A young Israeli couple faced a hard medical decision during the wife’s second pregnancy. At her bedside in a Cincinnati hospital, the husband thought, “I really wish I could talk with a rabbi, pray with tefillin on, for real.”
A few minutes later, Rabbi Karp knocked on the door. He was on his regular rounds as a volunteer chaplain, and as usual he had his tefillin with him, “just in case.” The husband put on tefillin for the first time in many years and prayed. The couple made their decision, and a short time later their baby boy was born. Mother and baby were fine.
In November 2011, Rabbi Karp was locked out of his car outside a synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan. A young Israeli man from the congregation happened to be a locksmith, and he offered to help. As they talked, they recognized each other. The locksmith was the father from the maternity unit.
“Your visit and help, right when we needed it, started a chain reaction.”
A father Rabbi Karp met in a maternity unit
After that visit, he began to pray on his own. When the family moved to Michigan, they became active in their synagogue and gave their children a Jewish education.
As Yaakov and Miriam Karp wrote in Headlights that same winter: “We merely need to fan the natural spark which is already there into a robust flame.”
Do you know someone in the hospital who would like a Jewish visit? Call or text 513-307-2386.
About JEEP’s hospital chaplaincy →
Adapted from Headlights, Winter 2012.