Several bar-mitzvah age boys had stopped attending their local Hebrew school. Their parents, who were concerned, took the teenagers to visit the Lubavitcher Rebbe, hoping he would convince them to continue seeking a Jewish education.
“Tell me,” the Rebbe asked the first boy, “why have you decided to stop attending Hebrew school?”
“All the other boys on my street have stopped going to Hebrew school, so I want to stop as well,” he answered.
“And what about you?” the Rebbe asked the second boy.
“Same reason,” the boy explained. “The kids on my street don’t go, so why should I?”
“Tell me,” the Rebbe asked the boys, “who were your favorite Jewish heroes that you learned about?”
One boy responded that he deeply admired Noah, and the other, Abraham.
“Do you know,” the Rebbe told the first boy, “that if Noah would have followed all the other kids on his street, we would have no world? And if Abraham would have followed all the kids on his street,” the Rebbe told the second boy, “we would have no Jewish people!”
Reprinted from an email sent by a devoted subscriber of the Shabbos Stories email.
