were the light switches.

I turned on by my footfalls as I ascended each stairwell landing.

I could safely usher the wedding guests into the interior lobby, Friday dusk through Saturday nightfall.

"'until three stars are visible,' the rabbi said.

"'After that, my services would no longer be necessary.'"

Although they had arrived earlier in the week, I did not meet the Grinbaums until Friday night.

Around 11 p.m., they hollered up to me from the street as they could not use the phone or the outside intercom.