About The Authors
Fayge Goldstein wears many hats. By profession, she is a nurse and counselor who has worked both in the United States and Israel, especially with teens at risk. She is also a playwright, actress, musician, and author. Her favorite pastimes include being a bubby, hosting people from all walks of life, appreciating nature, and learning new things every day.
_
By profession, Chaya S. Newman has had the zechus of educating children and adults for more than four decades. To date, she combines her love of travel with the thrill of lecturing worldwide to girls and women. She makes sure that she sets aside time for her favorite activities: culinary creating, jewelry making, and being a savta
Praise
“The stories in this book demonstrate tangible hashgachah pratis and chessed in a captivating manner. One who reads these stories can then reflect on his or her own life, thinking about all the times that they, too, had such experiences, and thereby strengthen their belief in Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s precise running of the world.”
—Rabbi Dovid Kaplan
“I found the stories interesting, entertaining, inspiring, and successful in conveying the message they were intended to convey. I found the content in the spirit of true Torah ideals.”
—Rabbi Zev Leff
Book Reviews
Jewish Press
In general, I am not a fan of the typical hashgacha pratis story, i.e. someone davens for a miracle, takes upon a mitzvah, and voila, a bleak situation takes a sudden positive turn! I picked up One for the Books, by Faige Goldstein and Chaya S. Newman, with a lot of skepticism. However, this book ended up blowing me away; I couldn’t put it down for an entire Shabbos!
This book is comprised of short stories from the authors’ personal lives as well as stories told to them by others. Some stories may speak to individual readers more than others depending on one’s current life circumstances.
The book is divided into two sections: Hashgacha Pratis and Chessed. In each story, the reader can clearly see the power of choice.
In the story, “From Teacher to Speaker,” Newman found out that she could not get her teaching contract renewed for the following school year due to Israel’s mandatory retirement age. She lived and breathed teaching and looked forward to going to her job every day. She was beside herself and didn’t know what to do now that her life’s passion was being taken from her. But rather than wallow in despair, Newman picked herself up and became a professional speaker. To this day, she travels all over the world for speaking engagements.
I was intrigued by how the writer looked to find Hashem’s message in frustrating, mundane stories. In these stories, the power of choice could be seen in how one chose to frame a given situation. In the story, “The Key to Success,” a woman could not find her house keys upon coming home from her daughter’s wedding at one in the morning. She ended up having to call a taxi to take her to a family member’s apartment in order to pick up a spare key. It took a long time for this woman to get to the family member’s apartment. While on the way to picking up her key from the family member, the taxi driver told his life story. This woman felt frustrated by the “wasted” time and money for the taxi ride. But later it occurred to her that perhaps Hashem arranged for her to lose her key in order so that she could do the chessed of listening to someone in need of someone to talk to.
Some stories don’t have a clear resolution, and are about coming to terms with difficult situations. For example, Goldstein wrote a memoir about learning to accept that she could not have more children after her sixth child was born due to needing constant hospitalizations during multiple pregnancies. Another story is about a mother figuring out how to best support her daughter going through a divorce. In addition to the power of choice, these stories all tie back to Hashem being in charge, letting go of one’s need to always be in control, and growing in emunah.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.