Raisins and almonds - Poisoned Pen Press (UK)

8 Kerry Greenwood
‘It is a number code, using the most obscure system,’ said
Rabbi Elijah, looking as though he might combust with some
emotion—rage? fear?
‘Indeed?’
‘He has based it on the name of Adam Kadmon. That such
learning should be used for such a purpose—shameful. Shameful!
I had not thought it of Shimeon.’
He was waving the papers around, and Phryne recaptured
them before they flew from his trembling grasp.
‘Shimeon is dead,’ she reminded him. ‘Is this the translation?’
‘It is. What it means—’ he waved a hand. ‘But that such a
thing should be!’
‘Was Shimeon one of your students?’
‘He was.’
‘A good student?’
‘Very good, a devoted young man. I cannot believe that he
would have used this holy text for some mundane purpose. It
must have been very important to Shimeon. We must sit shivah
for him, say Kaddish. We were his only friends. I will speak to
the others.’
‘Who was his particular friend?’
‘Kaplan, the oldest Kaplan boy.’ The Rabbi was calming
down.
‘And Yossi Liebermann?’
‘He is. What is Yossi to you, a…’ He could not find a term
which would not be insulting, so he left the end of the sentence
to droop under its own weight.
‘He lives at the house of my friend Mrs. Grossman,’ said
Phryne, and the old man almost smiled. ‘Such a woman,’ he said
approvingly. ‘She feeds the hungry. Her price is above rubies.
Her husband was a good man.’
‘Her son Saul is also learned and almost at his bar mitzvah,’
commented Phryne.
‘The knowledge of the Torah is the beginning of all wisdom,’
quoted Rabbi Elijah approvingly.