Q:
How can one keep the idealistic teenage years always a part of him?
A:
And the answer is first of all it depends what he was in those years. For a great many people it pays to forget about their teenage years as fast as possible.
But even if you had teenage years like Rav Yisrael Salanter, you have to know that the way to keep those years with you is to continue true to yourself. A man has to be true to himself, to be loyal to what he was. Always look back and say, “Can I disappoint this idealistic youth that I was? If he knew how I would turn out, would he be satisfied with me?” So always look back and be a ne’eman to yourself in your youth.
“When I was in the yeshivah,” you should say, “I wanted to become a gadol baTorah. Now I was married and I fell into the maelstrom of life and now years have passed by. I’m aroisgetun from learning. No, I can’t let that youth down! I’m going to go back to what I was once. I was sitting in a beis hamedrash dreaming dreams of greatness. I must come back again.”
You can do it. You can do it. Even if you’re well on in years, if you start with a systematic program, you can accomplish great things in your later years. You must have that incentive of not wanting to embarrass your youthful ideals: אשרי זקנותנו שלא ביישה את ילדותינו. That’s not exactly the phraseology there (Sukkah 53a) but I’m using it in my own words: “Happy would be our old age if we don’t disappoint our youthful ideals.”
TAPE # 228 (August 1978)
