As a child I once showed up in synagogue with two different shoes. My mother shook her head; “David, on occasion people get confused and wear different socks. But no one wears one brown and one black shoe.”
My mother taught me about appearance, but not the way one might think. As the mother of four boys she fought hard to get us to care about how we looked, that is true. We were taught which colors go together and how to choose clothes. But that was barely the beginning. The real lesson began when at 52 my mother suffered a debilitating stroke.
For the last thirty years of her life she could not speak, could barely read and had a serious cognitive impairment. Yet the dignity of my mother’s bearing remained; she still cared about the clothes she put on and the face she presented to the world. In the Talmud we are told that no student should enter the house of study whose inside is not like his outside. My mother taught me how taking pride in your outside can help fortify your inside. She had strength, courage, a deep, joyous smile and always, two beautiful matching shoes.
This is one story, my story, of how a parent’s example or words influenced a child’s life. What follows are stories from around the globe, from people who are famous and others who are finding their public voice for the first time in these pages. Enjoy, learn and I hope you find them as inspiring as I have.
David Wolpe is the Max Webb Senior Rabbi at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, California. www.facebook.com/RabbiWolpe
