The root of the Hebrew for “to give,” natan, reads the same left-to-right as right-to-left. It’s a powerful metaphor for the universal truth that giving goes both ways: to give is to receive.
I heard it dramatically confirmed in the moving message of Mindy Halper, who gave one of her kidneys to Chaya Levinson and thus saved her friend’s life, and in Chaya’s response. Because such a gift isn’t that unusual, it got less publicity than the dramatic story of Hélène Campbell who recently received two lungs and was seen on television dancing. Theirs was nevertheless an extremely powerful testimony of how the donation of an organ blissfully transforms both recipient and donor.
The two women were speaking at Toronto’s Beth Tzedec Synagogue one evening last month in an effort to encourage members of the Jewish community to join the many Ontarians who’ve put their names on the organ donors’ register.
The Trillium Gift of Life Network that coordinates the project in the province has the support of the host congregation and, among others, also of the National Council of Jewish Women and the Toronto Board of Rabbis. The current Trillium president is Rabbi Reuven Bulka of Ottawa.
Judaism, like other faiths, stresses the dignity of the human body in life as in death. When a living person gives an organ, it’s on condition that the donor’s life isn’t thereby endangered. In the case of organs of the deceased, the issue is the preservation of the remains. That’s why burial and the rites associated with it are so important in virtually all traditions. That’s also why, for example, most Orthodox Jews object to cremation.
Read more: http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1208697--the-gift-of-live-giving-organ-transplants
{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}
No comments:
Post a Comment