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May 22, 2013

John Thorne: They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman

John Rosemond: 'Disciplinary math' adds up to parental successl

Warren Richey: Are prayers before public meetings OK? Supreme Court to decide
Rick Montgomery: Use of ADHD drugs as study aid raises concern on campuses

Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D.: 6 convincing reasons you should keep carbs in your diet

Eoin O'Carroll: Scientists examine nothing, find something

The Kosher Gourmet by Carole Kotkin: This soup is made from one of the great pleasures of spring: A wonderful pairing of rosy color and earthy tang

May 20, 2013

Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?

Hannan Adely: Town raises Palestinian flag at City Hall

Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Morgan Housel: When smart investors do stupid things

Sharon Saloman, M.S., R.D.: Hunger games: Eat more, weigh less, without starving

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star

The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting

May 13, 2013

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation

David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church

Emily Alpert: Recession dragged down birth rates for less-educated women
Morgan Housel: The deep downside of home ownership

Peter Teffer: Will Dutch police soon be stalking cybercriminals on your computer?

Heidi McIndoo, M.S., R.D.: Meatless 'meat' can have its own set of problems

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Celebrate! This must-try appetizer is delicate yet has depth of flavor: Corn-Leek Cakes with Caviar, Smoked Salmon and Creme Fraiche

May 10, 2013

Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be

Caroline B. Glick: The dirty little secret about Israel's Arabs

Mona Charen: Hawking's Moral Calculus: The man and the movement he embraces
Morgan Housel: The biggest retirement myth ever told

Sandi Doughton: Eyes may provide new insight into brain problems

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : The Great Gatsby's Jewish Ties; Jews in the "Time 100 list" List; People's Most Beautiful Women

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: A sweet-hot meal: Pear salsa spices up salmon

May 8, 2013

Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas

Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate

Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
Amanda Paulson: Study reveals sad truths about community colleges

Harvard Health Letters: Evidence weak that zinc, echinacea are beneficial

The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility

May 6, 2013

Edmund Sanders and Patrick J. McDonnell: Think Israel's objective in Syria is to weaken Assad or embolden the rebels? Think again

Brian Bennett: Israeli airstrikes may show weakness in Syrian defense

Michael Ollove: Millions of ex-felons, parolees and those on probation are about to be entitled to tax-payer paid health coverage
Karen Kaplan: Most men can skip PSA test for prostate cancer, urologists say

Kimberly Lankford: How to track down a lost life insurance policy

Dream of Mars exploration achievable, experts say

The Kosher Gourmet by Susan M. Selasky: EGGPLANT WRAPS are an easy, sumptuous and scrumptious meal

May 3, 2013

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Human Courage and the Unavoidable, Disturbing Text

Steven Emerson: Attorney General Fights CAIR in Court, Lauds it in Public

Mediterranean diet helps beat dementia: study
Harvard Health Letters: When to be screened for a hearing problem

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Iron Man's Jewish Connections; Marc Maron's New TV Show; Martin Landau Grows Up with Israel; Shalom, Allan Arbus

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: A sweet surprise for Mother's Day dessert

May 1, 2013

Jonathan Rosenblum: An Improbable Journey to Orthodoxy

Jonathan Tobin: Blame Obama, Not Israel for Syria Push

Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Halena M. Gazelka, M.D.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: What you need to know about implanted pain relief devices

Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine

Jessica Shugart: When it comes to math, MRIs may be better than IQs

The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali: The celebrated chef on how high-maintenance ASPARAGUS RISOTTO need not be

April 29, 2013

Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust

Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?

Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Morgan Housel: He's rich, smart and old: Listen to him

Thomas Salinas, D.D.S.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: The safety of amalgam fillings

Harvard Health Letters: Tomatoes and stroke protection

Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Swing into spring with lemon cream pie

April 26, 2013

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The world is a mirror

Caroline B. Glick: Time to confront Obama

Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Kimberly Lankford: New strategies ease pain of paying for long-term care insurance

Howard LeWine, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Too much ibuprofen?

Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Jewish Major Leaguers, 2013; New Movies and Comedy Show; Shalom, 'Lumpy' (Leave it to Beaver)

The Kosher Gourmet by Emily Ho : A bright and cheerful salad to herald the warmer months ahead

April 24, 2013

Steven Emerson: Boston Bomber Exposes Islamist Secret

Morgan Housel Admit it: No one has any idea what's going on
Harvard Health Letters: Can you get headaches from headache medication?

Kerri-Ann Jennings, M.S., R.D.: How to easily get more Omega-3s in your diet

Melissa Healy: Pot in a pill: All the pain relief without the smoke

The Kosher Gourmet by Susan Russo: Chipotle Chili Butternut Squash Soup is bold, zesty, hot

April 22, 2013

Ken Dilanian: Counterterrorism's future is unclear

US man departing country arrested on terror charges
Barbara Williams: An unorthodox but growing treatment in a 9-year-old's battle against cancer

P.J. Skerrett, M.D.: How to recognize a good whole grain product

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Teen actor Jonah Bobo in New Flick: Hunky James Wolk on Mad Men; Erich Segal's Daughter Writes Prize-Winning Jewish Novel


Jewish World Review Sept. 22, 2004 /7 Tishrei, 5765

In the Margins: Imagining a ‘Book of Lives’

By ESTHER D. KUSTANOWITZ



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Re-thinking one of this season's most time-honored, cherished beliefs


http://www.jewishworldreview.com | I have always loved books. By the time I was 16 months old I had learned to name the letters of the alphabet from "Sesame Street." By the time I was 3, my parents had instituted the Sabbath Book Program to satisfy my voracious appetite for books: Every Saturday morning I — and later my younger brothers — would wake up the proud owner of a new book. This program, which lasted into my teenage years, was like a mini-Chanukah every week. In my college days, I was just as enthusiastic.


So, when I was taught about the Book of Life, I embraced the imagery. It made perfect sense to such a book-centered child: In Heaven, there was this book. If inscribed for a good year, we would live in health and happiness; if we had sinned, G-d condemned us to a year of sickness, misery and death. Our repentance during the Days of Awe could alter a negative decree. I accepted this, assimilating it into my understanding of the season.


As I got older, I learned more, which bred more questions than answers. Each Sabbath, the words "da lifnei mi atah omed" blazed at me in gold from above the Holy Ark. "Know before whom you stand," the letters implored. Easier said than done. For every prayer that attested to G-d's role in our lives as protector and redeemer, I seemed to find an equal number of texts that invoked the image of G-d as Supreme Judge, who with a single scrawl from the Divine Pen could grant us life or condemn us to death.


The image of the Book of Life grew in my mind into something starkly terrifying. Being inscribed for a good year meant life. Being inscribed for a bad year meant death. I began to have my first difficulties toting this image of the Book of Life in my spiritual knapsack — it was weighing me down, becoming too tangible and making it harder to view it as metaphor. It reminded me of the books at funeral homes, wherein those who come to pay their respects record their names as testament that they cared about the deceased. It was supposed to be the Book of Life, and yet I had begun to associate the book with death alone.

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In September 2001, I started to see the metaphorical tome's pages filling in with indecipherable scrawls representing names of people whom I will never meet but whose faces haunt me still, like a bound collector's-edition compendium of those "missing" and "have you seen...?" posters. Those flyers clung obstinately to telephone poles and littered the streets of New York City, even after hope had been relinquished, long after the people pictured in them had perished.


After the year of mourning for the victims of September 11 had passed, I returned to my image of the Book of Life again, desperate to make peace with it. Then, a spate of suicide bombings, having begun in 5762 and having crossed into 5763, conspired to sever my faith yet again. I remembered the words of Unesaneh Tokef, that on Rosh Hashanah we are inscribed and on Yom Kippur we are sealed: "who will die in his appointed time and who will die before his appointed time...." In my mind, the slo-mo CNN loops began running, with towers burning, planes crashing, bombs exploding and people dying.


Then I remembered having learned that G-d knows the whole course of human events but still gives humankind the power of free will. Our choices, good or bad, even within the structure of predestination, can change the future. And our actions as a community are that much more powerful. Perhaps the same conceit holds true for the Book of Life. Our deeds may cause G-d to judge us in a certain manner, but even G-d's decree may be altered by human action.


While this doesn't explain why bad things happen to good people, it does strip the Book's debit and credit columns of their all-encompassing power. People who die under tragic circumstances, be the causes natural or unnatural, have not necessarily been inscribed by G-d for a year of misery. People who follow the path of evil can negatively affect good inscriptions. And if this is true, then the inverse must also be true: We can become the restorers of life, not just through repentance for our own misdeeds right before the Days of Awe but by following the path of righteousness and using good to help others throughout the rest of our lives.


Yet another year has passed. With the gift of distance and reflection, I remember how we have mobilized in the past — as Jews, as New Yorkers, as Americans. This banding together proved yet again why we are urged not to depend on miracles but to go out and make those miracles happen. We embraced our wounded city and our sense of national pride and are still in the process of building a stronger community. It is a process of slow and steady progress, not unlike repentance.


For synagogue-going Jews, the period of reflection and introspection is an opportunity to reassess our priorities, our intentions and our assumptions. Maybe when discussing the Book of Life, Sefer Hachayim, the book in question should not be translated as the "Book of Life." Maybe it should be translated as the "Book of the Living" or the "Book of Lives" — a chronicle of the lives of all human beings, that is to say, human history — past, present and future.


I imagine each page, filled to the margins with our names, the writing filling every inch, one name nearly flowing into the other. Maybe by collecting our lives in a single anthology, the image teaches us that our fates are not just our own but are inexorably intertwined with the fates of others, in the community at large and throughout the world. We are not just the People of the Book; we are People of the Book of Lives. Together, we can carry the book, no matter how heavy it gets, and find comfort in the margins of its ever-expanding pages.

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JWR contributor Esther D. Kustanowitz is a freelance writer and editor living in Manhattan. She blogs at My Urban Kvetch. To comment, please click here.






© 2004, Esther D. Kustanowitz. This column first appeared in Forward.