In the Jewish tradition, going back to Jacob, many fathers have written down whatever wisdom they might have attained in their lives in order to pass along that wisdom to their heirs. It is called an ethical will. Written as a testimony and a testament, in an epistolary format, this book is a compendium of the wisdom of a father, who has spent a lifetime studying the teachings of the Jewish tradition, as well as literary and philosophical traditions of the West. The insights taken from those traditions, which explore the life of the soul, are intended for anyone who has a soul. The book is organized around eighteen words that form the foundations of human life. The number eighteen is taken from the Hebrew word for "life," chai, which has a numerical value of eighteen. Among the words at the heart of these reflections are faith, goodness, responsibility, meaning, gratitude, prayer, love, and others.

David Patterson holds the Hillel Feinberg Distinguished Chair in Holocaust Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas. A winner of the National Jewish Book Award and the Koret Jewish Book Award, he has published more than two hundred and fifty articles and chapters on philosophy, literature, Judaism, and Holocaust studies. His more than forty books include Judaism, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust; Shoah and Torah; Portraits: Elie Wiesel's Hasidic Legacy; and The Holocaust and the Non-Representable.