  The question of Einstein's rejection of the November tensor is re-examined in
light of conflicting answers by several historians. I discuss these conflicting
conjectures in view of three questions that should inform our thinking: Why did
Einstein reject the November tensor in 1912, only to come back to it in 1915?
Why was it hard for Einstein to recognize that the November tensor is a natural
generalization of Newton's law of gravitation? Why did it take him three years
to realize that the November tensor is not incompatible with Newton's law? I
first briefly describe Einstein's work in the Zurich Notebook. I then discuss a
number of interpretive conjectures formulated by historians and what may be
inferred from them. Finally, I offer a new combined conjecture that answers the
above questions.
