All was well in the Gelbstein home Friday night, as the family of the groom-to-be headed out to celebrate the shabbat chattan. While they happily gathered with friends and family to enjoy their simcha, however, invaders smashed through their window, and began to ransack their apartment. When they returned that evening, their most valuable possessions were gone. Silver, jewelry, and other family heirlooms were stolen. The most remarkable stolen item, however, was a large sum of borrowed money, intended to pay for the wedding.
Bereft of their valuables, and all of the money carefully gathered to marry off their beloved son, the Gelbstein family sat in their home, shocked, and began to cry. In the few days that followed, they managed to borrow an equal sum, plunging themselves into astronomical debt.
As parents Chaim & Leah walked son Tzvi to the chuppah, there was a noticeable veil of sadness over the Gelbstein family. Though they were overjoyed to marry off their child, their lives had been turned upside down.
In the months that have followed, the family’s debt has plummeted them into dangerous levels of poverty. Though they work long, hard hours at their teaching jobs, Chaim & Leah are unable to pay even the most basic bills. With 8 kids remaining at home, the youngest of which is just 2 years old, their situation is truly dire.
Their need is so great that Beit Shemesh rabbanim, including the Rachmastrivke Rebbe, have issued a public statement on the family’s behalf. Emergency funds are being collected to help this now-impoverished family, whose lives were flipped in an instant, from joy to tragedy.
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2 Responses
No renters/homeowners insurance? Tzvi Gelbstein, Mazal Tov on your marriage! Let me please give you some marriage advice. We need tefillah and learning in our daily lives (that should be the forefront), but now that you are married you have an obligation to provider (as detailed in the Kesubah). With all the wonderful and amazing aspects of marriage, you have the responsibility in marriage to make sure that your family is now taken care of (with or without Gofundme pages).
1. Please get renters insurance to protect against theft, loss, or damages and lawsuits.
2. Please get health insurance. Your wife should merit to have many children, but the responsibility is solely yours to provider health coverage for her hospital stays or God Forbid any other medical bills.
3. Please get life insurance. It is affordable to get it at our young age, and you want to selflessly be there to protect your family if God forbid you aren’t around one day. You and I really can’t rely on our shul or community to support a million dollar campaign for something which we could have responsibly taken care of for about $1 USD per day.
In (Kiddushin 29a) the Gemorah discusses about preparing and training your son/daughter for the unknown in life by teaching swimming. Jumping off that analogy, you should prepare yourself for life’s unknowns. Although everything in life is a gift from Hashem, it doesn’t come “free”- neither will my donation. Only if you are able to prove that you took my three pieces of advice, then Bli Neder I will contribute to your campaign.
You both should merit happiness to 120+!
TGIShabbos (poster of previous comment) … I noticed that you took the time to type out a nice long passive aggressive comment, but somehow did not take the time to actually read the story. The parents, two teachers who work hard at their jobs and have 8 kids at home, are the ones who were robbed. Not the chassan.