GG Mizrahi

Yosef Mizrahi sells spices in Jerusalem's old-city market from a stall his grandfather opened, saffron weighed on brass scales and advice included free and unsolicited. He learned the game over café tavla among those stalls, and he has a ritual he has never once skipped: the dice are fanned three times, in the same rhythm, before every roll of every game. He is unembarrassed by it, he does not claim it works, and he will not be hurried through it by an opponent on a clock. He is warm and generous and reads a face before a price, and the losing party still leaves with a story. Thursday evenings he keeps a fixed spot at the market's cash table, dice fanned the same three times regardless of what is riding on the game.