Ethical Wills and How to Prepare Them (2nd Edition): A Guide to Sharing Your Values from Generation to Generation

Leave your loved ones a legacy of blessings, wisdom, gratitude and hope.

"Done right, an ethical will is a gift of love, a way of saying, 'This is what I found gave me satisfaction and gave my life meaning. It animated my relationship to you and to your mother (or father). May it do the same for you. I send this to you with much love.'"
―from the Foreword by Rabbi Harold S. Kushner

Ethical wills are precious spiritual documents, windows into the souls of those who write them, and are often a treasured part of a family’s history. These “legacy letters” sum up what you have learned in life, and what you want most for, and from, your loved ones.

This book―a unique combination of “what is” and “how to”―offers a step-by-step process to help you prepare an ethical will of your own, and provides a wide range of contemporary ethical wills to help you do it. It reveals the ongoing relevance of this traditional Jewish practice for people of all faiths, all backgrounds.

The emotional power of the nearly one hundred last letters collected here, written by both famous and ordinary Jewish people, will inspire you to live more fully now, and to record your own blessings for the generations to come.

Rabbi Jack Riemer has helped many people record their values and spiritual legacies through ethical wills, conducting workshops and seminars to offer guidance in this inspiring tradition. A well-known author and speaker, he is rabbi emeritus of Congregation Beth Tikvah (now Shaarei Kodesh) in Boca Raton, Florida, and founded the National Rabbinic Network, a support system for rabbis across all denominational lines. He is editor of The World of the High Holy Days and Wrestling with the Angel and coauthor of Ethical Wills and How to Prepare Them.

Dr. Nathaniel Stampfer served Spertus Institute for many years as dean, vice president for academic affairs and professor of Jewish education.

Harold S. Kushner is author of the best-selling books When Bad Things Happen to Good People and Living a Life That Matters.