Reply To: The Post-Shidduch Crisis

Furthermore, we live in an immature generation. It used to be that teenagers were working. We have created an extended childhood for them in America. Saying “everyone should mature” is a nonsensical way of solving the problem. The OU has decided that the best way to solve the drinking crisis is to limit the alcohol available. Piling the table full of alcohol and saying “everyone has to be mature about things” is not a solution. Giving someone illicit drugs and saying “he just has to be mature about things” doesn’t solve the problem.

finally, a druggie also has a “communication problem” with his wife. I wouldn’t say a druggie got divorced because of a “communication problem” though. The drugs caused the communication problem, the way Internet, blackberries and too much socialization caused the communication problem. When Chazal tell us “al tarbeh sicha im isha” (pirkei avos), they didn’t say “but the mitzvah of Hachnosas Orchim will be destroyed if we say this!” clearly there are ways to do both.