I often wonder about those children, the orphaned ones who lost a parent in the World Wars of Religion.
I cannot believe that they are happy, that they rejoice in their forced salvation, because how can happiness exist in a heart cruelly twisted between love and faith?
I imagine what it must feel like to be told that your mother or father is a traitorous heretic, that the one who gave you life is doomed to rot in the fiery pits of hell.
I often wonder about those children, and as I think about endless days of pain and shameful months of silence, of years full of self-hatred, my own heart twists and I cry.
This article was published on March 6, 2013. On April 30, 2013, the husband and his attorney objected to the publicity. On May 26, 2013, the husband said he was ready to give the Get. On May 28, 2013, after FOUR long years, the husband gave his wife the Get, and along with it, her freedom. To avoid the possibility that the husband would change his mind, the Get was given to the wife via proxy.
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There are many gender inequalities in the Orthodox Jewish world, none more heartbreaking than in the area of divorce. According to Jewish law, only the husband may grant a get – the decree of divorce – and the wife is powerless to leave the marriage without his consent. This system of justice without checks and balances often leaves woman at the mercy of her husband, as she remains an “aguna,” a chained woman, awaiting release.
There are many times when a Rebbe’s derech of chinuch is difficult on a child. After all, wouldn’t most boys prefer to spend time on their own terms rather than having to sit, write and learn for what is often more than a 9 hour day?
As parents, we trust the mechanchim to find the proper balance betweenn childhood and education, to teach our sons to enjoy learning and to find satisfaction in ameilus batorah.
Most of the time, the yeshiva hadracha is dynamic and effective, this time – it wasn’t.
