Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 291
EAN num: 9781573228206
ISBN number: 1573228206
Label: Riverhead Trade
Manufacturer: Riverhead Trade
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 240
Printing Date: August 01, 2000
Publishing house: Riverhead Trade
Release Date: August 08, 2000
Sale Popularity Level: 293710
Studio: Riverhead Trade
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Some losses are so subtle they go unnoticed, some so overwhelming and cruel they seem unbearable. In painful moments we must make a choice: Will we allow the difficulties we face to become forces of destruction in our lives, or will we find a way to transform our suffering into a source of strength?
A theologian with the heart of a poet, Rabbi David Wolpe explores the meaning of loss, and the way we can use its inevitable appearance in our lives as a source of strength rather than a source of despair. Wolpe creates a remarkably fluid account of how we might find a way out of overwhelming feelings of helplessness and instead create meaning in difficult times.
The national bestseller by 'a rabbi who is as gifted with words as he is with wisdom.'--Chaim Potok
'This is a book to pass on to people who are grieving--i.e., every single person we know.' --Kirkus Reviews
'An exceptional book. Through a mix of scholarship, pathos, anecdote and personal experience, David Wolpe takes on this most crucial subject with the healing hands of a teacher. I gaze with awe at his completed task.'--Mitch Albom, author of Tuesdays with Morrie
'In this wonderful volume, Rabbi David Wolpe combines wisdom and compassion; it is also highly readable.'--Elie Wiesel
'Wolpe is a gifted writer...melodic and lyrical.'--Los Angeles Times
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Rated by buyers 
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In the past four years I have suffered some profound losses. This is the book I turn to again and again. I appreciate the Rabbi's recognition of the wide and varied ways we experience loss in this life, and his refusal to try and offer explanations as to "why?" I am far more content to sit with the mysteries of life and faith, and instead ask the questions of how we move forward, rather than seeking to understand that which we cannot possibly ever understand this side of heaven. This is a beautiful book filled with wisdom and words that can set us on the path to healing.
Rated by buyers -
When the adoption of two foster children fell through and they left our home, I was heartbroken. I said kaddish even though the children were still alive. I sat shiva by myself. Family and friends were sad with us but most found it too uncomfortable to discuss. My rabbi suggested that I read this book, and I'm so glad I did. Rabbi Wolpe soothed my broken heart and helped me to accept what I could not control. His words gave me the courage to have faith in G-d again, because he made me see that I had an important role in the children's lives.
We suffer losses more often than we like to admit. Rabbi Wolpe enables us to embrace them and use them to make ours and others lives better.
Rated by buyers -
From the viewpoint of forty years as a liberal Christian minister, reading Rabbi David Wolpe's MAKNG LOSS MATTER was a pleasant journey. Generally speaking, Christians believe in a future existence beyond death, while Jews do not. Wolpe leaves a door open when he writes, "The soft insistent voice of something more whispers in our ear. Can this be all?" Wolpe's open heart and lucid prose touched me time and time again. I have underlined many of his thoughs such as, "I am a rabbi because there is in me, as there is in you, a child, a child that knows that somewhere we not alone, that this world is bathed in miracles, and that for every pain there is beauty, for every loss there is love, and for every waste there is wonder." All members of the human race can be lifted by his beautiful lines such as, "Refusing to succumb to despair is the greatest act of faith. We may despair for a moment. Darkness seems ascendant. We cry out. But stirring is the certainty that the pain of a particuar loss is a sign of having loved. Where the capacity to love has been, it can be again." Not just for Jews, his book speaks to all who suffer or rejoice.
Rated by buyers -
First I checked it out of the library serendipitously; then I had to own it and purchased my own copy from Amazon. Within a week I had referred it to a number of people whose lives it touched. There is no one who doesn't need this book. It is 21st century wisdom with the depth of ancient sages and vast scope of religous tradition behind it. Wolpe understands life. He crafts sentences that go to the core of the matter of loss and life and difficulty and human nature. Though I am not Jewish, I relished getting out my Old Testament and re-reading the stories of Abraham, Jacob, Job and others after reading Making Loss Matter. As one who has an interest in things spiritual and God-based all her life, I find this book among the best I have ever read and cannot recommend it highly enough--to ANYONE who is human.
Rated by buyers -
Like Jacob, who wrestled with G_d and refused to let Him go until he extracted a blessing from Him, and thus earned the name "Israel" (he who struggles strongly with G_d), David Wolpe tackles one of the oldest and hardest questions, "Does my suffering matter or is it just meaningless chance?" Poignantly, after throwing away his very first attempts which were drawn from his extensive scholarship and erudition, and making the scary decision to write instead from his own heart, he found out that his young wife, a new mother, has cancer. No easy answers here, but a lot of deep thought and honest feelings, plus a way of at least approaching life's inevitable losses with real courage born not of bravado and forced stoicism, but of a struggling faith that will not let go until it has received a blessing---the gift of knowing that the struggle is not in vain.
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