The Rabbi (1) -- A Visitor

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6th July: The Rabbi (1) -- A Visitor

I was humming 'Amazing Grace' -- one of my favourite hymns. I was precisely at the highest point in the song -- 'that saved a wretch like me' when the door opened and a voice was heard asking 'Are you The Friends of Israel's doctors?' Perhaps it was my habit of seeing people through the eyes of a practising physician that caused me to see first a plastered arm in a sling, but immediately thereafter I realised that the arm, plaster and sling all belonged to a rabbi. 'Of course we are, and for many reasons, rabbi,' I said, cordially inviting him to come in.

'I do hope one of your reasons will allow you to help me with this,' he said, as he held out his arm and crossed the threshold of our clinic here in Buenos Aires.

Once he was in, I noticed the perfect plaster cast he had on his arm and wondered what could be the ultimate reason he came to us. As if he were reading my thoughts, he said, 'In these days of anti-Semitism, our enemies come to us freely. I think now is a good time for us Jews to get closer to our friends.' No doubt he was a brace rabbi, a man accustomed to facing all sorts of situations.

It was difficult to guess his age because of his long beard. His accent, from somewhere in Europe, led me to ask 'Have you met many friends of Israel in the world?' 'Not as many as I would have wished -- and not so few as I would have expected' he answered. 'Among them, have you met any Christians?' I asked. He replied, 'Haven't you, doctor? Everybody does.' 'Did it make any vital change in your life, rabbi? I ask you this because something I once learned from a fellow-Christian was the turning point of my life,' I told him.

'I wonder what it could have been,' he murmured, not having the slightest idea that I was about to relate to him my testimony and how I had recognised my Messiah. After listening to my account of personal salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, he looked at me like an entomologist would look at a rare insect for the first time. Then he asked, 'Who do you think you are talking to about religious affairs? Are you crazy?' 'And who do you think you are talking to about psychiatric disorders?' I asked. 'After all, I am supposed to give the diagnosis.' He murmured something I couldn't quite hear, and then said acquiescently. 'How can an intelligent man like you believe in such a fantastic tale?' Sincere in his beliefs, he was concerned for what he thought were my misguided persuasions.