Halachot and Customs
Is it permitted to take in a secular/religious teenage girl?
Is it permitted to take in a secular/religious teenage girl?
Question
Shalom and blessings
My family brought a girl into our family, though not permanently, but for something like a year or two.
In short, this girl was raised in a secular environment without parents, so my family took her in, because someone from the administration of the place where she is "living"
asked my parents to take her under their protection until she can take care of herself. (army..age 18)
She came when she was 15, and I do not know whether my parents made the right choice when they did this.
In my opinion, she does not keep Shabbat when she is in her room. (though not in public)
She does not recite a blessing after eating.
She is in her room 95 percent of the day.
And she causes me a bit of a weakening in faith, when I see someone like that in the house with me. Also with all the temptations that I try to stay away from like from fire.
As though it is normal for someone like that to be in a religious home,
and it seems to me at least that she comes to Kiddush or Havdalah only because this is a religious home, and if it were not a religious home she would not keep anything.
And it is true that I must judge every person favorably, but also in my own house?
Sometimes I am really furious about this.
What is the truth?
Answer
Shalom and blessings
Since she is in the category of a captured child who was raised in ignorance, she was not brought up in anything; it is a mitzvah to save her and give her shelter until the storm passes. There is no doubt that included in the mitzvah is also helping her to know her Creator and recognize the Torah. Of course, this should be done wisely and with good will, and not by coercion, and with Hashem's help she will merit to keep Shabbat in full.
Blessings,
Binyamin Shmueli
