Chief rabbi helps sick boy fulfill dream to meet the pope

Mark Rouk, a 16-year-old Christian Arab boy from east Jerusalem who suffers from a chronic illness, believes the only way for him to heal is with a blessing from the pope Chief Rabbi David Lau says he will invite Rouk to pope's reception ceremony.

For one 16-year-old boy from east Jerusalem, Pope Francis' upcoming visit to Israel will be a dream come true. Mark Rouk, a Christian Arab youth who suffers from a chronic illness, approached Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau and asked him to help him meet the pope.

In addition to the chronic illness, Rouk suffers from an infection in his joints and tendons that causes him immense pain. His medical problems cause him to be much smaller than his peers. If that were not enough, about two months ago, Rouk was hurt in an accident when an iron gate in a parking lot fell on top of him. Until recently, he had been using a wheelchair to get around, but he is now using crutches.

Rouk's family members say his mood has been very low and that the only thing that will cheer him up is a blessing from the pope. According to his mother, Rouk believes that being near the pope and receiving a blessing from him will help to heal him.

Lau told Israel Hayom that as soon as his office received Rouk's request, it was clear to him that it would be answered. "The pope's visit in Israel is all about the strengthening of relations between the religions to create a dialogue of peace and fraternity between nations, and there is no better way to display that than when a young boy feels he can ask the chief rabbi of Israel to help make this wish come true," Lau said.

"I plan to invite him to join me to attend the official reception ceremony for the pope, and I hope there will also be an opportunity for a meeting between the pope and the boy," he added.

Lau continued, "When you see such a lovely boy like this, who is cared for by a dedicated team that does not care if he is Jewish or not and does everything possible to help him, there is no doubt that this is the most beautiful thing about the Jewish nation, and the pope should certainly see this."

Lau added that in his meeting with the pope, he plans to speak about unity among nations.

"There are extremists in every nation and country," he said. "It is important that international religious leaders be united in the call for peace, tolerance and solidarity, and I am happy to be doing this with the young boy at my side because peace is the ideal for all of us and bringing nations closer is the goal of our generation."

Not sure what you’re saying here. If this rabbi’s name is Lau, andhe’s not Chinese, then Lau is not a q100% Chinese name.

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THIS is what I wrote:
Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau??
LAU is a 100% Chinese name. I saw the Rabbi's photograph and he is definitely not Chinese.
What an odd co-inkydink.

How can you not be sure of what I am saying? Lol. Didn't the CO-INKYDINK give you the TINIEST of clues?
Are you being deliberately obtuse? Rhetorical.

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I looked up Lau on the Wold Name Public Profiler, and found “hot spots” for surname LAU in both Germany and Australia.

Boy do YOU ever need a life. :o)

Lau is Yiddish for ‘lion’, I think.
Leo in English, Aryeh in Hebrew, etc.

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You didn't dig very deep into Wikipedia. LAU is a VERY, very common name in Chinese, both Mandarin and Cantonese.

The following is from http://genforum.genealogy.com/lau/messages/127.html

1) The most popular one is the family name of the kings that rule the Han dynasty in ancient China. It is also a fairly common last name among ethnic Chinese
2) Another translation of Lau is willow (a kind of tree that usually grows along the river).
3) the third translation of Lau is (tall) building.
4) waterfall

Chinese isn't especially rich in vocabulary. In fact, their language has a definite DEARTH of vocabulary. HOWEVER, they are RICH in the use of TONES.

Mandarin Tones: http://www.chinese-lessons.com/conversion/toneConversion.htm
Mandarin is more of a super-group of dialects than a single language. For simplicity, Beijing area Mandarin will be assumed when using the term Mandarin throughout the website.
Mandarin, the basis of putonghua , has a complicated relationship to Middle Chinese. In this dialect there are 4 standard tones and a neutral 5th tone. Because of this, many of the Middle Chinese tone categories are merged. Additionally, both Category 7 (Ru-Yin) and Category 8 (Ru-Yang) are distributed among the modern Mandarin tones in a complicated manner.
Middle Chinese
Ping = Even
Shang = Rising
Qu = Leaving
Ru = Entering
Mandarin Tone
1 - High tone
2 - Rising tone
3- Dipping tone
4- Falling tone
Variations between three and four

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I took Cantonese WAY back when and I learned that there are actually 14 tones. THEY "toned" how you spoke to people. Each of the tones specified an attitude.
It's as complicated as OUR vocabulary.

I figured that this was one of the many reasons why Chinese have such a difficult time with NON-Chinese languages. They have to TOSS out their entire repertory of TONES...then learn English.

Example: Chinese, when learning English, DON'T raise their voice in tone when asking a question. One is SUPPOSED to slightly raise the tone for a question...and conversely LOWER for the end of a sentence.

R. David Lau is 39th in an unbroken chain of rabbis. His father was also Ashkenaz Chief Rabbi of Israel and a child survivor of the Holocaust. If there were Chinese relatives close enough related to lend their name, it would be very well-known.

Very true. Thanks for the information.

I had NEVER heard of "Lau" being anything other than a Chinese name. But, I do live on the West Coast of the USA and there are PLENTY of Chinese here.

LIVE and LEARN.

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