They eat alone. Often it is every Shabbos. Every Yom Tov.
They are the divorced. The single. And, if and when they get our attention, it is often as an afterthought. But rarely or never a forethought.
Perhaps that is why modern phone technology was invented. Not so that we can shop the latest gizmo, or look up something that we had just discovered, but rather to be able to reach out to the singles, and to do so in a kavodika way.
They are all a tzelem elokim, with so much to offer in thought and conversation. We need to seriously re-evaluate things.
A note I received quite recently indicated that it is not a minor problem. It stated that for many the “invisibleness” is so unbearable that some of them have given up on our glorious birthright r”l because of this.
The note urged us to scroll through our contact lists and text, “Hi Chaim, I am thinking of you and would love it if you could pop by for a meal or something – we really enjoy your company.”
One of the reasons why we avoid Pas Palter during aseres yemei Teshuvah is to accumulate zchusim. Why not reach out now for Sukkos?
A shoutout to CF and TH for bringing this issue up.
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One Response
On this topic, a comment from an older single at our Rosh Hashana table:
“People should stop stereotyping us older singles as nebachs who need a shidduch AND USE THAT FOR TABLE CONVERSATION by saying ‘We need to find you someone’…. When in reality, after all that, once they leave the hosts home, will never hear from them again. So they didn’t really care, just were trying make conversation, which was not appreciated.”
The above is not verbatim, but the basic idea of what he said. I understand maybe not all will feel like this.
G’mar Chasima Tova!