Chona’s fever breaks and, over several weeks, her clarity and strength slowly return, though she cannot walk unaided. A specialist doctor from Philadelphia, arranged by Moshe’s cousin Isaac, diagnoses a blood problem that caused a brain attack and warns that her bad foot may keep her from walking independently. Moshe is simply relieved to have Chona’s mind and spirit back.

Moshe credits Malachi’s daily visits to the theater with a “healing” loaf of challah, even though Moshe finds the bread nearly inedible. Unwilling to insult Malachi, Moshe offers the challah to Nate on their walk home; Nate takes a bite and throws the loaf to a nuisance mutt. After the dog eats it, the dog stops harassing Moshe, reinforcing Moshe’s sense that Malachi brings strange, accidental “magic” despite chaos and incompetence.

Moshe grows close to Malachi, admiring his buoyant wonder and deep religious habits, while noting his disorganization and burned baking. Moshe gives Malachi a mezuzah pendant honoring him as “the greatest dancer,” but Malachi insists Moshe give it to Chona instead. Over tea, Malachi challenges Moshe’s discomfort with Jewish practice in America, argues that prayer and intention matter more than titles, and reframes Chona’s recovery as part of “the fullness of the earth,” not a doctor’s or Malachi’s doing. Malachi repeatedly avoids meeting Chona and stops speaking about the wife he once claimed to have.

Malachi’s bakery collapses quickly: his cakes, buns, and pies repel even Chicken Hill’s most forgiving customers, and white merchants have largely moved off the Hill. At the theater, Moshe tries to address the problem as Malachi admits he closed early because people dislike his bread. Malachi reveals he never owned a bakery and describes years of degrading, hard work since immigration, then deflects Moshe’s question about his wife.

As Nate’s crew prepares for the Count Basie Orchestra, Malachi refuses Moshe’s suggestion to hire Black workers, saying it is unwise to “mix things” in America. Malachi fixates on a Black boy working with the crew, while Moshe is jolted by a childhood memory in Romania of stealing challah with Isaac to escape soldiers, explaining Moshe’s aversion. Malachi bluntly claims Moshe’s reaction is not about baking but what the bread awakens in Moshe, then complains about “the Negroes,” even as he strangely envies their certainty of identity.

Hearing the workers sing a hymn, Malachi abruptly asks Moshe (in Yiddish) to sell the bakery and forward any profit, then leaves through a side door. Moshe notices Malachi has left some tools behind and expects to see him the next day, but Malachi does not return. Moshe does not see Malachi again for three years.