WELLBEING → OFF THE COUCH Issue 819 · July 15, 2020

You Really Get Them

“Kalman, you’re already the unofficial psychologist of the whole chaburah out here"

You Really Get Them

 

I’d originally met Kalman when I came to his yeshivah to speak about substance addictions. As he walked me to my car, this clean-cut, yeshivish-looking bochur revealed that looks can be deceiving — he, too, had a complicated past. Part II

 

Ihadn’t seen Kalman in over a year. Now, I learned, he was the dorm counselor at a program that was something between a yeshivah and a rehab in a town outside Jerusalem.

Most of the bochurim at this place had had it pretty tough in one way or another: abusive homes, addictive pasts, and more often, a combination of the two. They were basically good kids, but this wasn’t the place you’d end up if you were interested in getting a filter on your smartphone.

As it turned out, I had no idea that Kalman was working at the program. I was invited by Reb Tzviki, the program director and the son of a rav I know, to come by and talk to the bochurim about substance abuse. I hadn’t seen Kalman since he organized a similar talk at his old yeshivah the year before.

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