Video of the Day

On May 5th, 1991, President George H. W. Bush was rushed to Bethesda Naval Hospital after suffering from an irregular heartbeat following his morning jog.

The next day, Rabbi Avrohom Shemtov, the Shliach in Philadelphia and the Rebbe’s representative to Washington, DC, asked the Rebbe for a blessing for the President’s health.

The Rebbe noted that the method for praying for a non-Jew is with their father’s names (as opposed to Jews, who evoke God’s blessings with their mother’s names). The Rebbe then replied with a blessing, as well as urging the president to further peace in the mid-east.

The Rebbe’s next remark seems to foreshadow the Bush Administration’s eventual opposition to providing Israel with loan guarantees, with the Rebbe urging that they at least not minimize the US’s support of Israel.

video courtesy of JEMedia

5 Comments

  • So interesting! A question...

    What about when the non-Jew’s father is a Yid (who of course married a non-Jew)? Do we do the same when asking for blessings for the non-Jew, i.e., Catherine the daughter of Shmuel?

  • Response

    Yes, father’s name. A yiddishe neshomo comes to a person through their mother and we want to bring out the neshomo more when a brocho is needed, so we use the mother’s name. This would not apply to a goy who does not have a yiddishe neshomo, so we do not use the mother’s name.