Here is a wealth of astute and warmhearted counsel on many of life's most difficult ethical dilemmas. Joseph Telushkin outlines his ten commandments of character, explaining why each one is so vital, and then addresses perplexing issues that can and often do crop up in our lives relating to family, friends, work, community, medical ethics, and money, such as: · How honest should you be when you are asked to give a reference? · How much assistance should you give your son with his college application essay? · Is it wrong to receive a kidney from an executed prisoner in China? · What should you do if your father begs you to end his life rather than allow him to descend into the hell of Alzheimer's? · Should a brother give up part of his inheritance if his sister has children and considerable expenses and he doesn't? · Should a dying woman reveal to her husband that their son is not really his? Many of us are finding it increasingly hard to tread the fine line between right and wrong. In The Ten Commandments of Character, Telushkin faces these issues squarely and shows us how to live a life of true integrity. "At a time when so many people are looking for moral guidance, we are lucky to have Joseph Telushkin as our guide and teacher. I am thoroughly impressed by his wisdom and good sense."--Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
A List to Live By:
Loved this book. I printed up the list and put it on the wall in my kitchen. I refer to it every day when deciding how to handle challenging situations. This book made me realize, in part, how much work I needed to do on myself and why some persistent traits of my ex-husband bothered me so much. Worth reading.
Compassionate Ethical Advice:
Rabbi Joseph Telushkin is a noted and scholarly Orthodox Jewish rabbi, but this is a book that will appeal to anyone, Jewish or otherwise (even agnostic or atheist) who wishes to live an ethical life. The book is built around a collection of Q & A's on moral dilemmas collected from a column Rabbi Telushkin wrote on Beliefnet.com. Many of his correspondents are not Jewish and although he draws on Jewish sources like the Talmud, his answers to questions ranging from "If my neighbor is a terrible... more info
well done and interesting . . .:
but I've liked some of his other books better. Perhaps because Telushkin is more focused on borderline cases on this book (the sort of problems that hopefully will trouble most readers once in a lifetime or better yet never), I found this less moving and less useful than his "Words That Hurt, Words That Heal" or his "Book of Jewish Values." But if you have a few hours on your hands you could do much worse.
Provocative and thought-provoking exploration of ethics.:
Joseph Telushkin, in his latest book, "The Ten Commandments of Character," explores a variety of ethical dilemmas that make life challenging for people who worry about doing "the right thing" whenever possible. Most of the book is written in a question and answer format, and it includes material that was previously published in Telushkin's ethical advice column found on the Web site, Beliefnet.com.
Telushkin begins by outlining what he calls the "ten commandments of character," and he then devotes the... more info
