Chava’s shoulders tensed and a sudden fear gripped her. Was Rabbi Freund about to call her out for having failed in her job as a mechaneches? Would he gently suggest that maybe it was time to step away from this role? To let the younger, cooler, more in-touch teachers take over?

He took a breath and she braced herself. “How have your supervision sessions been going with Mrs. Hurwitz?”

Chava blinked. “Fine. Why?”

“Because her name came up in my conversation with Mrs. Keller.” He put his glasses back on. “According to ZeeZee, Mrs. Hurwitz has known about this and gave ZeeZee her approval. She even went to see the center herself.”

“Oh.” The silence hung heavily for a moment. This was bad for Tammy. Really bad.

“Has she ever mentioned to you—” Rabbi Freund began, but Chava quickly shook her head.

“Nothing,” she said, feeling more incompetent than ever. She’d missed the boat on Shani, on ZeeZee, and now on Tammy as well. She used to think of herself as someone easy to talk to, someone people enjoyed coming to for advice. Hah. Twenty years ago, maybe, she thought bitterly. Face it, Chava, your time has passed. Now it’s women like Tammy Hurwitz that the girls look to confide in.

Tammy… despite her envy, her heart went out to her. Over these past few weeks, Chava had gotten to know her better. There was something about her sincerity, her passion, and also her raw insecurity, that drew Chava to her.

She frowned. It didn’t make sense that Tammy would put herself in such a position yet again. “Tammy’s been really careful ever since the Shani incident,” she said. “It would surprise me to think she’d do something so egregious like this.”

“Do you really think so?” Rabbi Freund shook his head. “Because I’ll tell you the truth, I’m ready to fire her. This is already the third incident where she’s shown a serious lapse in judgment. If she can’t learn from her mistakes, then I can’t afford to have her on staff.”

A moment ago, Chava had felt the momentary panic that perhaps her own job was on the line. Now she knew that it was Tammy’s — but, somehow, that didn’t make her feel better. Perhaps Rabbi Freund was correct. But there was something so vulnerable about the young woman that she instinctually wanted to protect her.

“I really think there must be some mistake,” she said firmly. “Obviously, you won’t fire her before looking into this more.”

Rabbi Freund looked taken aback. “No, of course not. Especially because you’re so convinced otherwise.” He scratched his beard. “I suppose ZeeZee could’ve just made that part up to get her mother off her back.”

It would’ve been neat and convenient to agree, but honesty compelled Chava to say, “No, ZeeZee’s not a liar.” She stood up. “But I’m going to look into this.”

Rikki Klein was waiting for Tammy at the entrance to Yad b’Yad. Maybe it was simply a nice, welcoming gesture from an old friend, but Tammy couldn’t shake off the feeling that Rikki didn’t trust her around the girls.

“Oooh, personal escort for my first day on the job,” she said lightly.

Rikki chuckled, but didn’t exactly deny it. “I figured I’d show you around.”

To her credit, Rikki had taken her request to become involved with Yad b’Yad seriously and had gotten back to her fairly quickly with an offer. But it was a different offer from what Tammy had expected.

“A tutor?” Tammy had asked, surprised.

“Yeah, lots of these girls are struggling in school. One-on-one tutoring would make a big difference for them.”

“But—” A million objections had entered her mind. But Tammy had never tutored before. And these were Israeli students. She had no clue what the Hebrew terms were for high-school level algebra or biology. Come to think of it, she didn’t even remember the English terms.

Reasonable objections, all. But the one that had to come spitting out of her mouth was, “But I thought I’d be doing something in the line of mentoring or counseling! You know, what I’m good at.”

Rikki’s reply had come so swiftly, Tammy had suspected she’d been waiting for this opening. “Tammy, you’re not a trained counselor. There are too many people out there who think they’re therapists because they’re good at listening and giving advice. And, unfortunately, they can cause lots of damage.”

Tammy had closed her eyes. Ouch. Had Rikki meant for that to hit home so cruelly? Or had she just forgotten?

“Got it,” she’d said stiffly. “Tutoring it is.”

Now, thinking of the icy end to their conversation, Tammy tried to inject a note of warmth into her voice as she asked, “Whatever happened to my idea to send a girl to intern with my friend Devoiry? I thought it would be great for a girl like Ilana.”

Rikki walked through the front door and turned down a hallway before answering. “So do we, actually. We’re working on arranging it.”

“Amazing!” Tammy grinned, as Rikki raised a cautionary hand.

“Please don’t say anything about it to Ilana. We want to be able to present it to her the right way.”

Tammy blinked at the sudden hardness in her friend’s voice. “Sure, of course.” She threw Rikki a sideways glance. “You can trust me, you know.”

Rikki opened a door and waved her into a small room. “Here’s where you’ll work with the girls.”

Tammy raised an eyebrow at Rikki as she put her bag down on the table. Rikki leaned back against the wall and answered the unspoken question.

“It’s not that I don’t trust you,” she said. “I know what an amazing person you are, and I think the girls can gain a lot from you.”

“But—?”

Rikki sighed. “But — and don’t take this the wrong way, ’cuz I’m your friend and I love you — but you do have a bit of a boundary issue. And for girls like these, boundaries are essential.”

Tammy flinched. Boundary issue. She looked down at her hands. People kept throwing that term around. But what did it even mean?

Before she could reply, her phone rang. She looked down: Chava Edelman. Why was she calling her? Had Tammy forgotten about a supervision session? Brow furrowed, she answered the phone.

“How are you, Mrs. Edelman?” she said. “We weren’t supposed to meet now, were we?”

“No, no. I just wanted to talk to you about something. Do you have a minute?”

Tammy glanced at Rikki, still standing by the door. “Um, now’s not such a great time. I’m actually — well —” Why not let Mrs. Edelman know that her talents were appreciated elsewhere? “I’m starting a new afternoon job right now.”

“Really? How nice!” Mrs. Edelman’s voice was warm. “At another seminary?”

“No.” She straightened her shoulders. “I’m working at a center for girls at risk.”

to be continued…

(Originally featured in Family First, Issue 761)