American rabbi Simkha Weintraub characterized the writing of a wisdom letter as one that requires “reflection, direction and connection.” I like Weintraub’s distillation of the concept into this trifecta. Reflection is required because you must have thought about the purpose of the life you have been given and the one you have constructed. Many people will never write such a letter. There are many reasons for this absence, including that for many Jews the tradition is unknown. Here at L’chaim: The Jewish Letters Project I dream of raising the profile of these extraordinary letters. Since I live in Toronto, I could not resist this photo of the shiny reflection around the Toronto Flatiron building downtown.
Anyone who writes a wisdom letter creates direction and connection. In this video, Rabbi Weintraub explains —like Rabbi Elana Zaiman— the impact of receiving a letter. He received an ethical will or wisdom letter from his late father, a Polish-born rabbi who worked in the United States and was ordained through the Jewish Theological Seminary. What is noteworthy is that the letter takes on a life of its own. Simkha and his siblings return to the letter to reread it long after their father has died. The father’s voice remains very much alive. Of course this is one of the many perks of growing up in a rabbinic family where Jewish texts animate daily life. The letter itself becomes a point of connection and a catalyst for conversation, functioning as a Jewish text within an ecosystem of commentary.
I would like to open up this trifecta to you.
“Judaism is not what you think it is” writes Shai Held in his book Judaism Is About Love. “At its best and most vital Judaism is a conversation across centuries and millenia.” I am inviting you to be a part of this collective conversation.
Part of my dream here at L’chaim The Jewish Letters Project is to collect more letters from the Jewish world. I am on a treasure hunt for them. If you’ve written a wisdom letter or received one from a grandparent, parent, aunt, uncle, cousin or friend that you would like to share please hit the purple button below. If you have read a letter somewhere that you think is noteworthy, I would love to hear about it and read it. I just hired a translator for a letter written in Spanish and I imagine I will hire more translators as I unearth more letters. These letters pop up in unexpected places.
I promise to read all the submissions. Letters that meet my criteria will be featured in future posts here at L’chaim The Jewish Letters Project with your permission. My dream is to publish an anthology of letters from Jews around the world. I want the collection to feel like a global dinner party of letter writers sharing how they have created lives of meaning and purpose, whether they are living in Hungary or France, in Italy or Israel, in Brazil or Bangkok.
