“A king’s daughter must be meek.” And if I hide in my abode, people will say, “You are why he left yeshiva.”
If my calling is to teach, how will I make ends meet? All that I earn from work so bitter will go straight to the babysitter.
“Do not misunderstand my intent,” they say. “You must work to pay the rent, to care for money and payment, but heaven forbid enlightenment.”
Though if I abandon education and deviate from expectation, sullied and disparaged will I appear for choosing the worst of all — a career.
From “Elegy to a Working Haredi Woman,” by Leah Meizel.
Meizel is “a mother of 17,” it says here. I hope that’s a misprint, but many of the Haredi—who have fascinated me since I visited Israel back in March-April—do have very large families.
Even the penguins (as some Israeli seculars call the males for their black suits, white shirts, and black fedoras), who used to be strictly on the dole, are going to work now.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 