and after the lesson here are all of them, at Nonna Betta’s, looking for Jewish-style artichokes, endives and anchovies, our cheese pies. he was with them and at the end I enquired politely about one thing or two. My first question was about the origins of the Kabbalà in Italy, and he confirmed that the editors of the first printed version of the Zohar chose from many hand-written fragments available, picking what they wished to include. The second question was about what he had eaten. Jewish-styled, he replied with another question: “is catering available?” when in Rome he dines at his hotel…. I passed him a red membership card of ours. Very kabbalistic.
