Recently, I was thinking about the power of our prayers of healing, my interest and involvement in interfaith study and dialogue, and my deep and longstanding friendships of many decades. For many years, I have been including in mi shebeirach prayers each Shabbat a wide range of people of all faiths from a Roman Catholic priest to a rabbi and a cantor. Each time I include a person with either their permission or their families’ concurrence, I receive deep heartfelt thanks.

I am leading on Zoom a class on the history of antisemitism at a United Church of Christ Church in Massachusetts. It is the same class that I led at TBE. I have been struck by the deep interest that my class garnered here and there. At the church, I have spoken of our prayers for healing, and they have spoken of their similar prayers. It brings us together.

The picture above is of a recent lunch gathering with old friends and teammates from the 1960s and earlier. One of the men was the beneficiary our prayers from May until recently. The details are not important. Suffice it to say that he experienced a life-threatening accumulation of illnesses and almost did not make it. Here he is out with us and having a wonderful time and loving the Red Sox. He is married and has two daughters and five grandchildren with whom he can be in good health.

He and his wife were so appreciative of our prayers that he called me one day from the ICU to thank me.

Besides sports where we were rivals and teammates, our Jewish connection runs deep. We celebrated our Bar Mitzvahs at Kehillath Israel and hung out with USY.