Expelling Motherly Instincts
A mother of ten came to me with her dilemma. One of her sons had unfortunately gone off the right path. He spent his time out of the house, coming home only very late at night. Each evening, he would bring home another girlfriend. One time, it was a black, once a French girl, and once an Arab. Aside from the severe sins of this boy, she was afraid his actions would affect her other children very negatively.
I instructed the woman to expel her son from the house, as long as he kept up this behavior. Aside from his life of abandon, this young man was not in a framework of Torah study. He spent his days smoking and doing other foolish things, wasting away his life. He was liable to have a very bad influence on his siblings and therefore, he had to be sent away.
I learned this tactic from Sarah Imeinu, who ordered Avraham to “drive out this slave woman with her son, for the son of that slave woman shall not inherit with my son, with Yitzchak” (Bereishit 21:10). Sarah noted Yishmael’s dishonorable deeds and wanted Yitzchak to be kept away from him at all costs.
In spite of the difficulty involved, I instructed this woman to act like our Matriarch, Sarah, removing her wayward son from the scene before he pulled others after him.
