Hannah was one of his theatre sisters and he had insisted that she use
his home to prepare for the wedding. Debra was to assist her, and David
left them and drove on to Em Karem. The lane leading to the house was
cordoned off and thick with secret service men and paratroopers.
While he watched Joe dressing, losing and finding the ring, and sweating
with nerves, David lay on Joe's bed and gave him bad advice. They could
hear the guests gathering in the garden below, and David stood up and
went to the window. He watched an airforce colonel being carefully
scrutinized and searched at the gates, but taking it all in good part.
They are being pretty thorough, David remarked.
Hannah has asked to have as few as possible of the guards in the garden.
So they are being damned careful about who they let in. Joe had at last
completed dressing and already he was beginning to sweat through the
armpits of his uniform. How do I look? he asked anxiously. God, you
handsome beast, David told him.
Piss off, Morgan, Joe grinned at him, crammed his cap on to his head and
glanced at his watch. Let's go, . he said.
The Chief Rabbi of the army was waiting with the Brig and the others in
the Brig's study. The Rabbi was the mild-mannered man who had
personally liberated the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the war of 67. During
the advance on Hebron, he had driven a jeep through the disintegrating
Arab lines, shot open the door to the tomb with a submachine-gun and
chased the Arab guards screaming over the rear wall.
Joe sat at the Brig's desk and signed the ketubbah, the marriage
contract, then the Rabbi handed him a silken cloth which Joe lifted in a
formal act of acquisition to a chorus of congratulatory Mazal toys from
the witnesses.
The bridegroom's party trooped out into the crowded garden now to await
the arrival of the bride, and she came accompanied by the chief surgeon
standing in for her dead father, and a party of festively dressed women,
including Debra and her mother. They all carried lighted candles.
To David, Hannah had never been particularly attractive, she was too
tall and severe in body and expression; however, in her white bridal
dress and veil she was transformed.
She seemed to float cloudlike upon the billowing white skirts, and her
face was softened by the veil and by the inner happiness that seemed to
glow through her green eyes. Red-gold hair framed her cheeks, and the
freckles were disguised under make-up applied by Debra's cunning hand.
She had used it to mute the rather harsh lines of Hannah's bony nose,
and the result was that Hannah was as near to beautiful as she would
ever come.
Joe, looking big and handsome in his airforce tans, went forward eagerly
to meet her at the gate to the garden and to lower the veil over her
face in the ceremony of bedeken dikafle.
Joe moved to the chuppah canopy where the Rabbi waited with a taffit
over his shoulders. After Joe the women led Hannah, each of them still
carrying a burning candle, and the Rabbi chanted a blessing as the women
and the bride circled Joe seven times in a magical circle which in olden
times would serve to ward off evil spirits. At last bride and groom
stood side by side, facing towards the site of the Temple with the
