{"id":13625,"date":"2002-10-13T14:28:59","date_gmt":"2002-10-13T14:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jewishaction.com\/?p=13625"},"modified":"2020-07-27T08:23:48","modified_gmt":"2020-07-27T08:23:48","slug":"snapshot-special-dad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jewishaction.com\/jewish-world\/israel\/snapshot-special-dad\/","title":{"rendered":"Snapshot of a Special Dad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Sara Bedein<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Though his five sons are all grown, Rabbi Mordechai Scharf, 57, is still a full-time dad. Rabbi Scharf and his wife, Shoshana, are busy caring for their two foster children, ages 12 and 18.<\/p>\n<p>Over the past 30 years, the Scharfs, residents of Efrat, have provided a home to over 20 troubled teens no longer welcomed in their own parents\u2019 homes. The Scharfs have cared for up to three foster teens at one time. \u201cA child in trouble breaks my heart,\u201d says Rabbi Scharf. \u201cBut the child has to want to help himself. Some kids are not ready to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Though the foster children\u2019s parents pay a small stipend to the Scharfs, the money barely covers the expenses. Some teens stay at the Scharfs\u2019 only a week; others, a few years. Regardless of the duration of their stay, the Scharfs try to stay in touch with all their foster children, some of whom are already parents themselves.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Some teens stay at the Scharfs\u2019 only a week; others, a few years.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cA number of years ago, we had a 17-year-old foster kid from the North who was kicked out of his parents\u2019 house and sent to us,\u201d says Rabbi Scharf. \u201cShortly before he came to us, he got in trouble with drugs and was taken to prison. For some time during his stay, he had to be in <em>ma\u2019atzar bayit<\/em> (home custody); I took full responsibility for him. I escorted him to his day job\u2014he was a delivery boy at a local supermarket. When he was home, he was under my complete supervision. Everybody wanted to put him into a rehabilitation center except for me. I wanted to have a go with him first. He eventually became clean [from drugs].\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rabbi Scharf also works to reconcile foster children with their families. \u201cAfter weeks of my badgering the father of one my kids to spend some time with his son, he took him out for a hamburger and a movie. The teen came back so happy. I said to him, \u2018I bet it\u2019s been a long time since you did such a thing with your Dad.\u2019 He told me that this was the first time his Dad had ever taken him out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rabbi Scharf has always made family a top priority. When his wife decided to go to nursing school at the age of 40, Rabbi Scharf retired early so that he could dedicate himself full-time to his children who ranged from age 7 to 22 at the time. In the mornings, Rabbi Scharf would attend a <em>kollel<\/em> which he helped found, but made sure to be home everyday at 1:00 pm to greet his children with a hot lunch and a listening ear.<\/p>\n<p>Rabbi Scharf attributes his great knack with children to his parents. \u201cMy father taught me how important it is to spend a lot of time with your kids. As a kid, I remember the excitement of getting up 3:00-4:00 am on Sundays to go golfing with my father. We did lots of father-and-son things together which created strong bonds\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rabbi Scharf shares his expertise on parenting on a radio show he hosts called \u201cTeenagers in Turbulent Times.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Though his five sons are all grown, Rabbi Mordechai Scharf, 57, is still a full-time dad. Rabbi Scharf and his wife, Shoshana, are busy caring for their two foster children, ages 12 and 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":718,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-israel","issues-fall-20025763"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Snapshot of a Special Dad - Jewish Action<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Though his five sons are all grown, Rabbi Mordechai Scharf, 57, is still a full-time dad. 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