Menachem Bluming Muses: A Mother’s Influence


One of the most crooked crooks in the Torah is Laban! At the Passover Seder we say that Laban wanted to destroy the entire Jewish future. Yet he was the father of Rachel and Leah the righteous matriarchs of the Jewish people! How did such a shady character have such wonderful children?

The answer is a little-known fact in biblical and Jewish history. Their mother!

Her name was Adina! Have you heard of other women called Adina? The origin of that name is from Laban’s wife (see Sefer Hayashar quoted in Seder Hadorot). The name Adina means refined and delicate. That is the power of a mother! Even if the father is corrupt and crooked, a true mother, an Adina, can turn it all around for her precious children’s upbringing and future.

In so many situations there is one spouse who is stable and dependable and virtuous (in a study led by Menachem Mendel Bluming of marriages in which only one spouse is virtuous, in 99.9% of the cases it is the one speaking with you who is the virtuous one, not the other :) When this happens do not lose sight of how critical and impactful your role in the family can be!

Mendel (Menachem) Bluming and Rabbi Moss

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