As a Jew I learned that it is important to choose a Rabbi/mentor for oneself. Throughout life one chooses mentors – be they coaches on your sports teams, a student that is achieving better results than you or a successful business person that can give a look at your business plan.
The Rebbe
All these interactions impact our psyche and start to serve as building blocks for whom we are. I chose the Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson as my mentor many years ago, and while I am currently not Shomer Shabbat, that decision has guided me and given me a different hashkafa (viewpoint) on life. So too (on a very different scale) have the different interactions with those teachers I have had, such as Father Luis Verdecchia when I was at the Salesian School or his colleague Father Luis Prieto. Later on I met a reform Rabbi whose kindness impressed me (Samuel Vainberg) and I derive my leadership and social action ability from my days as a catholic school boy… my zest for action from the Lubavitcher pushiness that realizes that we are all human and there is none but HaShem (The Almighty)….
That is why I question Barack Obama’s disowning his mentor of two years – how do you do that? Why, for the sake of politics, would you disown your mentor? No matter what the public and media say – he made part of you – you implicitly are Reverend Wright and the American public deserves your honesty. Come out of the Closet Barry. We need Honesty in the Country to save it.
