Dear Mrs. Bluth,
I am a seventy-nine-year-old gentleman who has been an ardent follower of your columns since you began to appear in The Jewish Press, from your Agunah Chronicles, Over Coffee, Family Chronicles and now Life Chronicles and have been enthralled by all of them. For the longest time, I have wanted to write to you and ask you a question that is most troubling to me but am afraid to come off as critical or judgmental or, worst of all, disrespectful, so please forgive me, that is the farthest thing from my intent.
The question that has been rolling around my old brain is, how can so many awful things be happening in our midst? Addiction of all sorts, spousal abuse and infidelities, child abuse and molestations and every other kind of deceitful, horrible crimes found amongst other nations of the world. How is this possible amongst our people when we have a Torah that is a life blueprint by which we must live and present ourselves in the world, given to us by HaKadosh Baruch Hu so that we may be an example and a light onto the world and portray a moral and beautiful way to live and bring honor to His name?
Your answers to these letter-writers are mostly on point and on occasion, you have also helped me solve a problem or two by the response you gave to another person. However, most often, I see you handing off the cure or solution to a “therapist” or other professional and almost never print whether they have been successful in curing the persons who seek their help. The other side of this dilemma is how do you know if a letter sent to you is legitimate and not simply fabricated by someone wanting to see their letter in print?
I hope you are not offended by my double-sided question but I am so troubled by what is going on in the world and the sad state of affairs amongst my own people that spurred me to write this letter. From my sector, I wish you onward in strength and fortitude to continue helping those in need, admonishing those who need to be called out on their cruelty and abuse and, most importantly, to indulge old fools like myself.
Sincerely,
Almog
Dear Friend,
Your letter was an eye-opener for me. I did not find your verbiage offensive in the least, but what I did come face to face with was that probably a great many other people may share your concern about the legitimacy of the letters I get and those that make it into print. Since I chose to print your letter, allow me to thank you for following my columns over a span almost 50 years (give or take a couple) and still going strong.
Life goes on with notable changes marking the new generations as they come are hard to adopt, and some things stay pretty much the same. Family issues are almost always compromised by the state of parnassah, children becoming more and more distant from their parents by surrounding themselves with friends that feed into the false gods of electronics, drugs for instant gratification, health issues that afflict young and old alike and health insurance that insures us less and less health for more and more money. Then there are all those human failures, mental illnesses and neurosis that have afflicted mankind from the beginning of time, the ones I often feel the need to suggest to a letter-writer to engage the help of a therapist, psychiatrist, or specialty healer to help them purge their bad habits and regain a better quality of life.
Are all my letters legitimate? That’s a hard one to answer. Most people will exaggerate their pain because they know that words can’t smack them back if what they describe is something less than truthful and in that way getting back at their oppressors. I don’t just rely on my own gut feeling about a letter picked for print, I run it by three other professionals and a rabbi to concur that it is okay to print it. As for people who look for their fifteen minutes of fame in this column, they have greater things to worry about than just seeing their lives in print.
I agree with you whole-heartedly that we have fallen from the heights we once were as the people who stood at Har Sinai and with one voice and one heart accepted the wonderful gift of the Torah from our Heavenly Father… but then, how long did it take before we fell into the ‘Cheit HaEgel’? We are sinners by virtue of the gift of free will, and what we lust after often is the complete opposite of how we must conduct our lives. So it is little wonder why times are so bitter and it appears that Hashem has forsaken us but nothing is farther from the truth! It is we who have forsaken Him and all the beauty, love and generosity Hashem has lavished on us doesn’t matter. However, I am a strong believer in the righteousness of our people and it is becoming abundantly clear that Hashem’s hand is in everything we are going through, as He waits for our return to Him.
Thank you and all my readers who spend time with me each week and hopefully pick up something in the column that will help them going forward. I know that I have grown light years reading your letters, sharing your pain, hopes and dreams and I thank you, especially, for entrusting them to me. May we live to welcome Moshiach together in the very near future.
