Follow Kids on the Block - STORY of Rebbe

Conformity




Several Bar-Mitzva age boys stopped attending Hebrew school. A concerned shliach took the teenagers to visit the Rebbe, hoping the Rebbe 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 block 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 block 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 block, we would have no world? And if Abraham would have followed all the kids on his block,” the Rebbe told the second boy, “we would have no Jewish people!”