THE BROKEN AND THE WHOLE

This inspirational memoir reveals how Rabbi Charles Sherman created a warm, loving, and rich family life after his young son suffered a catastrophic brain lesion that left him paraplegic and vent-dependent.

Every week millions of people around the world count on their rabbis, priests, pastors, and other faith leaders to encourage and inspire them. Rabbi Charles Sherman was no exception. As a young, star Rabbi at one of New York’s largest synagogues, Charles Sherman relied on Biblical stories, anecdotes, and newspaper headlines for the content of his sermons and rabbinical speeches. Then, early one morning in 1986, everything changed.

Rabbi Sherman’s youngest son, Eyal, came down with a fever and was soon in serious respiratory distress. After operating on the lesion they discovered on four-year-old Eyal’s brainstem, Sherman and his wife, Leah, learn that their son would never walk, talk, feed himself, or breathe on his own again. Yet his mind was entirely intact. He was still the curious, intelligent boy they’ve always known. Suddenly, and for the first time, Rabbi Sherman found himself confronting life’s biggest questions: What lengths will a parent go to protect his child? How can we maintain faith in a God who lets a tragedy like this occur? Is it possible to experience joy after trauma?

Now, nearly thirty years after that fateful night, Rabbi Charles Sherman reflects on the answers to those questions. With deep insight, refreshing honesty, humor, and intelligence, The Broken and the Whole is a moving and affecting mediation on what it means to rebuild your life when it feels as though the one you’re living has been shattered to pieces.

Charles Sherman is the Senior Rabbi of Temple Adath Yeshurun, the largest synagogue in Upstate New York. Extremely active in numerous faith-based and secular organizations, he has been a respected and recognized member of his community for over forty years. He, his wife, Leah, and their son Eyal live in Syracuse, New York.