Their Challenges…Our Mission
Michal broke all the records. A girl — or more correctly, a young woman — of nineteen and a half, who, in the space of under six months, had managed to get engaged three times, to break an engagement twice, and now, also to get divorced.
That is, almost to get divorced.
She’d left the new apartment they’d rented, abandoned the two rooms she’d invested long, happy hours fixing up, said a last “good-bye” to the little kitchen, with the new refrigerator adorned with a snail-shaped magnet. The to’en rabbani (Religious Lawyer)had already initiated accelerated proceedings.
It was so fast. So confusing — primarily, emotionally confusing. On the one hand, she’d received so many gifts from Hashem (G-d). She was a bright, successful girl, with the most enchanting smile, generally well-liked wherever she went. On the other hand, there were all of these breaks and separations that were so not her fault.
Her mother, a good, upright woman who always did everything properly and by the books, just as it should be done, and who never, ever strayed from the line, was totally broken. She’d stopped eating, lost 30 pounds and gotten Abba so worried that he was willing to do everything so that matters should straighten out.
Day after day, he sat with the to’en rabbani, to get things moving.
“After we get past the divorce, things will be better,” Michali heard him say on one of his phone calls. It was funny, because her Abba hardly ever spoke on the phone. He hardly spoke at all. His power and appeal lay in his accepting silence. Ima (Mommy) had always been the spirit and the sound of the home. Now, Ima was silent as the grave, and he’d taken the reins.
The story was nothing short of unbelievable.
Michal was a good girl from a good family. The first and most successful child of Abba and Ima, she’d gotten engaged to an excellent boy, according to all opinions — aside from those that weren’t expressed because they were not really known.
They knew that he was a wonderful, excellent boy, but he was sick. Not physically sick. Mentally ill. An illness that Michali had never encountered in her young life, and wished she never would have encountered. But now she encountered it, in a big way.
The engagement was celebrated with a bang and with great joy. It seemed to be such a perfect match: the families, the brothers and sisters, the way of doing things, the financial aspect, and above all, the happy couple. The engagement period was magical, radiantly happy, without any obstacles or pitfalls. That was in stark contrast to the previous two engagements, which both had ended quickly — one within a week, and the other within a month —but had been rocky from the start, full of crises, problems, arguments, and disagreements. Michal and her family were certain that this time, it was the real thing. This time, Hashem was smiling on them and, after all she’d gone through — they’d gone through — she had found the right partner. To be continued.
