Minut. So, said Jakov Švarc, what's going on? I licked my lips, sipped a little of Jaša's brandy, rubbed the tip of my nose. If the essence of everything is contained in some aspect of the Kabbalah, I said, how do I get to it? And how, I added, can I be sure that this is the right way, since if I don't know what it is I am looking for, how will I know I've found it? It is not easy, answered Jaša Alkalaj, but it's possible. He smiled as he said this, which stirred doubts in me, and Isak Levi noticed my distrustful look. Trust him, Isak Levi said, even though he may not strike you as the kind of person who merits your trust. Sometimes such people are more trustworthy than those who look trustworthy, Jakov Švarc backed him up. Fine, I said unconvincingly, then I will… If you have doubts, Jaša Alkalaj interrupted, then don't bother to begin. Doubt at the outset, said Isak Levi, is the same as defeat at the end. He who doubts early, chimed in Jakov Švarc, sheds his doubt late. If we spent the entire evening talking in this rhythmic pattern, each sentence of mine followed by their tripartite commentary, would I burst out laughing? Perhaps we sound silly, said Jaša Alkalaj, and winked, but that's because we have been together for so long, and we know exactly what each of us is thinking. How long? I asked. They looked at one another. Five hundred years, said Jaša Alkalaj, if not longer. I lifted my shot glass and sniffed it. Who knows, I thought, what they're drinking. Of course, Jaša Alkalaj continued, we can't remember everything, so our earliest common memory is our years in a prewar Belgrade gymnasium. Having said that, said Jakov Švarc, some graduated and some didn't. The man is interested in the Kabbalah, protested Jaša Alkalaj, not in our little differences. At any rate, he added, the only purpose school serves is to distance children and young people for a few years from their anxious parents who are running themselves into the ground to make ends meet. Let's leave school and the education system out of this, I said, let's talk about the Kabbalah. First of all, Isak Levi spoke up as he took hold of the brandy bottle, no point in being impatient. Let's start here, said Jaša Alkalaj, as he walked over to a stack of paintings in the corner, then came back with one. It is called