Broken Marriage - Try to Repair It or Go Further?

QUESTION:

I have a broken marriage. Should I try to repair it or give up on my wife and children and start all over? I am not a young man.

ANSWER:

Without knowing you or your wife or your children I can't advise you. I merely point out that at your age if you continue as you have in the past few years, battling here and there and everywhere, you may never remarry and may never have children who live in your house. That is one thing.

Second of all, if  you know exactly why the marriage broke up, and people you respect and rely upon agree with you that those were the reasons, you can think about fixing the marriage, although that is a very difficult thing to contemplate at this late stage, after years of problems and separation. But if you have no clear idea why the marriage broke up, or  you don't have a clear idea how to fix the problems, and  you are running out of time to remarry, you have to decide what to do.

In these matters there are certain experts, at least a few of them, who are really successful and experienced. If  you get opinions from them, you may save yourself a lot of aggravation.

But at any rate, stay in touch with me if for no other reason than to get some moral support. When a person sees his life draining away, and his children growing up without him, he needs a lot of help just to stay in one piece. We really have to accept this challenge, just to fight to hang in there. It is not an easy thing. The rabbis have taught that a woman can be the greatest happiness for a man or the opposite. And when it is the opposite, it is worse than death. Broken Marriage - Try to Repair It or Go Further?