Gift of Life Shabbat/Organ Doantion

     In this week's parsha Vayishlach, our matriarch Rachel was in child birth and she had hard labor. The midwife said to her at the height of her pain, "Have no fear, you're going to have another boy."  However she was in so much pain she had trouble focusing on the fact that God was answering her prayer for another boy and instead she said, "Name him Ben-Oni, child of pain or child of mourning, because he is killing me."  Then she died and she was buried on the road to Ephrot which is now the city of Bethlehem. Her husband, Jacob, said, " We won't call him Ben-Oni instead we will call him Ben-Yamin," (Benjamin) which means son of my right hand.

     I wonder how Rachel's difficult birth might have played out in a modern hospital today. God willing, her life might have been saved through an emergency C-section or another of today's revolutionary lifesaving techniques. However, had Rachel passed away, it's possible that her family might have remembered a discussion they might have had about organ donation. Or possibly they might have seen that she marked "organ donor" on her driver's license and after she passed away they might have donated her organs in order to save another person's life. In that case her body would have been treated with the utmost dignity and still could have been prepared for a Jewish burial according to our traditions without any undue delay.

     This coming Shabbat morning Seymour and Donna will be sponsoring the Kiddush in honor of their son Garren's full recovery. We will be celebrating Gift of Life Shabbat to recognize the mitzvah that Garren donated half of his liver to a very sick young man he had never met named Marco, and Garren will share his experience. If you would like to test yourself to see what you know about Jewish law regarding organ donation, you could take this quiz from the Halachic Organ Donor Society, just click  HODS quiz.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Shalom Plotkin