Matnat Chaim, the organization that promotes and encourages altruistic kidney donation, wanted to put on an event in Jerusalem at which 2000 kidney donors would attend, thus making it the largest congregation of kidney donors in one place ever. 

It’s been four weeks since I donated a kidney to a complete stranger. In the days leading up to surgery, I struggled to put my thoughts and emotions in order. I finally did what comes naturally to me - I sat down at the piano and composed this song. It flowed from a place deep within. I recorded it four days before surgery with tears in my eyes. The surgery itself was on February 12, 2024. The message of the song is a blessing that I received that I want share with everyone who listens. Titchadesh is a word that can’t be directly translated to English. It loosely means ‘use it in good health’, or more accurately, ‘it should renew you’, or ‘you should have a Renewal.’ I sought a blessing from a Rabbi in the weeks leading to surgery and he wisely said “When you donate a piece of yourself, your body is transformed. You should be blessed to be not as one who is healthy even without two kidneys, but as one who is whole and complete, in your renewed self that has nothing lacking. Enjoy your new body - Titchadesh!” By recording this song and its message, I restate this sentiment for myself and share it with my recipient. I wish for him to live a long and happy life with his renewed body. May the kidney that is new to him keep him healthy for many years to come and may he feel renewed with each passing day. I hope he hears this song and feels as inspired as I do - to thank The One Above for the gift of health and for the opportunity to wake up each morning and smile. Titchadesh!

Translation:

I can't think of much more frightening or upsetting than getting a knock on the door on a Friday night and opening it to find police officers standing there. Immediate thoughts would try to figure out where all my family members were and if they are all safe, or what possible emergency has occurred.

This past Friday night the police knocked on the door of a frum family in Bet Shemesh. Thankfully, the issue was none of the above, though I am sure that first moment after opening the door must have been frightening. The police told the man that they were there to inform him that the kidney he had been waiting for has finally been located and he needs to go to the hospital immediately to be prepped for surgery to receive his kidney transplant.

The police officers then whisked him away to the hospital in the police car.

This all happened after the hospital could not get hold of the fellow by telephone, as being frum he did not answer his phone. Thankfully, the woman in the hospital responsible for the transplants is married to a policeman. She called her husband who then made arrangements with a fellow officer on duty in the Bet Shemesh station and everything was taken care of.

The fellow went into surgery on Shabbos morning and according to the police statement, the transplant was successful.
sources: JPost, Behadrei, Kikar

Beautiful story, of everyone working together to save a life!

Mazel tov and Refuah Shleima to all the relevant parties

This interesting psak is really a current machlokes, according to the article, so it is really a triple interesting psak, as all sides of the argument are interesting..

Donating a kidney to patients in need of one has become a very popular chessed nowadays, especially in the Haredi community (though not limited to the Haredi community). Much of the popularity can be accredited to the work of an organization called Matnat Chaim that promotes and encourages such kidney donations. Obviously, kidney donations must follow the laws for organ donation, no matter what organization it is being arranged through.

The question was asked if it is permitted to donate a kidney when the recipient might possibly be a secular Jew. This is often the case as the majority of the time it is an altruistic donation with the donor not knowing the recipient. Ergo, the answer can be very influential on the future of kidney donation in the frum community.

The responses are based on the possibility of whether or not the average secular Jew has the status of a tinok shennishba, as per the Chzon Ish's decision.

Starting with the more straightforward responses first:

* Rav Gershon Edelstein responded that one is allowed to make an altruistic kidney donation without knowing who the recipient will be, because [most] secular people retain the status of "tinok shenishbu". They are considered as if having been held captive, meaning they never had the opportunity to learn, so their lack of observance is not considered a fault - sort of like a type of annus. Such a person, considered a tinok shenishba, does not obtain the status of a wicked person, even though he or she does not observe the mitzvos and even transgresses prohibitions publicly. Therefore, one could donate a kidney even if it will go to a secular Jew.

 * Rav Yitzchak Zilbershtein responded that one can, and should, donate a kidney even to a secular Jew. Rav Zilbershtein adds that often in such cases we see that a certain bond develops between the donor and the recipient, and when the donor is religious and the recipient is not religious the donation has the ability to have a positive impact and influence on the recipient and bring him closer to Judaism and to fulfilling God's will.

 * Rav Chaim Kanievsky is the most complex of the respondents. Rav Kanievsky normally follows the Chazon Ish, his uncle. But he also follows his father in law, Rav Elyashiv. And he also would direct many piskei halacha to Rav Shteinman rather than answering himself, until Rav Shteinman's death. While Rav Kanievsky seems to potentially be pulled in three different directions on this.

Rav Kanievsky paskens in this case like his father in law Rav Elyashiv, saying that secular Jews nowadays do not have the status of tinok shenishba because even if they never learned Torah and Judaism, the information is readily available to them via the computer (I will comment on this point below) and anybody seeking the truth will find a way to discover it. Therefore, according to Rav Elyashiv, secular Jews today do NOT have the status of tinok shenishba but that of a mumar - someone who intentionally sins against God.

Rav Shteinman paskened that secular Jews nowadays do continue to have the status of tinok shenishba. He reasons that there is so much incitement today against religion that no secular Jew can objectively decide he wants to research Judaism and come to the truth.

Rav Chaim Kanievsky, paskening like Rav Elyashiv on this matter, therefore says that one should not donate a kidney to an unknown recipient.
source: Israel Hayom

the debate is very complex and I would add another point that was not mentioned in the opinions brought above. Many secular Jews are even ignorant of the starting point and do not even know to look. They are not necessarily anti-Torah or anti-religion, but they were raised and live lives totally devoid of Jewish halacha and Torah considerations and remain oblivious to it. I am not comfortable with the opinion that they could look for the information if they wanted, thus they are responsible for not having done so, so to speak, because it isnt even on their radar. That's how far removed much of the secular community is.

I would add one point of irony in Rav Kanievskky's opinion as quoted. The information about Judaism might be available to the masses easily "on the computer", but Rav Kanievskly himself, supposedly, considers it a serious prohibition and transgression to use the Internet and smartphones and the like. Maybe they are fulfilling a mitzva following his opinion to not use the internet, even for good things!

I would add, regarding the point made by Rav Zilbershtein, that it irks me in particular, and I have written about this elsewhere, that anything we do in reklation to the secular community seems to have to have an ulterior motive of kiruv. Why must kidney donation be ok because it might possibly cause the recipient to do teshuva? Why cant it just be to save a life? Why do we invite people over and say hopefully it will cause kiruv - cant we just invite a friend to spend time with the friend or because I love my cousin or sibling? Sure, you can do things for kiruv purposes, but why does it seem to very often be the underlying motive in almost anything done in the frum community with the not-frum community?  To illustrate further, just the other day I was in a store. The woman before me in line was talking to the clerk about a wedding she is making for her child and she mentioned her two sisters coming in for the wedding that are not frum. She commented that she hopes they will come in and enjoy the wedding and it will hopefully be the start of them becoming frum. Can't they just be invited and come to the wedding because they are siblings, aunts and uncles and we all want to share our simchas with our beloved families? Must their invitation be for the purpose of kiruv?

caveat: as always, do not make a halachic decision based off a brief halachic review article you read on the Internet. If the situation is relevant to you, consult with a competent rabbi on the matter.

What does a 68-year-old Conservative Jewish man from Cranford, New Jersey have in common with a 42 year old Hasidic man originally from London? A kidney. Grab your tissues and see how kindness can break down barriers between communities.

Rav Haber from the amazing Matnat Chaim organization is being investigated for giving donor priority to donors. Matnat Chaim encourages and arranges live organ donations, specifically of kidneys. Due to the efforts of Matnat Chaim, the numbers of kidney donations, altruistic, have skyrocketed. The investigation seems o looking into whether Rav Haber gave priority to kidney donor recipients who made donations to his organization, which is illegal.

Without weighing in on any opinion if Rav Haber is good or bad and if he did something wrong or not, because I do not have any secret information that reveals this to me...

The Haredi sites are going out of their way to talk about how great Rav Haber is and they are showing tremendous support from past donor recipients who are acting as character witnesses and saying no money was involved.

Perhaps no money was ever involved. I certainly hope that is the case. I just never understood the futility of such efforts. Nobody ever said every potential recipient had to pay to receive a donation. The claim is that some recipients got pushed up the list by making donations. Those that did not pay to play, surely the vast majority, will not even know about that - so them saying publicly nothing untoward ever happened is pointless. If something happened, they just do not know about it, as would be expected.

The sad thing is that if he is found guilty it is likely Matnat Chaim will bear the brunt of the negative publicity and kidney donations will probably plummet back to near the levels they were when only the government was involved in looking for donations.

And now it is no longer just an issue between the Ministry of Health and the Matnat Chaim organization that promotes private kidney donation. They have complained about the organization and the police have opened an investigation into the organizations activities.

According to the Times of Israel, the police are investigating possible discrimination and the possibility that they actively trade organs for donations, and bumping patients up the line ahead of people on the donor waiting list who are often in more serious condition.

Regarding their activities, I hope they are found to be innocent. They have facilitated the saving of many lives through their efforts.

Regarding their efforts, as long as the recipient is not paying for the kidney, and the donor is not receiving money, I do not see how letting people specify relatives as recipients can be a problem. Chances of compatibility are so much higher, and people are more willing to become a donor knowing they are helping a relative than a stranger.

Regarding the actual laws regarding the financials, I have said in the past that while I understand they are there to prevent trafficking in organs, the end result is that every person in the chain of the organ donation ends up making good money off it, except for the donor and the recipient. Neither the doctors, the hospitals, the nurses, the ministries, the aides, the bureaucrats, the promoters, the marketers, or anybody else working within the chain works for free, and it seems unfair that the only people who cannot handle money for this are the people giving up the organ and receiving the organ. That does not seem right to me.

I am not sure what exactly is right and wrong here, but the Ministry of Health now has an organization called "Matnat Chinam" in its sights. Matnat Chinam is an organization that encourages and assists/facilitates with live kidney donations.

The Ministry of Health is claiming that there are two problems with the way Matnat Chinam woks:
1. they arrange kidney donations for people that have not gone through the entire process and might not even have started dialysis, while people have been in the system and on dialysis for years and have been waiting for a kidney donation for a long time continue to wait with no donor. Essentially, they are saying, Matnat Chinam people skip the line over more serious cases.
2. the Ministry of Health does not like that donors through Matnat Chinam have the option of checking a box to limit their donation to Jewish recipients only. According to Ministry of Health guidelines, all donations have to be open to people of all races equally.
source: Kipa

I get the issue of equality among the potential recipients and not discriminating in donations, but someone who is a willing live donor should also have some say to whom he or she wants to donate, if they have such a preference. You cannot force people who are voluntarily donating an organ to donate it to whom you want to give it to, if they don't want to give it to that person. If you say people cannot donate unless they give an open donation to whomever ends up receiving it, it seems likely that the number of willing donors will suddenly drop drastically.

Regarding the line and how Matnat Chinam recipients basically jump the line, that makes sense to me. Perhaps all those with more serious kidney conditions that are closer to the head of the line should register with Matnat Chinam to be recipients and maybe they'll get kidneys faster than through the Ministry of Health. Or maybe the Ministry of Health needs to figure out how to improve their system of kidney donation so that more potential donors will sign up and donate through them and not need to go through private organizations like Matnat Chinam.

Israel Hayom has a report about the state of live kidney donation (altruistic) in Israel. The numbers are supplied by the organization "Matnat Chayyim" led by Rabbi Yeshayahu Haber. Matnat Chayyim's work is encouraging kidney donations. They began concentrating on the Haredi communities, eventually moving to the Dati Leumi communities and have recently started working among secular communities as well.

Based on the numbers, the two cities tied for first place in kidney donation are Bet Shemesh and Jerusalem, with 21 donations (each) between the years 2014 and 2016. Bnei Braq is 3rdplace with 14 donations, followed by Modiin Ilit with 11 and the Beitar with 8.

The bottom of the list is shored up by cities such as Tel Aviv, Rishon Letzion, Eilat and Kfar Saba with 1 donation coming from each. Haber explains that it is understandable even though these are big cities the organization only just started working in them.

There are also many smaller communities - yishuvim in different areas, that relative to their populations have a high rate of donation, even though the numbers are smaller than in the bgger cities. This includes yishuvim such as Karnei Shomron (5), Yitzhar (6), Eli (5)..

kol hakavod to all the donors, wherever they come from, but it is nice to see Bet Shemesh at the top of a good list...

****sadly, Benjy passed away from his condition. Baruch Dayan HaEmes

-------

Benjy Hockley, a 34 year old immigrant from England, has cystic fibrosis and is finally turning to the public for help, as his situation gets critical.

He is in desperate need of a lung.

Please consider signing a halachic organ donor card in general  - consult with your rabbi and family about it, but at least consider it, but if you are in any position to assist the Hockleys in their search for a lung right now, it has gotten urgent.

If you have a lead or know someone who might be able to donate, contact me offline (israeli.jew at gmail dot com) and I will put you in touch with the relevant person.

Even if you don't have a lung to donate, or know someone who does, you can keep Benjy in your thoughts and prayers. His Jewish name is Binyamin Yitzchak Yosef Leib ben Faiga.

See this Ynet article and Modiin Info for more information




Tizku lMitzvos

Refuah Shleima!

Bet Shemesh makes some good press!

Despite the politics and the fighting, Bet Shemesh has a great community and great people living within.

The newspaper today ran an article about four individuals from the Nofei Aviv neighborhood of Bet Shemesh that have recently donated kidneys to unknown recipients.

I am proud to say I know at least 3 out of the four donors (the fourth is not named).

There probably are no actual statistics on this, but the article suggests Bet Shemesh would lead the stats of altruistic organ donations if there were..

The rabbinical council of the Rabbanut yesterday came to a few interesting decisions. While I have liked Rabbi Lau all along, I think that Rabbi Dovid Lau was actually the right man for the job of Chief Rabbi - because he was supported by the Haredi parties for the position, and he was even portrayed, somewhat, as the [somewhat] Haredi candidate, he seems to be able to make decisions that would probably get anybody else, who had come from the Zionist camp, tarred and feathered (at least by the Haredi MKs, activists, and media).

The latest decisions include topics such as marriage, shmitta and organ donation.

1. Marriage: the council decided to give community rabbis the authorization to officiate at weddings, despite not yet having passed the special certification exams to do so.
Chief Rabbi Lau says the process for certification takes too long and many good rabbis are waiting for their approval - this will make religious services more accessible to the public, by freeing up many good rabbis to be available for this service.

2. Shmitta: while until now the Rabbanut was taking the approach of offering farmers 3 options for the coming year which will be shmitta, they have now decided to offer a fourth options:
   1. completely resting the field - no work at all
   2. distributing produce to the public via the Otzar Beis Din method
   3. Rav Kook's solution of halachic hetter mechira, while being careful to not violate the four forbidden activities of working the land.
    4. and now the fourth method is the newly developed and approved method of "matza menutak" - detached plantations. Basically this method employs the planting within greenhouses, but not directly in the ground - they are in sealed containers or pots or on top of materials that are placed between them and the ground. This method is controversial on its own, with some saying it cannot be used to avoid shmitta issues.

3. Organ Donation: rabbis will be appointed to hospitals and will be responsible for determining the point of halachic death of a patient. This will make it easier for religious patients who want to donate organs, as most organs can only halachically be removed after the death of the patient, but that point is under dispute as to whether it is brain death or when the heart stops. Having a rabbi on board to make the practical decisions, will make the religious organ donation much more feasible..
source: Srugim

Minister of Health Yael German has come up with a plan to increase the number of organ donations in Israel. Obviously her plan, if it passes, will save many lives.

German wants to change the law of organ donation. Currently to be an organ donor one must declare that he wants to be one. Sign the ADI card, when getting a drivers license, whatever/whenever. That's not good enough, because most people don't bother doing it, and then that leads us to the situation we are in where we do not have enough organs donated to save the lives that can be saved. German's changes would be basically to make the default that everyone is automatically a donor, and someone who does not want to be one must declare so.

Basically the state, if German's changes are passed into law, would be declaring ownership of our bodies, some sort of socialist or communist system of everything belonging to the State - it is basically organ harvesting from the unwitting. Most people live by inertia, unless they must do something out of the routine. They take the defaults, they don't shake things up, and often they do not even realize they have an option and/or if the default is good or bad for them. She is counting on people's laziness and lack of information to take their organs.

I am all in favor of increasing organ donation (in a halachic manner, of course) - create benefits for people who donate, go on massive campaigns to increase awareness of the need, and do whatever else can be done. Taking advantage of people's laziness/ignorance/awareness is not the right way to do this. I is, in my opinion, immoral.

The good thing is that to get such a law change passed would be very difficult, considering all the opposition it will engender, both from the religious parties and lobbies, as well as from the people who want less government intrusion into our lives, etc...

Once someone passes away, if the State is saying it has rights to the body, perhaps this means the State is declaring ownership of all dead bodies. That would mean it is the State who should be paying the arnona tax for burial plots considered by the Finance Ministry for implementation in cemeteries....