Mira,<\/p>\n
When your Precious Daughter commented that she was shocked you told the tale of your inheritance<\/a>, I knew exactly how she felt\u2014both her astonishment that you told a tale publicly that she and I had both thought were only for our ears, and her opinion that you wrote it so well.<\/p>\n I am repeatedly blown away by your ability not just to write brilliantly, but to write about things like this for the whole world to read. Your encouragement and example have influenced me, obviously, and you have enabled me to do some of that myself, e.g. my piece on domestic violence, and other pieces that I now have in the hopper because of your gentle pushes, because of our ongoing and multi-layered conversation, and because of the ways you clarify and expand my thinking and worldview.<\/p>\n Mira, your<\/em> writing and thinking and worldview blow me away on a regular, delightful basis.\u00a0This is me saying in front of God\u2014yes, the one neither of us believe in\u2014and everybody what an honor it is to be your collaborator.<\/p>\n When we started this project, way back in November, you and I had never met. We had only exchanged blog comments, midrashim on Kaddish on our personal blogs, and a few email messages. But somehow I knew that I wanted to collaborate with you, and I woke up one morning with the germ of an audacious proposal. I spent the day figuring it out and describing it to you. That night you took me on and finished shaping my half-formed idea<\/a>. You\u00a0titled it and spelled out essential ground rules, chief among them, “This must not become a tyranny, as in,\u00a0oh shit, I have to write a kaddish meditation today, what a bummer.”<\/p>\n We’ve kept that rule. Most of the other rules have bitten the dust, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t good rules. They’ve gotten us this far.<\/p>\n A day or two later, you wrote Eichmann<\/a> and made it clear our project wasn’t going to be a sentimental pile of “so what?”<\/p>\n Which brings up the bizarre beginning of a resonance that has enveloped us from the start. I had awakened\u00a0in the middle of that night from a dream in which you had written me a poem that I suddenly knew\u2014in my dream\u2014had changed everything, and I was pissed. I didn’t know how your poem went, but I knew you had beaten me to something important, and my waking task was clear: I needed to write the poem first.<\/p>\n But when I woke up, I couldn’t figure out what the poem was supposed to say, so instead I picked up my iPhone, turned to your blog, and found\u00a0Eichmann<\/a>.\u00a0You had<\/em> laid down your gauntlet. It was a brilliant essay, and I was pissed. I started writing email with my thumbs:<\/p>\n I awoke from dreaming you had written your Kaddish meditation for today already. In my dream you’d laid down your gauntlet, and I was grappling with my response already.<\/p>\n I was not happy with you. Your tactic was to challenge me immediately with figuring out whether I am going to play Kaddish in a mood that responds to your words.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n I’m still trying to get my air back around these notes. I still haven’t figured out how to finish the page without hearing from the condensation. I still haven’t figured out some of my breathing and much of my pacing. I’m barely able to get these notes to say one damned thing, and already you’ve challenged me to get them to say something even harder. How do I respond to your challenge, to that challenge\u2014to that<\/em> challenge, already?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n