Living Torah Archives

Shimshon Stock headed the Chevra Simchas Shabbos V’Yom Tov charity fund for thirty years. In the 1940s, he was a rambunctious teenager growing up in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. One day, on the way to a ball game with his friend, he met the Rebbe. They didn’t expect it, but they then got a Torah lesson from baseball. (Late 1940s and Early 1950s)

The youth rebellion of the 60s saw an explosion of counterculture movements fighting the status quo across the Western world. As many wrote off the radicalism of their children, the Rebbe embraced their passion, arguing that it all stemmed from a thirst for good.

If you'll try to begin to go in the right direction, it will have a big effect on your children. If they’ll see that you have changed, it will encourage them to reconsider their life ahead of them. They are still in the stage of preparing for independent life, and like with a seed, every small change in their attitude now, can make a tremendous impact in their life ahead. (1972)

Youth have an important advantage over their older peers. While older people spend much time deliberating over the merits and demerits of ideas, it is the young people that are driven to concrete action.