Chap­ter 5: The Stranger opens with Moshe sit­ting anx­ious­ly beside his wife Chona, who is rest­ing in bed, grave­ly ill. Ear­ly in the morn­ing, a knock at the door dis­turbs the still­ness of the room, exac­er­bat­ing his wor­ries. His mind is cloud­ed with con­cern over her dete­ri­o­rat­ing health, but the dis­tur­bance is com­pound­ed when Addie informs him of a visitor—a man who recent­ly pur­chased Mr. Fabi­cel­li’s bak­ery. She men­tions that the man wants to talk about “hollers,” a term Moshe mis­hears and finds puz­zling. His frus­tra­tion with the inter­rup­tion grows as he tries to man­age his emo­tions and pri­or­i­tize his wife’s con­di­tion. Still, Addie insists that the man is per­sis­tent, hav­ing vis­it­ed sev­er­al times, which only deep­ens Moshe’s irri­ta­tion.

Moshe, over­whelmed by the sit­u­a­tion, directs Addie to send the vis­i­tor away, but she refus­es, urg­ing him to at least meet the man. This inter­ac­tion caus­es Moshe to reflect on his role in the house­hold. Through­out their mar­riage, Chona and Addie have always been the care­tak­ers, while he has been more of a pas­sive par­tic­i­pant, rely­ing on their sup­port. With his wife’s ill­ness tak­ing cen­ter stage, Moshe finds him­self unpre­pared to step up and make deci­sions. His hes­i­ta­tion increas­es as he con­tem­plates how he might han­dle the sit­u­a­tion if Chona were to wake up while he was down­stairs. The weight of the respon­si­bil­i­ty set­tles heav­i­ly on him, caus­ing an inter­nal con­flict between his duty as a hus­band and his dis­com­fort with con­fronta­tion.

Final­ly, Moshe decides to face the vis­i­tor. When he opens the door, he encoun­ters a small, stout man with a thin mus­tache and mis­chie­vous eyes, who imme­di­ate­ly asserts that he needs flour for mak­ing chal­lah bread. The man insists that Moshe had pre­vi­ous­ly sug­gest­ed he come for the flour, a state­ment that adds to Moshe’s grow­ing frus­tra­tion. The ten­sion esca­lates when Moshe attempts to close the door, but the stranger holds it open, refus­ing to leave. At this point, Moshe feels the bur­den of exhaus­tion and help­less­ness, wish­ing for the strength to deal with this man or for the sup­port of fam­i­ly or friends. How­ev­er, the stranger is per­sis­tent, cre­at­ing a con­flict that push­es Moshe fur­ther into dis­com­fort. As the encounter becomes more phys­i­cal, the atmos­phere in the room shifts, with Moshe over­whelmed by a sense of pow­er­less­ness in deal­ing with the stranger’s bold­ness.

As the con­ver­sa­tion unfolds, the man intro­duces him­self as a dancer, bold­ly claim­ing that Moshe had once encour­aged him to attend a dance. He explains his need for the flour but seems more focused on estab­lish­ing a con­nec­tion with Moshe. Moshe, dis­tract­ed by the press­ing con­cern for his wife’s health, tries to steer the con­ver­sa­tion to a sub­ject clos­er to his heart, talk­ing about his wife’s con­di­tion in the hopes of redi­rect­ing the inter­ac­tion. Yet the man per­sists, extend­ing an offer of friend­ship and shar­ing that he has recent­ly found a wife. Moshe, unmoved by this rev­e­la­tion, responds with indif­fer­ence, still con­sumed by his own wor­ries. He can­not find the ener­gy to care about the stranger’s per­son­al life in the midst of his own family’s cri­sis. The con­ver­sa­tion reflects a dis­con­nect between the two men, with Moshe’s pri­or­i­ties firm­ly anchored in the health and well-being of his wife.

As Moshe con­tin­ues to engage with the stranger, a mem­o­ry is trig­gered. He recalls their first encounter at the the­ater, which helps him piece togeth­er who this per­sis­tent vis­i­tor is. The man’s true iden­ti­ty is revealed as Malachi, a dancer whom Moshe once knew. This recog­ni­tion brings back a wave of warmth and nos­tal­gia, evok­ing mem­o­ries of their shared his­to­ry and past cama­raderie. The pres­ence of Malachi, though ini­tial­ly irri­tat­ing, becomes a poten­tial oppor­tu­ni­ty for recon­nect­ing with an old acquain­tance. The chap­ter sub­tly hints at the pos­si­bil­i­ty of rebuild­ing a rela­tion­ship root­ed in mutu­al under­stand­ing and shared cul­tur­al her­itage. Moshe’s reac­tion to Malachi sets the stage for a deep­er explo­ration of iden­ti­ty, con­nec­tions, and the role of his­to­ry in shap­ing one’s present rela­tion­ships.

Through this encounter, the chap­ter high­lights the ten­sion between per­son­al strug­gles and the broad­er con­text of com­mu­ni­ty ties. Moshe’s inter­nal con­flict between his role as a care­giv­er for his wife and his deal­ings with the stranger illus­trates the emo­tion­al com­plex­i­ty of nav­i­gat­ing respon­si­bil­i­ties. The themes of mem­o­ry, iden­ti­ty, and human con­nec­tion are woven through­out, show­ing how even the most unlike­ly inter­ac­tions can spark moments of intro­spec­tion and change. The unex­pect­ed vis­i­tor, Malachi, serves as a cat­a­lyst for Moshe to reflect on his past, remind­ing him of the bonds that once defined him. Ulti­mate­ly, the chap­ter builds on the idea that rela­tion­ships, whether strained or long-stand­ing, car­ry the poten­tial for rec­on­cil­i­a­tion and renew­al. Through Malachi, Moshe is con­front­ed not only with his past but also with the pos­si­bil­i­ty of mov­ing for­ward amidst the chal­lenges he faces.