When Ahuva F. discovered her husband had a mental illness, she was tempted to run away. Instead, she joined forces with him to slay the inner dragon.
Chazal tell us that a good woman has the power to transform a bad man into a good one, an ignorant am haaretz into a Rabi Akiva. In the words of the world’s wisest man: “Chachmas nashim bansah baysah” (A woman’s wisdom builds her house) (Mishlei 14:1).
But rarely do we hear much about the process and the struggles involved in building a strong husband from a weaker one.
A woman often needs every ounce of her feminine wisdom and every one of her feminine wiles to gently — or not so gently — nudge her husband toward a more perfect state. But what happens if the man you stood with under the chuppah turns out to have not just minor imperfections, but a serious psychological problem?
Many a woman in today’s instant-gratification generation simply packs out when faced with serious difficulties. “I can’t deal with this,” they say. “I was misled, and it shouldn’t be my job to fix him.” But there is the occasional giant of spirit who digs in her heels, faces the challenge squarely, and fights to build her husband and her home.
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