In our society, we confuse our feeling of love for infatuation. In the short story "The Magic Barrel," the main character in the story, Leo Finkle is a rabbinical student at the Yeshivah University. After six years of study he was to be ordained and he was advised my a colleague that if he were to be married he might find it easier to build a congregation.
Leo found this a difficult matter because he had no personal desire to be married. His career as a rabbi had left him little time for personal to build relationships. So he pondered with the idea and he decided he needed help so he contacted a man named Salzman. Salzman is the antagonist in the story. Salzman had a business set-up as a match maker service. When Leo met Salzman he was disappointed by his narrow selection. Salzm
an's excuse was he has so many at home he has to keep them in a barrel and not every woman is good enough for a rabbi.
In our society people fall in love for the wrong reasons: looks, lust, money, and sex are the common mistakes people make before getting to know the real person. This will only lead to disappointments later in a relationship and end in heartache. Many people use the Internet and match making services to meet someone for personal companionship. Only to get hurt because it is too easy to pretend to be someone else and fall in love for the wrong reasons.
Later, Leo realizes he cannot trust Salzman because he finds out he lied about the age of one of the selections. Leo found this out after he met with Lily Hirschorn. Salzman also misled Lily about Leo. He said Leo
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