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the Tree. I told him about Adam and Eve and the fruit and the snake. But when I was done, Alex said that he was an atheist, which meant that he didn’t believe in God because he believed in science instead. I tried to convince him that God was real, but Alex said, “I don’t see any evidence, if God is real then where is He?”
    â€œMy neighbor Mr. Katz says He’s everywhere.”
    â€œNo, but, where exactly is He?”
    Waving my arms in all directions, I said, “Up, down, here, there—everywhere!”
    But Alex still did not look convinced. So then I told him about how the Jews were slaves in Egypt and God took them to the Promised Land and they built the Temple in Jerusalem and then it got destroyed so they built it again and then it got destroyed again but they still write their prayers on tiny scraps of paper and stick them into the Wailing Wall and then God answers them.
    â€œYou really believe all that?” Alex asked.
    â€œSure I do. Why wouldn’t I?”
    Alex shrugged. He was watching Gabe Kramer, who had come running into the library, dribbling a basketball and laughing loudly. Then Alex leaned over and whispered, “If God exists, why would He always let Gabe beat us at basketball when we play in gym class?”
    I opened my mouth to answer, but just then the bell rang and lunch period was over.
    As we left the library, Alex said we should come back after last period, but I told him I couldn’t because I had to go to Hebrew School. He looked disappointed, so to make him feel better I reminded him about our secret plan that we had come up with after spaghetti and meatballs, which was to set up his mom with my dad so that we could be related and live in the same house forever. I told him to come over to my place in a couple of hours so we could drop some hints about Lesley at the dinner table. His eyes shone a bit but he still looked very impatient, and once I got to Hebrew School I understood exactly how he felt.
    All through class, I waited for the right moment to ask Mr. Glassman what fruit was on the Tree, but it never came. Then, when we were finally sitting at his kitchen table about to pick up where we left off in the Genesis story, all of a sudden Mrs. Glassman took a break from the dishes she was rinsing and the proof she was working out under her breath (“If t then r and if r then t entails t if and only if r . . .”) and brought us a plate of apple slices. Mrs. Glassman never brought us fruit and I had the idea that maybe God made her bring it so I’d have an excuse to ask my question. Here was my chance. “Take!” she said, so I took.
    I said, “Is it true that the fruit on the Tree of Knowledge was apples?”
    â€œAbsolutely not,” Mr. Glassman said. “There were no apples in that part of the world at that time.”
    So then I asked, “Maybe it was oranges?” I thought this sounded like a good guess because I’d heard of Jaffa oranges and I knew that Jaffa was in Israel. But Mr. Glassman shook his head no. So then I asked, “Maybe bananas? Pears?” He kept shaking his head until finally I said, “Pomegranates?” Jews eat pomegranates on Rosh Hashanah, which made me think there was a pretty good chance that pomegranates were a biblical fruit.
    Mr. Glassman said, “Possibly.”
    â€œWhat do you mean, possibly, don’t you know for sure?”
    â€œNo, not even our ancient sages, blessed be their memories, knew for sure.”
    He went to his library and came back holding a tall book with a brown cover that I knew was called the Talmud. He opened it up and read out loud, then translated into English.
    â€œYou see? There is disagreement amongst the sages. According to Rabbi Meir, it was a grape that Eve made into wine. Rabbi Nehemia says it was a fig. Rabbi Yehuda says, what are you, meshuggeneh ? It was wheat! Other rabbis say don’t be ridiculous, it was a