Salonikan Bean Soup

This splendid recipe came from Lily Modiano, a fabulous Sephardic-Greek cook who was ninety-three years old when I wrote this and who happened to be my great-aunt. She described it so lovingly and vividly I could taste it without eating it. (We were speaking at the time in a nursing home.) Sure enough, when I went to make the soup, the earthy flavor of the beans, the meaty richness of the broth, the sweetness of the fried onion, and the tartness of the tomatoes and lemon juice were exactly