The flight from Dallas to Newark was delayed because of a storm somewhere in the Midwest. The airplane was coming in from Chicago, and the snow coming down there had grounded every flight coming out of O’Hare Airport. When wasn’t it snowing in Chicago?

Noah Erlich sighed as he looked up at the electronic sign that conveyed his flight information. He tried to call his wife Miriam in Highland Park to tell her that he wouldn’t be home for dinner, but she wasn’t answering at home, and she wasn’t picking up her cell phone. He thought about emailing her from his iPhone, but that seemed like a rather impersonal way to tell his long-suffering wife that he would be home late, again.

This time it was a deposition in Dallas. Last week it had been an expert witness he had to meet with in Sacramento. And the week before, he had been in Des Moines and Los Angeles. This was definitely a big case he was working on, for his law firm’s largest client. If they won, it would mean a big bonus for him, and it would be a serious leg up on his path to partnership. But try explaining that to your wife, who had barely seen you in four weeks, or to your 5-year-old daughter, who really doesn’t care about your professional advancement and would much rather have you read her a book, or your 8-year-old son, who wants you home to play catch.

Just as he was settling down with his iPhone to listen to a Bach piano concerto, it began ringing.

“Hi honey.”

“Hi, where are you?”

“Dallas. The flight’s delayed.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah, me too. How are the kids?”

“They’re fine. They miss you. So do I.”

“I feel the same way. Don’t worry. This case will be over soon.”

“I understand, Noah, and don’t think I don’t appreciate how hard you’re working. But you and I both know that there’s always another big case.”

He didn’t know what to say.

“Nate is sitting here and he wants to speak to you.”

“Put him on.”

“Hi Daddy.”

“Hey, Buddy. How are you?”

“I’m great. When are you coming home?”

“My flight’s delayed, but I should be home later tonight. I’ll come upstairs and snuggle with you.”

“Great. I’ll leave you a pillow to put your head on.”

“Hey, thanks. So what are you doing in school?”

“We had Chumash today, and Rabbi Landau is teaching us Shemot, about the Jews’ slavery in Egypt.”

“So what did you learn today?”

“We learned how Moshe and Aharon went to Pharaoh and told him to let their people go, and Pharaoh said no.”

“Then what happened?”

“Well, to make the Jews suffer more, Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters not to give them the straw that the Jewish slaves needed to make their bricks. From then on they had to go out and get it themselves. But they still had to make the same amount of bricks.”

“Wow, that’s rough.”

“Yeah. Rabbi Landau said that Pharaoh believed that if he worked the slaves hard enough, they would forget about wanting their freedom and wanting to pray to God in the desert.”

“That’s very interesting. Rabbi Landau sounds like a terrific teacher.”

“Oh yeah, he’s the greatest. And if we answer three parsha questions right, he gives us a lollipop.”

“I’m jealous. I want a lollipop if I answer three questions right.”

“Very funny, Daddy.”

“I’ll see you later sweetie. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

“Can I speak to Mommy again?”

But Nate had already hung up the phone.

Noah sat in the airport lounge staring at his iPhone. He pressed the screen and a picture of his family sprang up on the screen. It was a picture from their vacation that summer in Cape May. The kids looked so tanned and happy, and Miriam seemed so carefree. He looked thin and haggard.

Rabbi Landau was right. If you keep the slaves very busy, they have no time to think about their freedom, and no time to think about their families and what’s really important to them. Maybe he needed to march into the office of Doug Hammer, the Senior Partner at the firm, and demand that he let his people go. Then again, maybe that wasn’t the best idea. Maybe he would just call in sick tomorrow and spend some time with Miriam and the kids.

It would be a good start.

Larry Stiefel is a pediatrician at Tenafly Pediatrics.

By Larry Stiefel