"Parents, if your son or daughter has any issues, do everyone (especially yourself) a favor and be open with the other side"
I was so touched by Shira Yehudit Djalilmand’s incredible story about her father. He sounds like he was a very special person. I really felt her pain over the loss of her father, especially with the challenges of being a convert. I was both crying and cheering for her when she was able to attend her father’s service, and when she found out that she could do mitzvos here to help her father in Shamayim.
It’s not easy for parents when their child chooses a path different from the one that they were raised in. I’m a baalas teshuvah, and my parents were initially pained that I chose to raise my children in a different path. But they love and accept me, and we have a wonderful relationship. My kids call them frequently (they live far from us) and the lifestyle differences make no difference in our love for each other.
Shira’s father is especially amazing for loving and accepting his child for who she is and embracing her as a Jew. It is easy to be frum and love our frum children. It is much harder to love and accept our children who have strayed from us, either because they are more or less religious than we are. Let us all take a lesson from Shira’s father on how to love and embrace our children regardless of how they live their lives. I am going to give tzedakah today in the merit of Michael ben Robert.
Shira, thank you for sharing your story with us. We can all learn a great deal from you and from your father.
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