My great thanks extend to the team at Maggid Books and OU Press: Matthew Miller, Gila Fine, Deena Glickman, Deena Nataf, Shoshana Rotem, Menachem Genack, Simon Posner, and everyone else who helped move this from an idea into a hard-copy reality. Thank you for being critical readers and supportive friends. As always, I am grateful to the institutions that have nurtured my work for many years, to my friends and colleagues at the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, the Avi Chai Foundation, the Covenant Foundation, the Wexner Foundation, and the Mandel Center.
As always, my loving friends and family occupy the center of my appreciation. In the spirit of repentance, having a wonderful husband and children gives both reason and cause to work on myself to become a better person. That I constantly fall short is no reason to stop trying. And my thanks, of course, goes to the Ultimate Writer, who will inscribe us all in the book of life if we pray with intensity, love with expansiveness, and practice goodness with all of our strength. In the words of Yehuda Amichai,
I want once more to be written
in the book of life, to be written
anew every day
until the writing hand hurts.
Erica Brown
Summer 5772, 2012