Everyone wants to set me up but, no one really wants me to get married

Originally posted on 12/11/08

I want to beef about the Orthodox Jewish manner in which mates are selected for you. Unfortunately, most of what I have to say has probably been said so very many times. When one is looking for a spouse in the Orthodox Jewish world, they go to a matchmaker known as a shadchan. If the match gets married, this is known as a shidduch.

One problem in the Orthodox world is that EVERYONE wants to be a shadchan. I mean, yes, it's a mitzvah to make a match, but, it's not so simple. A real shadchan spends hours pouring over their laptop looking at their spreadsheets trying to find two people who seem like they belong together FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES.


At best, these amateur wannabe shadchans try picking out someone they they want to marry off and they put them at a table for a meal with a bunch of people of the opposite gender hopefully are age appropriate and remotely compatible.

Unfortunately, more often than not, they are trying to set people they don't know well enough to determine if they are compatible. Someone recently invited me over for a meal. When I was there, it comes out that they invited someone for my benefit, but they didn't say it outright. He wasn't even Orthodox. He was Conservadox.

Another type of attempt at a shidduch that I would like to vent about is what I call the "Beauty and The Beast" type. This is where a man women don't want, usually a dirty old man, persuades people to try to coerce a girl into to dating him. They usually use some awfully grimey tactics, too. They try to make you sit next to the person. They will get together a whole shul and make sure that the seat next to him is the only one available. They will invite him over when they've invited you over. When you're in the kitchen washing for bread, they will have sent him in behind you and no one else is waiting to wash. They pretend they are interviewing you for a job then they bring up how they have someone for you. They scream and yell at you. They tell you if you don't settle for one of these HORRIBLE HORRIBLE men, you'll be alone for the rest of your life.

I will gladly take the trade off. When you marry someone you spend the rest of your life with them. You touch them and do other things with them. You bring children into the world together. If I don't want to be in the same room with a man, he's not a good candidate to be my husband.

I miss the good ol' days when I was still in conversion and I could just say, "I'm not allowed to date."




COMMENT
Great post! Would love to talk to you too. will send an email.
By Over The Rainbow on Everyone wants to set me up but, no one really wan... on 12/14/08

Introduction

Originally posted on 12/11/08

I thought it would be appropriate to start my blog off with an introduction.

I'm Michal. I grew up in the suburbs of Buffalo as Nicole. Now I live in Queens. I started studying for conversion on the 26th of Elul in 5766. I completed it 2 Hebrew years later, on the nose: 26 Elul 5768.

I studied very hard. I learned to read, speak and write Hebrew. I read 32? 33 books? I read all kinds of stuff online, mostly when I wanted specific information. Early this year, I found a shul where they let me daven there in the morning before work. The rabbi there actually answers my questions. This was very good because before that I had a rabbi who agreed to be my conversion rabbi but, he didn't really speak to me so much.


Through someone from this shul where I have my question answering rabbi, I got my final conversion rabbi. Although, those last months still seemed like an eternity.




Michal