How I Met My Husband

How I Met My Husband

24 years ago this Shabbat, a classmate invited me to join him and his roommates for Shabbat dinner, and at that meal I met a very nice young yeshiva student named Joshua Weisberg. And that, dear reader, was the beginning of one of the greatest blessings of my life– my marriage to my husband. Which has been the root of so many other greatest blessings–my children, our family, our home. And, of course, JewishMOM.com, which would not exist without all these other prerequisite blessings.

And it all started with Jewish boy meets Jewish girl at a Shabbat table. What could be simpler than that?

But, the truth is, it wasn’t simple at all. In fact, the circumstances that had to line up in order for me to meet Josh were not 1 plus 1 simple, they were more like calculus.

Here’s a partial list of what had to happen for Josh and I to meet at that Jerusalem Shabbat table 24 years ago:

There had to be years full of encounters and experiences and learning for Josh and I to evolve from our liberal upbringing into observant Jews.

There had to be more years of encounters and experiences to bring Joshua of Kingston, Ontario and Jenny Freedman of Baltimore, Maryland to be living in Jerusalem.

Unlike 99% of Canadian college-bound kids, at the age of 18 Josh had to choose to attend an American college called Wesleyan. And that was where he befriended his Jerusalem roommates Michael and David, who were my classmates (and the source of that fateful Shabbat invitation) at the Pardes Institute, a pluralistic coed yeshiva.

And the fact that I was studying in Jerusalem studying that year? For that, I had to go through a personal and spiritual journey over the course of several years through Russia, Indonesia, Jerusalem, Maine, and back again to Jerusalem to meet my husband at that Shabbat table.

I also had to finish college a year and a half early. Which happened because I was the only french horn player at Bowdoin College, and, incredibly, I ended up accumulating 3 semesters worth of credits from various orchestras and bands I participated in. The fact that I was a terrible french horn player didn’t matter, Hashem had his plans. And even my awful horn playing couldn’t stop them…

I recently heard a class by Rabbi Fischel Shachter who was talking about rubiks cubes.

He said that he sees all the kids nowadays playing with rubiks cubes, but he can’t even get one side the same color, let alone all 6.

But that is what Hashem does all the time, lining up thousands of details in order for each of us to experience what Hashem wants us to experience.

And for a Canadian boy to meet an American girl at a Jerusalem Shabbat table and fall in love, against all odds.

Thank you, Hashem, for everything.

7 comments

  1. Beth Berman

    B”H with my married children, we see this miracle happening time and time again. I have one daughter who was actually at the same NCSY advisor’s table as her future husband one year before they met (a picture showed that fact, but neither remembered), but they didn’t actually meet until a year later, at a different NCSY Shabbat table. The timing wasn’t right the first time, and Hashem knew it. There is a Midrash that since the miracle of Kriyat Yam Suf, Hashem has been making shidduchim, and the circumstances surrounding them all are no less miraculous than splitting the sea. May you have many more years of simcha — you are definitely giving simcha to klal yisrael — payback for Hashem!

  2. mazel tov! you should only have simchas, much nachas from your children, and may we all be zoche to greet mashiach in our time.

  3. Rivka Finkelstein

    Hi from Ottawa, formerly Kingston, where we saw Josh born and raised and grow… I didn’t know about this website.. thank you to my friend Iva who shared, when she saw the city Kingston

    • wow, that’s so nice! I’ve heard often about rabbi finkelstein who moved to Ottawa…small world!

  4. Now just think of the complicated machinations if one is lucky enough to find a second husband after the first marriage falls apart (chas v’sholom)! My husband was ready to marry me with five kids including a special needs child!

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