At 24, Esther Malka Porush was faced with a difficult dilemma few will ever face and she took the hard route for the right reason. Coming from a poor family of 16, she knew her parents wouldn’t be able to afford to marry her off so she decided to push off her wedding, in a community where marrying before 20 is the norm, by a half a decade. Amazingly, she got a degree in computer science and started working as a programmer, carefully saving her earnings to fulfill her childhood dreams.
She got engaged to an incredible bochur but just before the wedding, she heard that her parents and younger siblings didn’t have food for Shabbos and were in danger of starvation. To save their lives, Esther Malk gave them all of her earnings, in an incredibly selfless act, but was left with nothing to get married.
Although she feels she did the right thing, she is pained by the thought of having to delay getting married again for another several years. Her wedding date is approaching and without the help of Klal Yisrael, she won’t make it. Helping a kallah get married is an incredible Mitzvah which guarantees reward in both this and the next. To learn more about taking part in this Mitzvah opportunity, click here.
