Review of To Life! Jewish Reflections on Everyday Living, by Amy Hirshberg Lederman, (Aliyah Publishing, 2004)

Review by Beth Alpert Nakhai, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor and Assistant Director, Arizona Center for Judaic Studies, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ. bnakhai@email.arizona.edu. December 2004

Before I write another word, I have to confess that I know Amy Hirshberg Lederman. Since To Life! Jewish Reflections on Everyday Living is a book about ethics and values and their place in everyday life, I feel like full disclosure is the only way to go! Amy is a colleague and friend. The reason I agreed to review her book is because I had already read parts of it, which were first published in Tucson’s Arizona Jewish Post. I wanted to read more, and reviewing the book seemed a great way to do so.

When I started reading, I was curious to see how a book that is a collection of newspaper columns would hold together. In my opinion, few columnists have so much to say that I would want to read dozens of their columns a second time! I was pleased to discover that Lederman's pieces create a cohesive body of work. There is an internal narrative, not because the columns form a single story or cover the same material. Rather, they become a book because Lederman is a compelling writer. The reader feels her warmth and is drawn to her wisdom.

To Life! looks at everyday dilemmas – issues with family and friends, problems regarding work and religion, personal fears and failings – and more. It organizes these dilemmas thematically. Six units, with a total of 44 vignettes, cover “Being Human,” “Family,” “Holidays,” “The Everyday Ordinary,” “Growing and Learning,” and “Matters of Life and Death.” Each vignette begins with an anecdote, a problem of some sort drawn from Lederman’s life. Long before she gets to the resolution of the problem, she changes voice. No longer concerned parent, loving friend or doting daughter, she becomes an educator. She analyzes the situation from different perspectives and in doing so, explores relevant Judaic teachings. She incorporates Torah study, rabbinic concepts, traditional teachings and more.

What makes this book interesting, and makes it so much more than a collection of “advice columns,” is that each vignette reaches its resolution in dialogue with important Jewish teachings. Upon first reading, I had wanted to know the “end” of each story. What was the problem with Lederman’s childhood friend ("To Err is Human: To Forgive, Nearly Impossible")? What’s new this year in the Ledermans’ seder ("Passover: Creating a Seder Your Family Will Love")? How’s the friend who fell while hiking ("Bearing Witness to Everyday Miracles")? My gossipy self was frustrated by the fact that Lederman does not resolve the stories by supplying happy endings. But the more I read, the more I realized that Lederman gives the reader something more valuable than a happy ending.

Jewish teachings are at the heart of each vignette. Lederman draws from a wide range of sources, from Bible and Talmud, from classical rabbis and Maimonides, from Jewish law, midrash and folklore. It is the linkage she creates between everyday life dilemmas and Jewish teachings that makes this book special. Personal problems, issues with family, friends or co-workers, are not to be resolved in the usual way. Lederman challenges the reader to look instead to the teachings of Jewish sages, to take guidance from Jewish traditions and to seek strength from Judaism. As she makes clear, this way of looking at things has not made her immune from life’s challenges. What it has done is provide her with guidelines, boundaries and moral positions for resolving life’s dilemmas. Those who want to, can find that same knowledge themselves. To Life! Jewish Reflections on Everyday Living is a first step along the path to Jewish learning and to a Jewish life.