I know I am late to the party and there is a lot going on here, but I felt like it was so mean that her husband just glossed over her birthday and seconds later said he loved her more than anything in the world. She asked for something beautiful and he was a scholar and a spiritual man. The Rebbe who passed was his idol and he had way more regard for his wife.
You can live on fishes but you can't live on wishes
Vonziggy - I have to agree with you. The wife was criticized for her lack of interest in maintaining their home, and feeding her husband frozen dinners....but he seemed just as disinterested in her. I don't know how birthdays are treated in the Jewish faith, but the fact that he completely forgot her birthday was telling.
-Jane
His attitude towards her at the time definitely contributed to her growing dissatisfaction with her situation. Other than the rebbe who had passed there were no positive male figures in her community. I finally made it to the end of the film and he did try to redeem himself although it may be a case of too little too late. Once he took their son back from the sister-in-law, the husband had the inclination to apologize to her about forgetting her birthday as he came to the realization that their son needed his mother at the end of the film and gives her the ruby, which he says is her birthstone. This implies that birthdays are indeed meaningful to their faith, because the husband was extremely devout.
You can live on fishes but you can't live on wishes