In Other Words, Judaism Is Not Calvinism.

You Have To Want To Listen To It, And Then You Can Hear It. It Has A Strange, Beautiful Texture. It Doesn't Always Talk. Sometimes-sometimes It Cries, And You Can Hear The Pain Of The World In It. It Hurts To Listen To It Then. But You Have To.

Something That Is Yours Forever Is Never Precious

Oh, It Makes A Difference, I Thought. And If It Doesn't Make A Difference You Will Make It Make A Difference.

Literature Presents You With Alternate Mappings Of The Human Experience. You See That The Experiences Of Other People And Other Cultures Are As Rich, Coherent, And Troubled As Your Own Experiences. They Are As Beset With Suffering As Yours. Literature Is A Kind Of Legitimate Voyeurism Through The Keyhole Of Language Where You Really Come To Know Other People's Lives--their Anguish, Their Loves, Their Passions. Often You Discover That Once You Dive Into Those Lives And Get Below The Surface, The Veneer, There Is A Real Closeness.

A Book Is Sent Out Into The World, And There Is No Way Of Fully Anticipating The Responses It Will Elicit. Consider The Responses Called Forth By The Bible, Homer, Shakespeare - Let Alone Contemporary Poetry Or A Modern Novel.