I look down at my own plate, feeling my cheeks redden self—consciously. Eli always reprimands me for getting too heated at the Shabbos table. Why do you have to be so angry about everything? he always whines. Other women don’t behave like you. Can’t you just relax? But I worry. I worry that if no one around me takes anything seriously, who will? The Talmud says, “If not me, then who? If not now, then when?” If I should follow the advice of our rabbis in everything I do, shouldn’t I follow this particular verse as well?
