Another candidate for the 2007 edition of Best American Jewish Writing: “A Spiritual Moment,” by David Wolpe:
I stood by the hospital bed of a friend who was dying of cancer. He wanted to know why he was sick, why he must die, why he must leave his children and grandchildren. As his rabbi, I was armed with few answers. I could tell him that it was part of God’s plan or I could confess to him that I did not know. Neither seemed like the right response.
So, instead, we exchanged stories about chemotherapy. My hair was just beginning to grow back after a bout with lymphoma; his, wispy to start, was gone from the drugs that had targeted all the fast-growing cells in his body. They had done a thorough job on his hair but not on his cancer.
We talked about the strange gratitude we felt for the medicinal poison as it coursed through our veins. There was a moment of solidarity, then sadness returned. Battle stories are not nostalgic when they end in death. . . .
“So,” he asked, “why did it happen to you?”
Continue reading here. It is a magnificent essay.
Entries in this series:
1. Rob Eshman, "And Who Shall Die?"
2. David Wolpe, "A Spiritual Moment"