A bochur with a thick light-blue yarmulke comes to visit one day with his guitar.

We’d only met this bochur once before but my sons have known him for many years.

He asks if we want to hear a song.

“Of course” we say.

He takes out his guitar.

I don’t know if you have ever been in this predicament but I have. Someone wants to play a song they wrote or they’re just starting out and you have to get excited about “Twinkle twinkle little star.”

I move towards the kitchen area so I’m not caught having to fake enthusiasm. I’m kind of holding my breath because it’s hard for me to see people take such open emotional risks.

He plays the first chord.

It’s good.

The second and third are even better. The bridge is beautiful and the chorus touches Heaven.

There are no words for this song.

I imagine the Leviim in the Beis HaMikdash must have sounded like this.

“Where on earth did you ever learn to play like that?” my husband asks.

The boy shares his story.

“I was in army jail for three months. One night out of the blue a guard asked if I want to go to a shiur on the top of the mountain a few miles from the jail. In jail any activity is better than none and though at the time I was angry with religion I agreed.

“We headed toward the mountain where the shiur was going to be.

“On the way I saw a snake in the tall grass. I grew up on a desert moshav and we always caught snakes to sell to hospitals to make antivenin. This was just a harmless Large Whip Snake so I picked it up.

“The guard not realizing what I was doing got scared and tried to knock the snake out of my hand. In that second the snake bit me.

“When I saw the bite and felt the pain I realized I’d made a mistake. It wasn’t a harmless Large Whip Snake at all. I told the guard I needed a hospital immediately.

“The guard didn’t get the seriousness. He said ‘No way are you ruining my night’ and he left me at the class on top of the mountain.

“My hand was throbbing and swelling. They phoned the base which sent a soldier on foot. When he saw my hand he called for an ambulance. They called a helicopter.

“From the time I got the bite until I got to the emergency room took about two hours. My arm was burning. In the hospital a doctor came over to me with a book of snake pictures. He turned the pages and asked which one bit me.

I pointed. “That one” I said.

“ ‘That’s a mole viper it’s deadly and there’s no antivenin for it’ the doctor told me. ‘The only thing we can do is wait.’ He then drew a big black line on the upper part of my arm and says ‘If the swelling reaches here we will have to amputate your arm. After 10 days you’re safe.’ ”

For 10 days I lay there praying the swelling would not reach that line. I was questioning and angry. How or why would G-d punish me like this for going to a shiur?

On the 10th day they checked my arm and the swelling had stopped just before the black line. My arm — and my life — were saved.

“Afterwards I could not move my fingers and they suggested I get a ball or something to force me to use my hand. But I decided the best thing was to get a guitar. Since then my life has completely changed. Before this I had never had anything I was special in. I never had an outlet. The guitar calms my soul. It’s like having a direct connection with Hashem. It brought me back. I learned that there’s nothing in life that’s ‘bad.’ Everything that happens to us is a blessing. It all depends on how we use it.”

He plays another magical tune. My husband asks him about the words.

He says “This song has no words.”