In the chap­ter titled “Twelve” from “Heav­en & Earth Gro­cery Store,” Moshe, buoyed by recent suc­cess­es and his mar­riage, inter­acts with Nate, who is dis­man­tling the the­ater’s facade. Their con­ver­sa­tion reveals deep-seat­ed strug­gles in the com­mu­ni­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly the dimin­ished oppor­tu­ni­ties for Black patrons seek­ing enter­tain­ment. Moshe, inspired by Nate’s expe­ri­ences, con­tem­plates open­ing the the­ater to Black per­form­ers, despite appre­hen­sions voiced by his wife, Chona.

Chona embod­ies a spir­it­ed Amer­i­can char­ac­ter, blend­ing joy with a refusal to accept soci­etal lim­i­ta­tions, advo­cat­ing inclu­siv­i­ty. She dis­miss­es any con­cerns about racial reac­tions, empha­siz­ing the val­ue of everyone’s mon­ey. Encour­aged by Chona’s opti­mism, Moshe orga­nizes a per­for­mance by Chick Webb, attract­ing a live­ly audi­ence of Pottstown’s Black res­i­dents, sig­nal­ing both a cul­tur­al trans­for­ma­tion and per­son­al pros­per­i­ty. The con­cert marks a turn­ing point, with the pre­vi­ous­ly sub­dued patrons embrac­ing the music and danc­ing exu­ber­ant­ly, under­scor­ing their social exclu­sion in town.

As the the­ater flour­ish­es, the esca­lat­ing back­lash from rival the­ater own­ers emerges, laced with racism. Moshe faces var­i­ous accu­sa­tions and fines but clev­er­ly nav­i­gates these chal­lenges through bribery and shrewd busi­ness deals. This suc­cess allows him to buy his the­ater out­right and expand, improv­ing his family’s stan­dard of liv­ing.

Chona’s love for her com­mu­ni­ty is por­trayed as she remains ded­i­cat­ed to the gro­cery store, valu­ing her neigh­bors. As the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty shifts out of Chick­en Hill, Moshe impul­sive­ly push­es for relo­ca­tion to a more afflu­ent area, believ­ing it will yield bet­ter finan­cial returns. How­ev­er, Chona stands firm, draw­ing on her emo­tion­al ties to the com­mu­ni­ty and her past, refus­ing to aban­don their roots.

Simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, Moshe wres­tles with super­sti­tions linked to his visions of “Moses” and finds him­self con­flict­ed between his tra­di­tions and new Amer­i­can ideals, unaware that mean­ing­ful con­nec­tions and shared roots may out­weigh pure­ly finan­cial aspi­ra­tions. As Chona’s health dete­ri­o­rates unex­pect­ed­ly, Moshe’s fears resur­face, reflect­ing on the con­se­quences of their life choic­es and the community’s col­lec­tive bond .

The day after a notable vis­it from the Hasid, Moshe, now in an upbeat mood due to his finan­cial suc­cess and recent mar­riage, offers mon­ey to Nate, his the­ater clean­er, who declines out of con­cern for Moshe’s finan­cial reck­less­ness. Despite Moshe’s gen­eros­i­ty, Nate shares his pref­er­ence for sta­ble employ­ment over quick mon­ey, rem­i­nisc­ing about his younger days earn­ing well at a dance hall which is now a funer­al home, a con­ver­sa­tion lead­ing Moshe to con­sid­er open­ing his the­ater to African Amer­i­cans.

Chona, Moshe’s Amer­i­can-born wife, sup­ports Moshe’s idea, dis­miss­ing wor­ries about poten­tial back­lash from the white com­mu­ni­ty with her typ­i­cal­ly spir­it­ed out­look. With this deci­sion, Moshe takes a sig­nif­i­cant step four weeks lat­er by book­ing Chick Webb, a well-known African Amer­i­can enter­tain­er. This event trans­forms Moshe’s the­ater into a haven of joy for the local African Amer­i­can com­mu­ni­ty, mark­ing a depar­ture from the exclu­sive enter­tain­ment venues in Pottstown.

Moshe’s ven­ture into inclu­sive enter­tain­ment not only boosts his finances but also chal­lenges the soci­etal norms of the time, elic­it­ing mixed reac­tions from the com­mu­ni­ty. Despite fac­ing legal and social back­lash, includ­ing fines and threats from var­i­ous city offi­cials and his own syn­a­gogue, Moshe per­se­veres with sup­port from his cousin Isaac and clever nego­ti­a­tions with the build­ing own­er and city offi­cials. Chona’s per­sis­tent engage­ment with com­mu­ni­ty and social caus­es fur­ther cements their com­mit­ment to inclu­siv­i­ty and jus­tice.

How­ev­er, Chona’s dete­ri­o­rat­ing health becomes a cen­tral con­cern, lead­ing Moshe into a des­per­ate search for med­ical solu­tions while grap­pling with his own super­sti­tions and fears linked to a dream of suc­cess in twelves—a motif that has influ­enced his life deci­sions and luck. As Chona’s con­di­tion wors­ens, the sup­port from the African Amer­i­can com­mu­ni­ty of Chick­en Hill solid­i­fies, dis­play­ing deep respect and affec­tion for her con­tri­bu­tions to their lives.

Moshe’s refusal to relo­cate despite Chona’s ill­ness reflects a deep com­mit­ment to their shared val­ues and the com­mu­ni­ty they’ve nur­tured. The nar­ra­tive cul­mi­nates in a reflec­tive con­fronta­tion with Isaac, empha­siz­ing Moshe’s ded­i­ca­tion to Chona and their life togeth­er, tire­less­ly seek­ing a mir­a­cle for her recov­ery amidst the back­drop of a com­mu­ni­ty bridg­ing racial divides through shared moments of human­i­ty and cul­tur­al cel­e­bra­tion.