A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words
A woman distressfully recounted that her son wished to marry a gentile woman. She continued, “Honored Rabbi, what will happen if this son will assimilate with the gentiles, just like the rest of my children?”
Her words caused me tremendous sorrow. I was truly pained over her plight. I decided to step outside and breathe in some fresh air. Maybe this would help me calm down. Additionally, I didn’t want her to feel even worse after noticing my agony over her situation.
When I returned, I asked, “What is your son’s name?”
She told me the name, a completely secular one.
“This is a gentile name. What is your son’s Jewish name?”
She uttered another name, just as non-Jewish as the first.
I was very disturbed by this and rebuked the woman, “It is not enough that you gave your son a gentile name, but you added another one, claiming it is Jewish?!”
The woman replied in self-defense, “But, Rabbi, we eat only kosher! And we make Kiddush on Shabbat!” As if to prove her words, she removed a photograph from her handbag, in which the entire family was seated around the Shabbat table. Candles burned on the table, which was set with all types of delicacies. At the head, stood the father, making Kiddush.
On a second sighting, though, it was discernible that the family members were bareheaded. At the side, a television was turned on, and some of the family watched all sorts of abominations.
“See how happy we are on Shabbat,” crowed the woman.
I looked at the photograph once again. The family truly looked happy. But it was a materialistic type of happiness, not the joy of holiness. In a commiserating tone, I told her, “Is this your definition of joy? This is physical delight, not the delight of the sanctity of Shabbat! Take a look at this picture and see how many transgressions you committed. The very fact that you have a photograph taken on Shabbat is testimony to Shabbat desecration. The TV in the background ensnares all who gaze at it, and many sins were surely involved in the food preparation.
“Why are you so shocked that your children married out? This picture proves that they were raised on physical pleasures alone, bereft of all things spiritual.
“Now you see that physical pleasures are transient. All they leave behind are decadence and devastation. Conversely, spiritual pleasures last a lifetime.”
When kashrut is the only sign of Judaism in a household, one’s spiritual level is on a shaky standing and in great danger of toppling when he goes out into the big, wide world of wild abandon. In order to raise Torah-true Jews, one must infuse his home with mitzvah observance in all areas. Children must see a complete picture of what Jewish life is all about.
