Dear Rabbi,

November 15, 2006 is the yarzeit of Rabbi Alexander Schindler, an inspiration to all those whose lives he touched as an innovator, leader, humanitarian, and President of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations for over 23 years.  While we deeply miss and fondly remember Rabbi Schindler, who passed away six years ago, at the same time we celebrate a life renewed … that of Alexander Jack, the Rabbi’s grandson and namesake.

On May 28, 2005, at the age of 5½ months, “Baby Jax” as he is called, received a life-saving liver from a deceased organ donor.  Without that miracle, a Gift of Life, Jax’s parents, Jonathan and Heather, know only too well that their baby boy’s life hung in the balance and the outcome might have been too grim to contemplate.

Because of the generosity of his donor, Don Blair, and his parents Ken and Ellen Blair who consented to donation, Baby Jax is alive today. Baby Jax was one of the fortunate ones.

Across the United States, more than 93,000 patients are waiting for organ transplants.  Each day, an average of 17 people die because of the organ shortage, and a new name is added to the waiting list every 13 minutes.

This November, coinciding with Rabbi Schindler’s yarzeit, the nation pauses to celebrate National Donor Sabbath, an annual observance when religious leaders of all faiths are asked to urge their congregations to become organ donors.  Won’t you please help this November?  You can:

• Encourage donation in sermons
• Make New York State Organ and Tissue Donor Registry brochures and cards available
• Honor donor families and transplant recipients
• Conduct an educational seminar
• Display a poster on your bulletin board
• Include an article in your newsletter and on your Web site
• Urge congregants to learn more about donation on the Web site donatelifeny.org
 

Most important, and very close to home, you can share the miraculous story of transplant recipient Baby Jax.  His second chance at life at so young an age was only made possible because of the love and generosity of the donor and his family.

In this section, we include some insights on Parashat Chayai Sarah and Organ Donation which were collected by Rabbi Judith Schindler, a daughter of the late Rabbi Alexander Schindler.  We hope that you will utilize some or all of her insights as a means of framing a sermon during November.

Contrary to myth, all Jewish denominations encourage organ and tissue donation.  The Reform Movement has been advocating organ donation for nearly forty years.  A 1968 Central Conference of American Rabbis responsum entitled “Surgical Transplants” and written by Rabbi Solomon Freehof, stated that the use of organs and tissues to heal or save life is in keeping with the dictates of Jewish tradition and a positive act of holiness.

In 1996, the Union for Reform Judaism initiated the “Matan Chaim: Gift of Life” program to promote organ donation.

In the words of the late Rabbi Schindler, “By gathering our heartaches into a house of worship, we find something transformative happening – our sorrows become windows of compassion.  Paths through the wilderness, hewed and marked by past generations, give us our bearings.  Patterns of meaning and significance emerge.  We are moved from self-pity to love.  Our individual heartbeats merge with the pulse of all humankind.”

To demonstrate your support and participation in National Donor Sabbath, please contact Karen Cummings at the New York Organ Donor Network at 646-291-4454.  Or e-mail her at kcumming@donatelifeny.org.

Thank you so much.

Insights on Parashat Chayai Sarah and Organ Donation
Collected by Rabbi Judith Schindler

The following document provides texts from the weekly Torah portion and thoughts addressing some of the major apprehensions of Reform Jews surrounding organ donation. These texts highlight organ donation as an act of generosity that reflects the highest ideals of Jewish life: generosity, the saving of lives, and the honoring of those who have died.

 
• Why is this portion called "Chayei Sarah - Sarah's life,” when it begins with her death? The Sages’ statement in Tractate Taanit on Jacob’s death teaches us:  “Yaakov, our patriarch did not die.”  Similarly, as we see in this parashah, Sarah did not die as her memory and the impact of her deeds remain alive even today.    Through organ donation, we do not die -- our righteous deed of saving the life of another enables us to live on.



• Just as Abraham honors Sarah through the holy act of burial following her death, organ donation is a holy act through which we can honor our loved ones.  While many Jews have misconceptions about organ donation viewing it as a desecration of our bodies after death, organ donation is considered a holy act and supported by the four major streams of Judaism.  It is viewed as a mitzvah – the only mitzvah we can do when our breath ceases. In becoming donors, we not only save the lives of those who are sick, but we keep out of harm’s way the family members who may undergo serious surgeries as “live donors” of organs so that they can save those they love. 



• The Talmud (Berachot 18a) teaches that "The righteous in their death are called living.”  This is one of the reasons our portion is called “the life of Sarah,” even though it opens with her death.  For the traditional Jewish community, this notion of living after death reflects a messianic promise of resurrection.  Some liberal Jews, in considering organ donation, worry that if bodily resurrection exists, our missing organs will prevent us from returning. While most Reform Jews do not believe in a physical resurrection, if there is to be such a thing, then our modern rabbis teach that God, who created the world from nothing, can surely recreate those organs which we have given to save others. 



• Rashi tells us that all of Sarah’s years were good because no matter what occurred, she looked upon them as good.  Like Sarah, we all want our years to be good, to have length of days filled with health and meaning.  Yet if having length of life is not part of God’s plan for us, then with our deaths, through donating our organs, we can give life to others and turn tragedy into a blessing and make every day, even our last, good.



• Our text tells that after Sarah’s death, Abraham stood up from before his dead.  Minhat Ani (a Chasidic commentator) teaches that generally, when a person suffers a great misfortune, he becomes bent over under the burden he is carrying, falls from the spiritual level he had attained and is often overcome with despair. But with Abraham, we are told that he “stood up from before his dead” – after Sarah’s death, he stood up fully, remaining unbowed.  Likewise, the act of donating our loved one’s organs can help to lighten the tremendous burden and depths of our grief.