saes

Judaism celebrates coupling, especially at the soul level.

LYNNE MEREDITH COHN STAFF WRITER

f you asked the couples you

know, they'd probably all say
that they are each other's
soul mates. But chances are,
some of them are not.
What is a soul mate?
And what does Judaism say
about the concept of two souls
destined throughout time to be
together?
A lot.
Rabbi Shmuel Irons, a
revered scholar and head of the
Kollel Institute in Oak Park,
spoke to a 300-plus crowd at the
Maple-Drake JCC recently
about "how to find and keep
your soul mate." (The talk was
part of an ongoing series, Jew-
ish Secrets to Self Improvement,
held the first Tuesday of each
month.) A devout Jew, Rabbi
Irons believes that God has a

•

very central role in pairing up
individuals.
"In many marriages ... a spir-
itual component is missing," says
the rabbi. `To have a soul mate,
you have to have a soul. We don't
hear about the spiritual part of
marriage, don't see it in maga-
zines, on TV.
'We have a [marriage] crisis
in our country," he says, where
half end in divorce, and another
half continues unhappily.
But "sometimes bad marriages
are reminders, too," says the rab-
bi. When "a person marries just
for beauty," finding many disap-
pointments as a result of basing
"life on superficiality, he needs
those disappointments, grows
from them."
"My sense is that we have
a lot of marriages that are