Jewish life, at least for those who follow ancient traditions, has a rule book. In fact it has many rule books. They are the Torah, the Talmud, and numerous writings by the rabbis over the millennia. In those books are laws governing virtually every circumstance that an individual may face, as well as situations that are imagined by the rabbis but were, in all likelihood, never faced by anyone and unlikely ever to occur. "Mercy Killing and Other Tall Meisehs" contains stories about real and imagined situations, and how they might play out if they actually happened. But don't wait for them to...