Friday, January 28, 2005

10 Questions for Every Answer

This past weekend a friend of my family died of cancer at age 41, leaving behind a loving husband and 3 young children. In chatting with her uncle who is 68, with a 25-year history of progressive heart disease, the obvious question is why her and not him?

That reminds me of one of my favorite movies, Yentl, starring Barbra Streisand. She was inspired by her father's teaching to become a Talmudic scholar in spite of religious restriction against doing so as a girl. So she disguised herself as a boy in order to achieve her dream. In choosing what yeshiva school to attend, the boys tried to convince her that theirs was the best because their Rabbi had 10 answers for every question. To which Yentl responded that her Rabbi (who was her father!) always had 10 questions for every answer.

Seemingly premature death, like so many other things, is like that: 10 questions for every answer!


5 comments:

  1. 10 questions for every answer... How true is that? And thank you for sending me the link for this. Perhaps I might send you the link to my web page. Though mine tends to be a little less philosophical... Let me know. Give Aunt D a big hug for me. I miss you both.

    Silke

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  2. You're welcome, Silke, and absolutely--no perhaps about it--please send me YOUR website. What a great way to stay in touch, philosophically or not! We both love you!

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  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  4. I just want to thank you for this site. You will never know what it meant to me to come across it. It has helped me tremendously and you sound like an amazing woman. Thank you!
    Elle
    Sorry, the delete was me correcting the post.
    5:28 PM

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  5. Your comment has really touched my heart, Elle. I'd love to know more about you, if you're so inclined. Regardless, thank you for looking and for commenting.

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