The Jewish Week

The Vatican has branded as "criminal" the publication this weekend of confidential papal documents exposing the internal power struggles surrounding possible corruption and mismanagement involving international money laundering, the Associated Press reported.

Already dubbed "Vatileaks," the scandal had been brewing for months and was further inflamed with Saturday's publication of "His Holiness," a book by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, that included a trove of Pope Benedict XVI's correspondence.

God is surely well-accustomed to all those vows from Lotto players, gamblers and risk-taking Wall Street investors about how much they’d give to charity if they hit paydirt. Even more than the Bucket List of things to do before we die, most people who aren’t wealthy have their own list of charities and worthy causes they would love to be able to bankroll before splurging on fast cars, big houses, exotic vacation and, for some, maybe settling their overdue day school tuition balance.

In Jewish tradition, we think of an Ayshet Chayil, or woman of valor, as a wife:

A woman of valor who can find?


She is more precious than rubies.

The heart of her husband trusts in her,


And because of her he lacks nothing.

I want to make a pitch today to expand our definition to include daughters in tribute to the heroism of Cate Upham, 30, daughter of disgraced politician John Edwards. (She married in 2011.)