Previously published: Morning and Evening, Parts I, II, III, IV, V, VI and VII

A drop of wax landing painfully on his knuckles jolted Yossel from this reverie, and he turned back to the text before him, though the plea remained within him: Reb Ashi Reb Shmuel Akiba and Gamliel—all you martyrs bloodied by the Roman sword—am I not too a creature of my God? Is His breath not in my nostrils, as in the nostrils of the first man?