<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: times new roman, times;" _mce_style="font-size: large; font-family: times new roman, times;">The story of the wedding of Tzahi and Tzilla Meghnagi is highly appropriate for this week’s Torah portion. As soon as he has completed the burial of his wife Sarah, the Patriarch Abraham thinks of the next generation, specifically about finding a wife for his son Yitzhak, thus moving from death back to life.</span><br><br><span style="font-size: large; font-family: times new roman, times;" _mce_style="font-size: large; font-family: times new roman, times;">Tzahi recounts:</span><br><br><span style="font-size: large; font-family: times new roman, times;" _mce_style="font-size: large; font-family: times new roman, times;">“After having lived for quite a few years in the Nahlaot neighborhood of Jerusalem, I was surrounded by friends, had been to many Shabbat meals where there were lots of people, and gone on many dates without success. Then, when I was 36, my mother died, and something changed: I felt an emptiness and sadness that I had never known before. Many thoughts went through my mind, the main one being: How is it possible that I never got to have my mother walk me to the huppah, that she will never see my children? I would go to sleep with these thoughts and wake up with them in the morning.</span><br><br><span style="font-size: large; font-family: times new roman, times;" _mce_style="font-size: large; font-family: times new roman, times;">“I kept going out on unsuccessful dates. One day, I thought to myself: Instead of going out on another date and investing energy (and coffee) in someone I don’t know, what if I took a different look at those whom I know already? I started a campaign that I called, in my mind, Make Your Friend Your Wife.</span><br><br><span style="font-size: large; font-family: times new roman, times;" _mce_style="font-size: large; font-family: times new roman, times;">“For the first time, I looked around myself with a serious and different attitude. I found that I really did know great women at work and in the circles of my family and friends. So what was the problem – that I already knew them?! I picked up the phone and called Tzilla, and even though she knew me, I asked her out. She said yes, and that’s how I found the love of my life.</span><br><br><span style="font-size: large; font-family: times new roman, times;" _mce_style="font-size: large; font-family: times new roman, times;">“Was it awkward? Of course it was awkward, but I think it’s better to be a bit awkward, and today be happily married and the father of four.</span><br><br><span style="font-size: large; font-family: times new roman, times;" _mce_style="font-size: large; font-family: times new roman, times;">“After the wedding, I gave my wife a second ring, one that had belonged to my late mother, and told her that the words of the verse ‘Isaac was comforted for the loss of his mother’ had been fulfilled in me.”</span></p>