The Matchmaker's Gift Quotes
"The ocean is full enough. If you don’t stop crying, you’ll drown the fish."
"You have a calling. You are young yet, but it will wait."
"The heart is big enough to hold both grief and love."
"In America, half of my classmates are girls. It's not like back home."
"My eyes are not as sharp as they should be. Still, I’m more than happy to help."
"Life in New York was limitless opportunity and shocking scarcity all at once."
"I sent her for a handkerchief, and she came back with a groom."
"You are a matchmaker, Sara Glikman. A shadchanteh for this strange, new world."
"I don’t have to know them to be happy for them. Sometimes, I like to be reminded that people can find love all on their own."
"Perhaps, in this country, with all of its freedoms and choices, a shadchan is less necessary than in the old world."
"What is life but a cup of lemon ice? Sweet and bitter and gone too soon."
"It’s not what you want, but it’s all he can do."
"You will again have compassion upon us, subduing our sins, casting all our sins into the depths of the sea."
"There was no picture, nothing clear, nothing to help me understand."
"Nothing cleanses the palate and the mind better than a bite of a Raskin’s half-sour."
"The world becomes a brighter place, you notice what you never noticed before, and you can’t imagine life without it."
"When you weep, the one you are meant for tastes the salt of your tears."
"You can’t afford to go to Hunter, not when you should be studying at Barnard College instead."
"A drop of love sometimes brings an ocean of tears."
"But just because the classes are free doesn’t mean I can afford to go."
"No one wants you to leave, but if you’re not living in the neighborhood, the shadchanim can’t make any accusations."
"You are a good boy, tateleh. I’m sure you make your mother proud."
"You’re not making the most of the opportunity you’ve been given if you don’t allow yourself to participate."
"Love is not always a straight, shining line. Sometimes, love is a shady path, full of unpredictable turns."
"Your grief will fade. Over time, it will get easier."
"She was twenty-one years old, a woman fully grown."
"The feelings come to me unannounced. I can’t predict them. I can’t control it."
"She was no longer a child hiding in the balcony."
"But now, with my family’s debts piling up, I can’t go on that way any longer."
"My father considered Sara a close family friend."
"It is also true that as a shadchanteh, I have certain talents that the men in this room do not have."
"I have been making matches since I was ten years old."
"We begin in dust and end in dust. In the middle, it’s good to have something sweet."
"Never underestimate the power of a quality undergarment. A well-fitted brassiere is a wise woman’s armor."
"Clients are only people, sweetheart. Some will be worth fighting for, and some will not."
"It isn’t enough to fight against cruelty. For my whole life, I fought for love. Not just romantic love, you understand. The love of a parent for a child. The love of one friend for another. Fight for something, sweetheart. Not just against. That’s the best advice I can give you."
"Did you like being a matchmaker?" "Darling, it was the greatest honor of my life. To make a true match, to see two souls united—I wish everyone could experience it."