The 10-string harp

Dear friends:

Journalist and Bible scholar Jimmy DeYoung, who lives in Israel, relates an interesting story.

He tells about visiting a Hebrew school and finding a rabbi working on a computer. DeYoung asked what the rabbi was doing and was told that he was maintaining a data base.

"What kind of data base," DeYoung asked.

"Every male Jew who is qualified to be a priest," the rabbi responded. The rabbi went on to explain all the preparations being made for the planned third temple -- the garments, the implements, etc. He seemed to leave nothing out. Everything is made, ready and in storage

But DeYoung asked, "What about the harps?"

The rabbi replied, "Go over to number 10 King David Street."

DeYoung went over to 10 King David Street and found a young couple who had immigrated to Israel from Finland. The husband was a carpenter, but had never made any musical instruments. One day his wife asked him to make her for a 10-string harp for her birthday.

The husband did not know how to make a harp but went over to the Jezreel Valley, went into a cave and saw a picture of a 10-string harp, then went back and made her one just like he saw.

The Jerusalem Post newspaper heard about the harp, visited and wrote an article about it. They told him it is the first 10-string harp that has been made in 2,000 years!

A couple of days a later an old rabbi showed up at the couple's door, having seen the article. He asked, "Do you have a 10-string harp here?"

"I do," the husband replied.

"May I see it?"

"You may."

"May I hold it?"

"Certainly."

The old rabbi, in his late 70s, held the harp and suddenly began to weep. The wife asked, "Why are you crying, rabbi?"

He explained, "The Talmud says that when a 10-string harp shows up in Jerusalem is the time for the coming of the Messiah."