Evening of the First Day “Where have you been?” she asked. Magdala looked back at her in sullen silence. She repeated: “Where have you been, Magda? We have been worried that something had happened to you.” Still no answer. Magdala silently looked about the inner courtyard where the other two were also keeping their vigil [...]
Prologue Each night I say the same prayer. Three prayers really. I thank my Lord for all the good things He has given me. Despite my tiredness I am the luckiest of men, with the sweetest of wives and a young son who is the true light of my life. Then I ask my Lord [...]
If Christmas is anything, it is a revolution of the heart against the tit-for-tat of this world, against the demands of this world for balancing the scales and righting every wrong with a hard justice. Ultimately, if this world is saved, it will be mercy, not justice, that saves it. I. When the Outlandish Is [...]
Man may not live by bread alone, but a goodly baked bread goes a long way to rendering us joyful and content. Bread-making is both a sensual and spiritual experience. It satisfies a yearning for deeper bonding among friends and family, and it restores us to a less stressed, more thankful awareness of life. Many [...]
August 1, 2021. A date of little import in world affairs. A day of savage sorrow, forlorn failure—and exhilarating liberation—for me. Few days in my life have I ever looked forward to so eagerly. None had I ever dreaded more. My eagerness was and remains unseemly and obscene. My dread, overwhelming and persistent. No more lies, no [...]
We should not try to right one historic wrong by committing a new one. After enduring over a century of white racism, now the Asian-American community must cope with a more subtle but just as sinister form of liberal racism: the harsh Orwellian reality that in modern America all minorities are equal, but some minorities [...]
It was still dark outside when the boy awakened and his thoughts immediately turned to the gifts that would be awaiting him under the tree downstairs. This year, like every other year he could recall, the tree was a little too tall for the ceiling and leaned precariously toward the fireplace opening. In his younger [...]
Gratitude remains the only key that unshackles us and lets us breathe free. We all unthinkingly use the phrase “the gift of life,” but it is only a gift if we really think of it as such. Myth is not fiction. Myth is truth that ignores the facts. Myths are the tales we tell each [...]
I knew she was dying and I tried to make the most of it. But ever since she died that same feeling is still there; that same regret, that same wish that I just need one more day, one more chance to tell her I love her, one more chance to kiss her, to thank [...]
We cannot repair the past. But we owe it to the past to make a better future. It is a fine line that we draw every day, reflecting on the past to improve the future, while not dwelling there so much that we forsake the future. The only sure path out of this quandary is [...]
We live in a broken world; we live in a broken time. But we should resolve that these dead did not die in vain. Good can be brought forth from evil. We believe this because it is part of our continuing duty and responsibility to those who died. And there is no better way to [...]
We are all born naked, but soon enough find ourselves wrapped in swaddling secrets. We learn to hide things and obfuscate, if not outright lie, about what we do and what we really want and even who we are. Our hypocrisies, infidelities, and staggering stupidities are woven into silken sails that allow us to effortlessly [...]
Most wonderful of all from an American perspective is that we can all feel so good about this war. On the Right, it satisfies that messianic itch to make the world in our own image, while on the Left it satisfies that eternal yearning to save the oppressed. It’s a perfect storm of righteousness and [...]
You hear over and over again how people wish they had just seen the person they love one more time, or done this or that for her before she died. But I had that for nearly a decade. I knew Sharon was dying, and I tried to make the most of it. On September 18, [...]