Chap­ter 7: A New Prob­lem opens with Moshe grap­pling with the impact of Malachi’s sud­den depar­ture from Pottstown, a sit­u­a­tion that has left him unset­tled and trou­bled. A month after Malachi’s depar­ture, Moshe finds him­self reflect­ing on the after­math, par­tic­u­lar­ly the sale of Malachi’s bak­ery, which has now become his respon­si­bil­i­ty. This series of events, which includes han­dling the sale and the dis­tri­b­u­tion of the bakery’s equip­ment, feels like an unwel­come bur­den. Moshe remem­bers receiv­ing sev­er­al let­ters from Malachi, who had out­lined the process of sell­ing the bak­ery and what should be done with the tools. These reminders of Malachi’s absence stir feel­ings of unease in Moshe, who still strug­gles to come to terms with the abrupt­ness of his friend’s depar­ture. In the midst of these thoughts, Moshe’s unease is inter­rupt­ed when Nate approach­es him, sig­nal­ing the start of an impor­tant con­ver­sa­tion.

As the two men begin talk­ing, Moshe opens up about his deep frus­tra­tions with Malachi’s view of Amer­i­ca, which he per­ceives as dis­mis­sive and ungrate­ful. Moshe finds it dif­fi­cult to rec­on­cile Malachi’s neg­a­tiv­i­ty with the oppor­tu­ni­ties Amer­i­ca has pro­vid­ed to them both. One of Malachi’s com­ments par­tic­u­lar­ly dis­turbs him—that African Amer­i­cans in Amer­i­ca have a stronger sense of iden­ti­ty than they do in Europe. This idea, though root­ed in Malachi’s own expe­ri­ences, leaves Moshe unset­tled, as he believes it under­mines the pos­si­bil­i­ties for suc­cess and growth in the U.S. Moshe’s frus­tra­tion grows as he tries to under­stand Malachi’s per­spec­tive, which seems to chal­lenge the very ideals that Moshe holds dear about life in Amer­i­ca. His thoughts are inter­rupt­ed by Nate, who shares an unex­pect­ed request that will bring even more com­plex­i­ty into Moshe’s life.

Nate intro­duces the idea of Dodo, his nephew, who is deaf and has faced sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges since an acci­dent. Despite Nate’s reser­va­tions about the town’s doc­tors, par­tic­u­lar­ly Doc Roberts, known for his ties to the Klan, he insists that Dodo does not need med­ical help at this point. Instead, Nate sug­gests that Dodo would be bet­ter off stay­ing at the the­ater tem­porar­i­ly, until a state rep­re­sen­ta­tive can come to take him to a spe­cial school. Moshe lis­tens intent­ly but is unsure about the prac­ti­cal­i­ty of Nate’s sug­ges­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly the involve­ment of state rep­re­sen­ta­tives, which brings a sense of unease. Nate reas­sures Moshe that Dodo will not cause any dis­tur­bances and sug­gests that he stay in the base­ment. Despite his con­cerns, Moshe con­sid­ers the request, try­ing to bal­ance his appre­hen­sion with the com­pas­sion­ate nature of the sit­u­a­tion.

As Moshe con­tem­plates Nate’s pro­pos­al, he is filled with con­flict­ing emo­tions. His con­cern about poten­tial gov­ern­ment involve­ment clouds his judg­ment, yet his mem­o­ry of kind­ness and com­pas­sion from oth­ers in the past urges him to con­sid­er it. He even­tu­al­ly agrees to dis­cuss the mat­ter with his wife, Chona, before mak­ing a final deci­sion. When Moshe shares Nate’s request with Chona, her reac­tion is one of imme­di­ate dis­ap­proval. Chona empha­sizes her belief that Dodo should not be rel­e­gat­ed to the cold and lone­ly base­ment; instead, he deserves the warmth of a real home. Her words strike a chord with Moshe, high­light­ing his lack of under­stand­ing of children’s emo­tion­al needs. Chona’s insis­tence on pro­vid­ing a more com­pas­sion­ate alter­na­tive to Dodo’s sit­u­a­tion forces Moshe to recon­sid­er his ini­tial reluc­tance.

Chona’s chal­lenge to Moshe reflects the deep­er com­plex­i­ties of under­stand­ing children’s needs and the emo­tion­al dis­tress that comes with aban­don­ment. She stress­es the impor­tance of offer­ing Dodo a sta­ble and lov­ing envi­ron­ment, rather than a cold, iso­lat­ed space in the base­ment. Her com­mand­ing tone con­veys the urgency of her beliefs and under­scores her under­stand­ing of how chil­dren, par­tic­u­lar­ly those like Dodo, need com­fort and secu­ri­ty in their lives. Moshe is faced with the dif­fi­cult task of nav­i­gat­ing between his own dis­com­fort with the sit­u­a­tion and Chona’s insis­tence on offer­ing the boy a chance at a bet­ter life. By the end of their dis­cus­sion, Moshe begins to see the wis­dom in Chona’s words and real­izes that the best thing for Dodo would be to bring him into their home, despite the poten­tial chal­lenges. This deci­sion marks the begin­ning of a new chap­ter in their lives, one that will test their capac­i­ty for empa­thy and under­stand­ing in the face of unfore­seen chal­lenges.

This chap­ter speaks to the broad­er themes of respon­si­bil­i­ty, empa­thy, and the com­plex dynam­ics of fam­i­ly. Through Moshe’s inter­nal con­flict and Chona’s wis­dom, the read­er is remind­ed of the impor­tance of com­pas­sion in address­ing the needs of oth­ers, espe­cial­ly those who are vul­ner­a­ble. It is a pow­er­ful reflec­tion on the ways in which indi­vid­u­als, par­tic­u­lar­ly those from dif­fer­ent back­grounds, come togeth­er to care for one anoth­er, despite their per­son­al reser­va­tions or soci­etal pres­sures. The deci­sion to bring Dodo into their home rep­re­sents a step toward heal­ing and growth, both for the fam­i­ly and for the larg­er com­mu­ni­ty. The nar­ra­tive show­cas­es the depth of human con­nec­tion, offer­ing a glimpse into the ways in which acts of kind­ness can tran­scend fear and uncer­tain­ty, paving the way for a more inclu­sive and under­stand­ing future.