Jack Stern
A lifetime of hard-won wisdom and insight into the human heart iscontained in this collection of eighty impassioned essays on ethical andspiritual issues ranging from racial injustice and the abuses of power tothe legacy of the Holocaust, from the evolving relationship betweenAmerican Jewry and Israel to raising morally sensitive children, from themystery of death to the meaning of God in the modern world. If there isa single motif dominating this treasury of rabbinic wisdom, it is the needfor ethical accountability on the part of both individuals and institutions.Each of these sermons faces life’s dilemmas squarely with courage anda deep understanding of the complexities of human nature. They do notoffer facile answers to difficult questions nor are they ever self-righteousbut rather thoughtful, reflective, sensitive, often funny, intensely Jewishand deeply human, deriving their profound insights from Jewish traditionand the joys and sufferings of the author’s own life. The best sermon is areflection of wisdom forged by experience and infused with ancienttruths. The best sermon is a well-lived life.
