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8 Teves 5761 - January 3, 2001 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Opinion & Comment
The Hakoras Hatov Of a Gentile Giant

by Shlomo Boruch Abelesz (Melbourne)

This story happened last year to Chaim K., whose business manufactures and supplies blinds to commercial and private buildings.

A day earlier he had been called by a builder to give a quote for the supply of blinds to a new apartment block.

When Chaim arrived there -- as always, wearing his yarmulke - - the builder, a giant of a man with tattoos on both arms, greeted him with: "Are you Jewish?"

A little concerned, Chaim answered: "Yes, but what difference does that make?"

The builder responded with: "The job is yours!"

No quote, no nothing!

A now-surprised Chaim asked him the reason for the puzzling behavior.

The builder replied that some 20 years ago his baby became very sick on Xmas day. He tried calling doctors everywhere but to no avail -- no one would come for at least several hours.

Meanwhile the child was having convulsions and the parents were getting extremely desperate. So they rushed him to Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital.

Upon arrival they raced up to the duty nurse and asked if there were any doctors available. She calmed down the agitated parents and told them that they were extremely lucky. Since it was Xmas, their baby would be cared for by the very best specialists in town.

The anxious parents, who had just gone through hell trying to find any doctor at all, were quite puzzled by her words and couldn't understand what she meant, until she explained that due to the holiday all doctors and specialists on duty are Jewish and they are all first-class.

As she finished talking, a doctor wearing a yarmulke hurried in, took the child and told the parents to relax and not to worry as their son will be well-looked-after.

The boy needed immediate surgery which was indeed undertaken and completed successfully and, as the nurse had said, all the doctors in attendance were Jewish.

"To this day," the builder continued, "I am grateful to those Jewish doctors and specialists who saved our son's life. And that is why, once I realized you were Jewish, I gave you the order without any further talk."

The gentile giant added: "There is no way that I am ever going into a hospital on the Jewish New Year!"

Heard on 28th Kislev 5761, at the tikkun le'ilui nishmas my father-in-law, Reb Yehudah (Leibish) b'r Moshe Schwartz o"h


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