purim forward

But a serious one...

This one was from, once again, a friend of a friend, whose rav sends out weekly divrei torah. He sent out one this week detailing that the gemara that details the mitzvah of matanot la'evyonim from: "Kol HaPoshet Yad, Nosnim Lo" (Anyone who asks, give him), is referenced by chassidim as the relationship between G-d and Israel on Purim. Prayer done with concentration and sincerity on this day has extra power. In other words, ask on Purim and ye shall receive.*

Now, this is a very simplified version of the d'var torah, but the follow-up to this forward was to try and organize people saying tehillim so they would get shidduchim.

Which is all very nice and wonderful, but I can't help wondering whether that's all that these people have to worry about. I mean, of course I'd love to be married, but what about the people I know who have much more on their minds? It seems that people consider getting married to be the 'big crisis' of our times. And I guess I can't disagree if it's happening on such a wide scale.

[Honestly, I can't help but think that a lot of it has to do with sociological influences--if the population at large is getting married later and later, it makes sense that we would be as well. After all, Jewish life doesn't exist in a vacuum. But I digress.]

But I can't help but wonder--don't people have bigger things to pray for? Someone who's seriously ill? Someone who needs financial assistance? Peace on earth? Peace in Israel?

I don't want to discount people whose main concern and worry is getting married. It's not a bad thing to want at all... but it just starts to seem a bit trivial and selfish when this is constantly the first request that people ask for before everything else...

*There was much more to the d'var torah, and it was very interesting, but I'm just summarizing part of the conclusion here.