Making Loss Matter : Creating Meaning in Difficult Times

Some losses are so subtle they go unnoticed, some so overwhelming and cruel they seem unbearable. Coping with grief and experiencing loss overwhelms us in ways that seem both hopeless and endless. In painful moments like these, we must make a choice: Will we allow the difficulties we face to become forces of destruction in our lives, or will we find a way to begin learning from loss, transforming our suffering into a source of strength?

A theologian with the heart of a poet, Rabbi David Wolpe explores the meaning of loss, and the way we can use its inevitable appearance in our lives as a source of strength rather than a source of despair. In this national bestseller, Wolpe creates a remarkably fluid account of how we might find a way out of overwhelming feelings of helplessness and instead begin understanding grief in all its forms and learn to create meaning in difficult times.

David J. Wolpe is the Max Webb Senior Rabbi at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, California, and has been named the most influential rabbi in America by Newsweek and one of the 50 most influential Jews in the world by the Jerusalem Post. He has taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York, the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, Hunter College, and the University of California, Los Angeles. Wolpe, a weekly columnist for Time.com, has been published and profiled in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the Jewish Week. He is the author of eight books, including the national bestseller Making Loss Matter: Creating Meaning in Difficult Times.