“So far, my life has not been simple,” begins 20-year-old Chaya Chaim’s of Bnei Brak’s letter. Chaya was just a teenager when her mother, who had raised her alone, lost her battle with cancer. 

The young girl was left with no family in the world. Not even a sibling.

 

“I’ve learned how to be strong,” she writes, referring to recent efforts to support herself. Chaya works full time for a modest wage, which covers her basic groceries and a percentage of the rent for the apartment she shares with roommates. 

As of recently, however, Chaya’s bravery and determination have not been enough to save her. Engaged to a young man who is an orphan as well, the couple is completely unprepared. Without a hall, invitations, a ring or a wedding dress, they have contemplated cancelling the event entirely. This is to say nothing of what follows the wedding itself: rent for a simple apartment of their own, dishes, linens and appliances are all far beyond their capabilities. “If I got married tomorrow, I wouldn’t even have a chair to sit on,” she writes. 

Despite their humiliation, however, Chaya has refused to give up.  “Operation Bayis Ne’eman” has been started in hopes of providing the young couple with the basics required to preserve their dignity. 

“I have no family, but I have you klal Yisroel,” writes the special young kallah. The fund text concludes with hope for the future in the form of a bracha: “You should be blessed with health…To marry off your children in happiness.”

“And you should never know this kind of humiliation.”