Why do some people turn out so much better than some other people?

What do we want most for our children?  Happiness?  Success?  Wealth?  Health?  Fame?  Popularity?  Brilliant marriages?

It was 23 years ago today that I married my children’s father, so let’s zero in for a moment on how we can raise children who will attract the best possible husbands and wives.  What does that most perfect someone look in a spouse?  Money?  Looks?  A high status job?   Good Cooking?  Why do we like and respect some individuals much more than others?  Let us ask one of the preeminent moral leaders of the twentieth century.

Everybody appreciates the line from Rev. Martin L. King Jr.’s famous speech, even people who don’t agree with anything else he ever said.
I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

But can anyone explain what that means?  What exactly are the contents of a good character?  King didn’t live long enough to leave us his wisdom on the subject.  Or perhaps in his generation, he thought everybody knew.

Answering this question would seem to be a reasonable responsibility of organized religion, yet the Ten Commandments are too basic and too broad to be of much help, and those dealing with our conduct toward each other are overwhelmingly negative.  Only the Fifth Commandment even hints at character in that it vaguely asks us to behave in such a manner that to bring honor to our parents, whatever that might entail.   Likewise, the Buddhist Eight-Fold Path and the Catholic Seven Splendid Virtues, while short and easy to memorize, provide little direction. 

In my day, I had to memorize this set of ten Laws, which dated back to 1920:

1. A Girl Scout's Honor Is to be Trusted. 2. A Girl Scout Is Loyal. 3. A Girl Scout's Duty Is to be Useful and to Help Others. 4. A Girl Scout is a Friend to All, and a Sister to every other Girl Scout. 5. A Girl Scout Is Courteous. 6. A Girl Scout Is a Friend to Animals. 7. A Girl Scout Obeys Orders. 8. A Girl Scout is Cheerful. 9. A Girl Scout is Thrifty. 10. A Girl Scout is Clean in Thought, Word and Deed.

I understand there is another organization for boys that had some comparable kind of rules, and since I last sewed any badges on my sash, those old Girl Scout Laws have undergone several revisions.

Another somewhat older list of virtues system designed to help young people improve their character came from a twenty-year-old Benjamin Franklin in 1741.  Although he may have been influenced by Aristotle, Franklin’s scheme bears a strong resemblance to the one Rabbi Moses Chaim Luzzatto published in 1738, מסילת ישרים or Paths of the Just, which became the basis of Mussar teachings of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter.  We will examine these in depth over the course of the next week or two.