A Hundred Dollars Less Thousands More

Throughout the years, my parents worked hard to provide for us and to give us everything we needed. My father was a freelancer. Whenever he had work he earned a nice salary, but sometimes a month could go by without any work at all. And on the other hand, sometimes there was a great deal of work and tremendous pressure within a short amount of time. Because of this he did not have a regular income, and my mother made every effort to provide for our needs during the months that my father had no work.

Ima worked as a secretary in the yeshivah where I learned, and her salary was not high. Every month that money was missing, she borrowed about a hundred dollars from the yeshivah gemach, and when my father...