Mitch Albom

Here's another one from "Have A Little Faith". This on is on pages 37-39. Yup! It's long. Sorry, but I want to be this kind of teacher...someday!

"So what drew you in?"
"I wanted to be a teacher."
"A religious teacher?"
"A history teacher."
"Like in normal school?"
"Like in normal school."
"But you went to the seminary."
"I tried."
"You tried?"
"The first time, I failed."
You're kidding me.
"No. The head of the seminary, Louis Finkelstein, pulled me aside and said, "Al, while you know much, we do not feel you have what it takes to be a good and inspiring rabbi."
"What did you do?"
"What could I do? I left."

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Now, this stunned me. There were many things you could have said about Albert Lewis. But not having what it took to inspire and lead a congregation? Unthinkable. Maybe he was too gentle for the seminary leaders. Or too shy. Whatever the reason, the failure crushed him.
He took a summer job as a camp counselor in Port Jervis, New York. One of the campers was particularly difficult. If the other kids collected in one place, this kid went someplace else. If asked to sit, he would defiantly stand.
The kids name was Phineas, and Al spent most of the summer encouraging him, listening to his problems, smiling patiently. Al understood adolescent angst. He'd been a pudgy in a cloistered religious environment. He'd had few friends. He'd never really dated.
So Phineas found a kindred soul in his counselor. And by the end of camp, the kid had changed.
A few weeks later, Al got a call from Phineas's father, inviting him to dinner. It turned out the man was Max Kadushin, a great Jewish scholar and a major force in the Conservative movement. At the table that night, he said, "Al, I can't thank you enough. You sent back a different kid. You sent me a young man."
Al smiled.
"You have a way with people--particularly children."
Al said thank you.
"Have you ever thought about trying for the seminary?"
Al almost spit out his food.
"I did try," he said. "I didn't make it."
Max thought for a moment.
"Try again," he said.
And with Kadushin's help, Albert Lewis's second try went better than the first. He excelled. He was ordained.
Not long after that, he took a bus to New Jersey to interview for his first and only pulpit position, the one he still held more than fifty years later.
No angel? I asked. No burning bush?
"A bus," the Reb said, grinning.
I scribbled a note. The most inspirational man I knew only reached his potential by helping a child reach his.