Ethical Wills & How to Prepare Them (2nd Edition): A Guide to Sharing Your Values from Generation to Generation

by Jack Riemer (Editor), Nathaniel Stampfer (Editor), Harold S. Kushner (Foreword by)

Overview

Leave your loved ones a legacy of blessings, wisdom, gratitude and hope.

"Done right, an ethical will is a gift of love, a way of saying, 'This is what I found gave me satisfaction and gave my life meaning. It animated my relationship to you and to your mother (or father). May it do the same for you. I send this to you with much love.'"
—from the Foreword by Rabbi Harold S. Kushner

Ethical wills are precious spiritual documents, windows into the souls of those who write them, and are often a treasured part of a family’s history. These “legacy letters” sum up what you have learned in life, and what you want most for, and from, your loved ones.

This book—a unique combination of “what is” and “how to”—offers a step-by-step process to help you prepare an ethical will of your own, and provides a wide range of contemporary ethical wills to help you do it. It reveals the ongoing relevance of this traditional Jewish practice for people of all faiths, all backgrounds.

The emotional power of the nearly one hundred last letters collected here, written by both famous and ordinary Jewish people, will inspire you to live more fully now, and to record your own blessings for the generations to come.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781580238274
Publisher:	Turner Publishing Company
Publication date:	04/10/2015
Edition description:	2nd Edition, New
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	536,376
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Rabbi Jack Riemer has helped many people record their values and spiritual legacies through ethical wills, conducting workshops and seminars to offer guidance in this inspiring tradition. A well-known author and speaker, he is rabbi emeritus of Congregation Beth Tikvah (now Shaarei Kodesh) in Boca Raton, Florida, and founded the National Rabbinic Network, a support system for rabbis across all denominational lines. He is editor of The World of the High Holy Days and Wrestling with the Angel and coauthor of Ethical Wills and How to Prepare Them.

Dr. Nathaniel Stampfer served Spertus Institute for many years as dean, vice president for academic affairs and professor of Jewish education.

Harold S. Kushner is author of the best-selling books When Bad Things Happen to Good People and Living a Life That Matters.

Table of Contents

Foreword—Rabbi Harold S. Kushner
Preface—Dr. Nathaniel Stampfer
Acknowledgments
Introduction to the Revised Edition—Rabbi Jack Riemer
What I Have Learned Since I Began Collecting Ethical Wills—Rabbi Jack Riemer

PART ONE: Traditional Wills
Solomon Kluger
"Preparing provisions for the journey"
Moshe Yeshoshua Zelig Hakohen
"A guide for the practices of piety"
Benjamin M. Roth
"A letter to a departing son"
Mordekhai Mottel Michelsohn
“I shall give you some useful advice”
Shmuel Tefilinsky
“Put your trust in God and He will sustain you”
Hayyim Elazar Shapira (The Munkatcher Rebbe)
“We merit redemption by virtue of our choices”
Yehuda Leib Graubart (The Stashever Rav)
“Return the borrowed books in my possession”

PART TWO: Wills from the Holocaust
Hirsch Moshe Zaddok
“They treated us like animals”
A Mother's Will
“A struggle for the sanctification of the human heart”
Zippora Birman
“No choice but to die with honor”
Among the Embers: Martyrs' Testaments
The last twelve Jews in Chelmno
David Elster, on the synagogue wall
The members of “Dror”
Gina Atlas, on the synagogue wall
A young woman, on the synagogue wall
Berl Tomshelski, on a wooden board
A Polish Jew, to the Blozhever Rebbe
The Chief Rabbi of Grodzisk
“Let him come, but let me not see him”
On the Walls of Bialystok Prison
Shulamit Rabinovitch
“Don't mourn for us with tears and words, but rather with deeds”
Shulamit Rabinovitch’s Husband
“Our fate lies in wait for us”

PART THREE: Wills from the Land of Israel
Elijah David Rabinovitz (Teomim)
“Always have I received more honor than I deserved”
Theodor Herzl
“I wielded my pen as an honest man”
Edmond James de Rothschild
“My eldest son James … will further my work”
Abraham Isaac Kook
“Help your holy people”
Ben Zion Meir Hai Uziel
The shepherd thanks his flock
Alter Ya’akov Sahrai
“Loyal to his people, its Torah, and its land”
Meir Dizengoff
To the new life beyond Awareness
Yitzhak Ben Nehemia Margalit
“Come, I will show thee where earth meets heaven”
Naftali Swiatitsky
“I have only one request”
Hannah Senesh
“There are events without which one’s life becomes unimportant”
Noam Grossman
“Do not eulogize me; I did my duty”
Avraham Kreizman
“When I die, for you I shall continue to live”
Eldad Pan
“Life by itself is worth little unless it serves something greater than itself”
Dvora Waysman
“I am leaving you an extended family”

PART FOUR: Wills of Modern and Contemporary American Jews
Nissen Sheinberg
“From me, your friend and father”
Emil Greenberg
“A wisp, a whisper of immortality becomes mine, and yours”
Yitschak Kelman
“The Holy Presence is with the sick”
Bernard L. Levinthal
“Be bound by the oath taken at the foot of Mount Sinai”
David De Sola Pool
An affirmation of life
Sholom Aleichem
“Bury me … among the common Jewish folk”
Mordkhe Schaechter
“Have no fear of being in the minority”
Dora Chazin
“Find favor in the eyes of God and man”
William Schulder
“Never consider yourself greater than the next man”
Hayim Greenberg
“I have erred not out of love of sin”
Rafael L. Savitzky
“In America the women are the saintly souls”
Samuel Lipsitz
“Live together in harmony”
Sadie S. Kulakofsky
“The principles of Judaism and the basis of civilization”
Sidney Rabinowitz
“I wanted to do something to make the world better”
Samuel Furash
“You are the nearest stars in my heaven”
Harold Katz
“So that all mankind could live in a free and peaceful world”
Madeline Medoff
“They carry something of me in their lives”
Allen Hofrichter
“An ineffable peace entered our house”
Jennie Stein Berman
“You should always be together”
Leonard Ratner
“Don’t forget your seats at Park Synagogue”
Harold
“Be forever vigilant for those in need”
Randee Rosenberg Friedman
“Open your hearts and your homes”
Rosie Rosenzweig
“Your good character will earn you your way”
William Joseph Adelson
“What I consider really important”
Hayyim and Esther Kieval
“We have both loved the United States”
Nitzah Marsha Jospe
“What is important is to make each day good”
William Lewis Abramowitz
“Ritual is only a tool to remind us who we are”
Marcia Lawson
“As Jews within the human family”
Sam Levenson
“I leave you … some four-letter words for all occasions”
Richard J. Israel
“With a love that has been well seasoned”
Rabbi Herbert A. Friedman
“From Vilna to Connecticut to Jerusalem”
Stanley J. Garfein
“Finish your final business”
Rabbi Monroe Levens
“Life here is a great and wonderful adventure”

PART FIVE: Three Wills from Classics of Modern Jewish Literature
Zvi Kolitz
Yossel Rakover Speaks to God
Y. L. Peretz
Four Generations—Four Wills
Avraham Sutzkever
The Will of Nissim Laniado

PART SIX: A Guide to Writing Your Own Ethical Will

Topical Index
Credits
Notes

Editorial Reviews

"Fascinating reading.... Especially valuable is the message ... that these documents continue to have meaning for modern Jews."
—Hadassah Magazine

“Ethical wills remind us of what are the essentials in life; they offer a model of how to live.”
—Blu Greenberg, author, On Women and Judaism

“This remarkable volume will enrich all those who will read it and meditate upon its infinite wisdom.”
—Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize laureate

“While the book is written from a Jewish viewpoint, its principles can easily be adapted by people of other faiths.”
—Los Angeles Times

“Uplifting.”
—Library Journal

“Extraordinary.... [Readers will] return to their own lives with a heightened sense of meaning, purpose and gratitude.”
—Moment

“Very inspiring and moving.... Sums it all up by providing a structured but flexible guide to writing your own ethical will.”
—Jerusalem Post

“Perfect, an eclectic mix which will whet your appetite for more. More importantly, the included 'Guide to Writing Your Own Ethical Will' will be very helpful.”
—UJF Virginia News

From the Publisher

A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his or her estate and provides for the distribution of his or her property at death. For the devolution of property not disposed of by will, see inheritance and intestacy. Though it has at times been thought that a "will" was historically limited to real property while "testament" applies only to dispositions of personal property (thus giving rise to the popular title of the document as "Last Will and Testament"), the historical records show that the terms have been used interchangeably. Thus, the word "will" validly applies to both personal and real property. A will may also create a testamentary trust that is effective only after the death of the testator. Ethical wills are precious spiritual documents, windows into the souls of those who write them, and are often a treasured part of a family's history. These "legacy letters" sum up what you have learned in life, and what you want most for, and from, your loved ones. Ethical Wills & How to Prepare Them: A Guide to Sharing Your Values from Generation to Generation is a unique combination of "what is" and "how to", which also offers a step-by-step process to help the non-specialist general reader to prepare an ethical will of their own, and provides a wide range of contemporary ethical wills as templates to help them do it. Ethical Wills & How to Prepare Them: A Guide to Sharing Your Values from Generation to Generation reveals the ongoing relevance of this traditional Jewish practice for people of all faiths, all backgrounds. The emotional power of the nearly one hundred last letters collected here, written by both famous and ordinary Jewish people, will inspire readers to live more fully now, and to record their own blessings for the generations to come.

Midwest Book Review - Judaic Studies Shelf

It has been over thirty years since Rabbi Riemer and Dr. Stampfer ... published their first collection of Jewish ethical wills. Their work, built upon earlier collections, popularized the idea of creating ethical wills for a generation that was not familiar with the literature or the practice. For the uninitiated, an ethical will generally focuses not on the material inheritance that one wishes to leave to the next generation, but on the values, lessons, and suggested behaviors that a person wants carried to future generations. Since the authors' work in the 1980's, they have published a number of books on the subject and have continually updated their earlier work. This latest Jewish Lights edition includes a selection of ethical wills from different historical periods and geographical locations. Particularly useful in this edition is a brief guide to beginning the work of creating one's own Jewish ethical will. The reader is guided to a list of simple questions that an ethical will might address. In addition to being an interesting book on the subject, it is to be highly recommended for teaching older teens and adults how to clarify the values they hold dear and how to communicate them to others in their lives.

Jewish Book Council - Arnold D. Samlan

As both freestanding document and codicil, the ethical will, intended to convey a spiritual legacy, has beena Jewish tradition since the Bible and the Talmud, coeditor Stampfer says. The intent of this book, firstpublished in 1983 and here retitled for its third edition, is to provide an anthology of modern examples andsuggestions for writing one's own ethical will. By modern, the editors mean the nineteenth and twentiethcenturies, from which they chose 65 ethical wills sorted into five groups:, traditional wills (focusing onhistoric Judaic values and practices), wills from the Holocaust (very powerful), wills from the land ofIsrael, wills by contemporary American Jews, and three from modern Jewish literature (Riemer’sintroductory essay includes another literary example from a perhaps surprising source). With authorsincluding Theodor Herzl, Sholom Aleichem, a Rothschild, the humorist Sam Levenson, and Y. L. Peretz,the anthology has literary as well as spiritual distinction. A genuinely inspiring resource.
— Ray Olson

BookList - Ray Olson