San Diego, CA (special) -- I was glad I kept working my way through actor Kirk Douglas's book; through the self-pity about his childhood; through the obligatory "inside Hollywood" material, to the eventual core which details his increasing identification with and practice of Judaism.

In perhaps too blunt language, he rejects various tenets of Christianity then goes on to search through Torah, with the help of rabbis who no doubt were delighted to coach such a famous prospective ba'al tshuvah.

Douglas' book, completed after his 80th birthday, has an occasional rough tone, stories about children urinating on each other vie for the readers' attention against his speculation on religious matters.

In the latter category came this response to the perennial Christ-killer calumny leveled against Jews: "It is true that some Jews denounced Jesus, but it was the Romans who crucified him--the gospels themselves say so.  And yet the Catholic Church uses Latin, the language of the Roman Empire, as its sacred tongue for religious services and religious pronouncements of any import. Explain that to me, would you?"

Douglas relates a story about the 10-year-old daughter of one of his teachers, Rabbi David Aaron of Jerusalem, who ran inside and complained that a "boy hit me with a spitball in school today!"

"What's the boy's name?" asked her father.

"I can't tell you," she replied. "That would be lashon hara (evil speech)."

Declining to speak evil would make the world a better, if duller, place, Douglas suggests. "I myself like a little gossip...But there should be some limits, because gossip and rumors spread so quickly, like an epidemic. So much harm is done when millions of people are fed lies, innuendos and half-truths. A recent example is the poor security guard who discovered the bomb at the Olympics in Atlanta and then was put through hell as network news, followed by every newspaper in the country, spread the rumor that he had planted it."

A few pages later Douglas set aside his own caution and ripped into Marlon Brando, not only criticizing Brando's much publicized comments against the Jews in Hollywood (for which Brando later issued an apology), but also denigrating Brando's much vaunted idealism. 

What happened to the rule of not engaging in lashon hara, he asked himself. "See how hard it is to follow," he responds. "But then I have always been a sinner."

The many inconsistencies in the book's tone and direction disqualify it from being considered a serious work. But it has flashes of insight, and occasionally a breeze blows through it that may ignite the spark that burns within each of us.