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In the spirit of "Tikkun Olam" Congregation Sinai offers many opportunities throughout year to participant in dozens of worthwhile causes. Whether it's the Bar/Bat Mitzvah group extending a helping hand at InnVision, the whole community collecting food for Second Harvest, Mazon collections for the needy, or serving food to the homeless at the Community Inns we have many chances to get involved in creating a better world in which to live.


Organ Donation: a way to save the world

an article by Rabbi Eitan Julius (9/2004)

The following article by Rabbi Julius first appeared in the March, 2000 issue of The Jewish Community News to publicize Organ Donor Shabbat. Although the statistics cited are not current, The message is and the shortage of organ and tissue donors is even more critical today than it was in 2000. In the most recent statistics nationwide, of the 80,000 people needing lifesaving transplants, less than 13,000 were able to receive them. While the number of those on waiting lists for transplants have more than doubled over the last decade, the percentage of donors available has dropped from 25% in 1993 to only 16% in 2002.

Information on tissue and bone marrow donation for ethnically Jewish patients may be found at www.giftoflife.org

 

- Ed.

Whoever saves one life, it is as if they saved the entire world.
(Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5)


In our area alone, approximately 300 people are on the waiting list for an organ transplant. In 1998, there were only 43 donors. Nationally the waiting list grows at a rate of 1000 per month. Another name is added every 16 minutes. Eight to ten people die every day awaiting a lifesaving organ transplant.

It has been wrongly assumed that organ transplants are “not a Jewish thing.” This is due to a mistaken take on the mitzvoth of Kavod haMeyt (honoring the dignity of the dead) and Techiat haMeytim (resurrection of the dead). In regard to Kavod haMeyt we have many instructions to guide us through the death and burial process. Taharah, the act of cleansing the body is done by a Chevra Kadisha — the holy society — carefully and respectfully. Thus we avoid autopsies and embalming and do not unnecessarily postpone burial. Organ transplants cannot interfere with Kavod haMeyt; in fact it increases the honor for the deceased.

Another misconception is that we might need all of our organs for the resurrection that is set to take place in the Days to Come. Saadia Gaon already addresses this concern in the tenth century. If the body is to return to the earth, only to disintegrate in the ground, how can it be resurrected whole and complete? Saadia answers that this is not a problem for the Creator who after all created the entire universe from nothing. Maimonides echoes this a few hundred years later by stating that Techiat haMeytim is in the realm of the miraculous, and we needn’t be bothered by the petty details of the physical body. In essence both Saadia and Maimonides are telling us not to worry our little heads, but to leave it to God!

The principle of Pikuach Nefesh (saving a life) is one of the primary commandments. All other Mitzvoth (Shabbat; Tzedakah; Kashrut, etc.) are set aside in order to save a life with only three exceptions (murder, idolatry and incest). The Talmud (Sanhedrin 73a-74a) goes at lengths to define and emphasize the importance of this Mitzvah. As a proof text for this the rabbis cite a verse from the Torah — “You shall not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor.” (Leviticus 19:16)

Maimonides codified the principle in the Mishneh Torah (Hilchot Rotse’ach U’Shmirat Nefesh 1:14): “Anyone who could save a life and does not, transgresses the commandcommandment: You shall not stand idly by.”

In more recent times many authoritiesties understand this as it relates directly to organ donation. Rabbi Moshe Tendler, one of the leading Halachists of the Orthodox movement writes: “If one is in the position to donate an organ to save another’s life, it is obligatory to do so. The basic principle of Jewish ethics — ‘The infinite worth of the human being’ — also includes donation of corneas, since eyesight restoration is considered a life-saving operation.”

The Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative movement takes it one step further by stating in a 1995 Teshuva (rabbinic law responsa) that not only is one obligated to permit postmortem organ transplants, but that withholding consent for such organ donation is contrary to Jewish law.

The Board of Rabbis of Northern California has taken upon itself the tasks of raising awareness of the need and desirability of becoming organ donors and increasing the number of registered donors in our communities. March 3 - 4 has been designated as Organ Donor Shabbat. This coincides with Shabbat Shekalim which commemorates the obligatory donation of a half Shekel to the Temple in Jerusalem. We, the rabbis of the Bay Area, are asking you to give half of yourself. The half of your being that, after death, is no longer of any use to you or your soul.

March is Organ Donation month. To this end, all the area rabbis are ready and willing to help you, to sign you up, understanding that this is an extremely personal act of chesed (divine love). At the same time, we are ready to dispel any fears and explain the importance of making your decision known to your family. We have also been trained to help you write up a living will and other documents (DNR, etc.). There are materials in every synagogue explaining the process, but it need not be more complicated than affixing the little “Donor” sticker to your driver’s license.

Our bodies really are just vessels, containers for divine light. When animated and alive, we can perform incredible acts of compassion. But, as alive as any living organism on this earth, it, too, like every living organism on this earth, will die. But due to the miracle of modern medicine (I think even Dr. Rambam would be amazed!) we need not necessarily die all at once.

There is a desperate need for good people, gracious people, healthy people (and even not so healthy people), to give after they are gone, so to be here still. Maybe that is what Techiat haMeytim is really all about, by giving, you live on, a part of you lives on. And thereby you have truly honored your body, by understanding just a little of its wonders, and being willing to share it.

Under ideal conditions one donor can supply as many as eight organs (heart; two lungs; liver; pancreas; two kidneys; and intestine) and improve the lives for as many as 150 people through tissue and organ donation! The old rabbinic saying could be updated to: “The one who donates their organs is as if they have saved 150 worlds!” Let us be counted with them.
 
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