What about davening for goyim who need a refuah? I thought of this because I saw on my gmail page that Gary Carter is ill with brain cancer. Gary Carter played catcher for the champion '86 Mets. Now to be honest I don't follow sports anymore but when I was a kid I was addicted to sports. Nebach, I never got into drugs, drinking, [li'havdil] girls or other things that are so popular with Jewish teens today and I certainly wasn't into learning so what did I have in life for fun and excitement?? I am not being sarcastic [well, the "nebach I was never into drugs" was tongue in cheek]. I really feel that everybody needs SOMETHING in life bigger than them to hold on to. For me it was the Mets, Knicks [Bernaaaaaaard King], Rangers [Bubba Beck and Nickey Fotiu], Dolphins [THE MARKS BROTHERS!] and Jimmy Connors [I also liked Chris Evert and I'm still upset about thirty years later that they broke up. What a shidduch! Two of the best tennis players alive. Can you imagine what type of kids they would have had!] St. Johns for college basketball [is Chris Mullin still on the team??] and Penn State for college football. [NO MORE PENN STATE FOR ME! DESPICABLE!!!]
Now I have discovered something real - מלך מלכי המלכים הקדוש ברוך הוא. But then it was sports and it kept me going till I found my true love. Ahhhhhh gemara - I LOVE YOU! I kiss my gemara - I never kissed any pro athlete. I wouldn't have wanted to. They are soooo sweaty! Yich! I know my mother is my mother because when I would be all shvitzy after a game she would still kiss me. OHHHHH MOM!
So do I daven for Gary ben Chava or not? Rav Ovadia Yosef Shlita says that if a goy raised you and you converted you should daven for him. Hakaras Hatov. Also, if it will be a Kiddush Hashem we should daven. If he keeps the sheva mitzvos bnei noach he also is worthy of tfilla. The only problem is, say the poskim, when the goy is an idol worshipper. Gary ben Chava is a devout Christian and Christianity is idolatry [according to most sources].
I'm stuck.
So my tefilla will be that he get better and follow the true monotheistic faith [i.e. Judasim] either by keeping the sheva mitzvos or by converting. If he doesn't make it he shouldn't suffer too much.
ורחמיו על כל מעשיו
From watching him on TV - he seems like a really nice guy. Gary! Thanks for the good memories. You helped bring a lot of simcha to a depressed kids life.
Next time you come to Yerushalyim to thank Hashem for your refuah you should stop by my house and I can study some bible with you. It's really MUCH better in the original Hebrew. Plus I'll give you some of my wife's kugel. Goyim never experience a Shabbos kugel. It's מעין עולם הבא!!
