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January 02, 1998 - Image 86

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1998-01-02

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.



Discover Metro
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On The Bookshelf

ITALIA

ANDIAMO

The Unabomber's un-victim speaks out.

I T A L I A WEST

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Includes:
• Glass of House Wine • Soup or Salad • Entree
• Bread Basket • Dessert

HOURS
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1/2
1998

86

,„.1- ‘ p:iirise-Cunch Buffet • 'Banquet _Tom L.Available
LAIAdag-7hursdag (11:30 am. to 2:00 p.m.)

PAUL BASS
Special to The Jewish News

n

passed, but we can find new meaning,
new joy ahead in a changed world.
"I wish I could wear the ring; all is
not for the best and I can't," Gelernter
writes, "but the spice box is the right
place for it to stay."
That reflection ends Gelernter's
moving graceful memoir. It sums up
what we can learn from Drawing Life:
that whatever our personal misfor-
tunes, we can adapt, and thrive.
Gelernter has.
He doesn't pretend it's easy.
The drama in this book comes not
from details of the bombing, not from
recounting endless rounds of surgery,
but from the loss with which the
author grapples in his personal life: his
struggle to hold a pen again, or tap
keyboard keys. His efforts to resume

avdalah has a special
meaning in the Gelernter
household. It symbolizes
the closing of Sabbath, of
course, and the oncoming of the new
week. It symbolizes the separation of
the sacred and the profane. And
thanks to a ring inside the Gelernters'
spice box, it also symbolizes consola-
tion and guarded hope.
So David Gelernter writes in his
long-awaited tale of how he survived
the Unabomber, Drawing Life:
Surviving the Unabomber, Free Press;
$21).
The noted Yale computer scientist
received a letter bomb from the raving
anti-technology ter-
rorist four years ago;
it nearly killed him,
and permanently
maimed him. Among
other sad facts of life,
Gelernter could no
longer wear his wed-
ding ring. Then one
day he found it
inside the family's sil-
ver Havdalah spice
box. His wife had
placed the ring there.
A poet at heart, as
well as a committed
Jew who studied at a
yeshiva after college
and continues to
write and lecture on
Jewish topics,
Gelernter reflected
on how his wife's
touching action corn-
ported with tradi-
tion.
When Jews smell
the sweet scent of
cloves inside the spice
box, he writes, we
feel hope that the
coming week won't
11 OR : OF 1939: THE LOST WORLD OF THE FAH?
be too bad, and con-
solation for the loss
of the week and the
Paul Bass is the associate editor of the New Haven
Sabbath that are
Advocate. This review originally appeared in the
gone. We can't keep
Connecticut Jewish Ledger
hold of what has

SURVIVING
THE UNABOMBER

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