"We would never criticize the ultimate Provider of life circumstances and of personal nisyonos; perhaps it behooves us not to criticize the receiver either"
I was so moved by your fictional story, “Mountains Around Jerusalem.” After reading it, I told my husband how impressed I was at how beautifully and effectively you humanized a figure whose predicament was a challenge for many of us to relate to. We all know of and respect those who struggle financially for the privilege of living in Eretz Yisrael. And yet, this figure, this girl with the charmed life who tried so hard to make it work, who struggled without whipped cream cheese… she became a real, relatable person in the story, one with struggles, pain, and triumphs of her own.
In regards to the letter to the editor (et tu, Family First?) the writer references virtue-signaling trends such as refusing to buy products from “occupied territories,” but I wonder if she has perhaps fallen for another such trend in her criticism. The idea of sneering down at those who are “privileged,” as if their struggles are somehow less real, less human, than others, is very of-the-moment, but I don’t believe it fits into a Torah worldview. Chazal say that every person is an “olam malei,” and that is true for everyone, affluent parents and doting grandfather notwithstanding. Is her desire for more, for something higher, not an aspiration we can respect? Is her overpowering sense of shame at not having the tools to follow through with her dream not something each of us, in our own way, can relate to?
As Jews, we are rachmanim. As women, we possess binah, X-ray vision that helps us see the person within. We would never criticize the ultimate Provider of life circumstances and of personal nisyonos; perhaps it behooves us not to criticize the receiver either.
Penina Teitelbaum
Chicago
Dear “Living in Yerushalayim for now,”
You write that you appreciate living in Eretz Yisrael but nonetheless were “met by a harsh reality of what real life is here.” You’re finding living here hard. Yes, sometimes it is (and real life is surely somewhat of a harsh reality everywhere), but as I can attest, it gets easier.
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