Youristics

Youristics

Daph and Koby

Koby Benmeleh's avatar
Koby Benmeleh
Nov 08, 2024
∙ Paid
Share

Koby woke up in his in-laws' apartment in Netanya with a sense of dread. Not so much that he was avoiding his return to Tel Aviv. Rather he knew that his wife was feeling that way. She lay beside him scrolling on her phone, annoyed that their two-year old son woke them up before 7 AM, on a day off. It was October 7, 2023, the last day of the Sukkot holiday.

She said nothing. He took that to mean that she blamed him for it. 

He had quit his six-figure job over a year ago and it put a strain on their relationship. She was earning money and he was not. Well, he took out a $65,000 loan from his parents the month before. Enough to cover his costs for the upcoming year when he would test his mettle as an entrepreneur. 

Selling what he hadn’t the clearest idea. He was a writer, and he was very skilled at getting people to open up to him. He would sell information and he would sell it to the rich. That much he had figured out.

He also wanted to podcast and write books. He wanted fulfil his duty as a father and a husband and be free to pursue his passion and his dreams. He had to get this right. He had three sons who were watching him behave as a man. That’s what Koby did as a boy too.

Daphna believed in him, that much he understood. “Student” it read on their marriage certificate, where it described his profession. That was shorthand for tens of thousands in debt and no career prospects at age 28. 

He had proposed to her in their run-down Tel Aviv apartment, the one where she ripped the shower head straight from the wall when she turned around mid-douche, and where they had to carry the fridge through the balcony because the kitchen entrance was too narrow. 

He had put on the only suit he owned and knelt on one knee. You feel my love by Adele was playing on the laptop in front of her. He had little idea what to pick when he searched for songs, but the only artist he considered was Adele. He had never heard a voice so perfect before. He would memorialize this moment with it.

He pulled out the ring that his debt could barely afford and hugged her. Then he realized, “you never said ‘yes.’”

“You never asked me,” she replied. She had tears in her eyes.

She slipped the ring on and called her family to share the news. Then she followed the dictates of her food poisoning in the bathroom. 

Daphna saw something in him, more than he allowed himself to see. He was generous and charming to her friends and family. He held the door open for her. He paid for her meals. He learned her native Dutch so she could fully express herself to him, and she did. She was herself around him and he was in awe because of it. 

She was raw and honest. She had rare moral lapses, like when she when she shoplifted an apple that one time, or cheated on her tests in middle school. She knew what it felt to act disrespectfully and so she didn’t allow herself to do it. Because of that she read people far better than he did.

She was fully formed. He was not. 

Yet she hitched her life to his. The only one she gets and she gambled it on him. There were a couple of times that he understood that it meant she held him in the highest regard, but he brushed it off. He didn’t want to lose his edge and feel like he never had to stop working on himself. He was at once God’s gift to the world and terribly short of that ideal. He didn’t want to let her down.

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to Youristics to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 Koby Benmeleh
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start your SubstackGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture