BOYS TOWN, Neb. — On a clement winter day at the edge of the Plains, two men in black trod a kind of hallowed ground. One was a Roman Catholic priest, the Rev. Steven E. Boes, and the other a Hasidic rabbi, Shais Taub.

They were walking through the village founded decades earlier by an immigrant priest, the Rev. Edward J. Flanagan, for what were then known as “wayward boys.” Father Boes is now the executive director of Boys Town, a place made iconic by the Spencer Tracy film named for it, and Rabbi Taub was a visitor with wisdom to share.

For six years, Rabbi Taub, 37, has been teaching and writing about the spiritual component of recovery from addiction. He had begun within the Jewish community, specifically the Chabad movement, and yet providence or serendipity or destiny has brought him increasing recognition and influence well beyond it.

So it was that Father Boes asked him to address a half-dozen staff members, some of them clergy and some of them therapists, who lead recovery programs at Boys Town. Once a refuge for children neglected or abandoned due primarily to poverty, it now deals extensively with boys and girls who have abused alcohol and drugs. And while Boys Town from its origin had been nondenominational and opposed to religious compulsion of any kind, it has always considered faith a central element for repairing damaged lives.