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Hush
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Hush (edit title/settings)

by Eishes Chayil (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

Inside the closed community of Borough Park, where most Chassidim live, the rules of life are very clear, determined by an ancient script written thousands of years before down to the last detail—and abuse has never been a part of it. But when thirteen-year-old Gittel learns of the abuse her... read more

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “I stopped telling because once, when I was only six, Kathy gave me a square coffee candy and told me that it was kosher. But then my mother saw the candy, and when I told her that it was from Kathy she told me I shouldn't eat it, just in case it wasn't kosher enough. But the candy looked so good, and I was sure Hashem wouldn't mind if I ate just one candy that was just-in-case-not-kosher-enough. So I locked myself in the bathroom and hid behind the shower curtain. I knew Hashem couldn't see me behind the shower curtain. My teacher told us Hashem's presence didn't rest in such places. I unwrapped the candy quietly, so that Hashem wouldn't hear from the other side of the door. I then made a loud blessing on it, just in case it wasn't kosher enough, and put in in my mouth. It wasn't even good. I was devastated. I had taken the pains to hide from Hashem and He had seen me and made the candy taste horrible. I was never going to eat a just-in-case-not-kosher-enough candy again.”
    Gittel
  • “He turned his head away as if I had just slapped him hard. His beard quivered. He stared at me as if I were a ghost. And then he put his head down on his knees and cried. I had never seen my father cry before. I never knew he had tears the way I did, that his cheeks could get wet, that his eyes could look so sad. He held me in his arms, my father. He held me in his arms, and he cried for a long, long time. And that scared me most of all.”
    Gittel
  • “My parents and I were satisfied: a grandfather from Lodz, a great-aunt with a chosen carrot cake, and a boy with a name. What more could a girl want?”
    Gittel
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • Sometimes we build such high walls for protection that we forget that our greatest enemy can grow from within.
    Highlighted by 8 Kindle customers
  • “Oh, like my father used to say—today’s fanatics are tomorrow’s moderates. Then, we thought we were better than the goyim. Now with every group in their own school, everyone thinks they’re also better than the Yiden.”
    Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers
  • We built walls, and built them high. The walls would keep the gentiles and their terrifying world far away. The walls would protect us and shelter us—and as we built them higher, thicker, wider, we forgot to look inside. We forgot that the greatest enemies always grow from within.
    Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers
  • I told her to stop asking why. There was no why. There was just what was.
    Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
  • progress was a terrifying term in our world; it meant something had been wrong with the past, the place we chose to remain.
    Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
  • “You are the Eishes Chayil,” he said. “You are the real one. You are the only one protecting the children, and that is what a real mother does.”
    Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
  • “They said I will never get married if anyone knows the truth. Nobody will marry someone who is damaged by seeing such things.”
    Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
  • Devory was a very sick and sad girl and that’s what made her do what she did.” “It’s not true,” I said. “Devory did it because she hated her brother.”
    Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
  • After davening, my teacher announced that Devory wasn’t coming back because she had been very sick and Hashem had taken her away to heaven, where she would be happy.
    Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
  • “The Holocaust taught us the greatest lesson we’ll ever need to know,” my teacher told us whenever she spoke about it. “Never, ever trust the goyim. Stay as far away as possible. In the end, they will only hurt you.”
    Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
Show all 13 quotes from this book

First Sentence edit see section history

Devory? Devory? Devory, can you hear me? It's hard to write a letter to the dead.

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

  • Chassidic Life: Tight-knit Jewish communities very dedicated to the education and study of Torah and Jewish living.
  • Sexual abuse of a child: An expose of abuse in cloistered communities. This type of crime is not limited to certain places or a certain people group.
  • Friendship: Child-hood friendship and the bonds that hold two young girls together.
  • Religion, the importance it plays in small communities: Describes in great detail the daily life and thought os a tightly knit religious community and why they do (and think about) what they do.
  • Suicide and dealing with loss and grief: Grieving over the loss of a young friend, but also not fully able to understand one's role in the loss of the friend.
  • Secrets: When to keep them, when to shout them from the roof-tops.
  • Engagements and marriage: Life after 18 in a Chassidic community. Shadchan's and 20 minute meetings with a possible match at a L'Chaim. (A formal meeting between the prospective Bride and Groom.)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Eishes Chayil (Author)

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