Last week, Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburg and Dr. Abed Halaila held an unexpected and moving joint press conference.
A year ago, Ginsburg, who is closely associated with Chabad and with many of the “hilltop” communities, underwent a kidney transplant at Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital.
Other medical centers had declined to operate on him due to his advanced age. Still, Halaila, head of Hadassah Ein Kerem’s transplant unit, reviewed the file of the 80-year-old rabbi and agreed to perform the transplant.
“Age is only a number,” Halaila explained this week. “A kidney transplant can be beneficial even at an older age, enabling the patient to continue giving.”
The donor was there through the Matnat Chaim organization. Senior Hadassah leadership also attended, led by Prof. Yoram Weiss.
With everyone present, the rabbi delivered a brief teaching on the meaning of kidneys in Jewish thought. Halaila sat beside him, and when the rabbi called him a “righteous gentile,” he patted his hand.
Halaila smiled, then shared what impressed him most.
“I asked to check what the rabbi has done since the transplant,” the doctor said. “Well, every Shabbat, a booklet of his is published in Hebrew, 13,000 copies, as well as an English edition, read by thousands here in Israel and around the world. It’s simply incredible. This year he published eleven books of Torah scholarship and three children’s books, and he’s planning another six in the coming year.”
“The rabbi has a book about the ‘Fourth Revolution.’ I urge you to study this topic. It’s very important, and I personally believe in it.”
“The Fourth Revolution” is a concept Ginsburg has been advancing in recent years: expanding Torah and Jewish learning to non-Jews. In his view, Judaism is meant to illuminate the world, and the time has come for that message to reach beyond its boundaries. Only when the Jewish people inspire respect, he argues, can genuine peace take root.
At the gathering marking one year since the successful transplant, it seemed as though one could already see the first shoots of that idea emerging.
Five points to ponder about Sefer Shemot
Mazal tov. Last week, we completed the book of Bereshit (Genesis), and now we begin Shemot (Exodus), the second of the five Chumashim. Shemot is often called “The Book of Exile and Redemption,” as it traces our descent into Egyptian bondage and our journey from slavery to freedom.
This week, we meet Moses. The greatest leader in Jewish history steps onto the world stage with what he calls a “heavy mouth, a heavy tongue and uncircumcised lips.” In other words, leadership is not measured by eloquence, but by character.
After the tension and rivalry between brothers that runs through the book of Bereshit, Shemot introduces three siblings who will guide the people through the wilderness for forty years: Moses and Aaron, and their sister Miriam.
It is a different model of leadership, rooted in harmony, partnership, and shared responsibility. It reminds us that family can work together with love and purpose.
The women in this week’s portion also stand at the center of the story. The Hebrew midwives defy Pharaoh’s decree and protect Jewish infants. Yocheved hides her newborn son.
Miriam watches over him as he floats in his basket on the Nile. Our sages conclude: “In the merit of righteous women, the Jewish people were redeemed from Egypt.” It is a lasting testimony to the central role of women in the life and destiny of our nation.
Shemot is not only history. It describes the stages of liberation that each of us must go through, as individuals and as a people, even today.
Every person has an “Egypt,” some form of inner bondage, fear, habit, or limitation that holds them back. Netivot Shalom states: “All the missions for which a human being descends into this world are meant to take him out of Egypt.” Leaving Egypt is a lifelong mission, faced with a new challenge each day.
Translated by Yehoshua Siskin and Janine Muller Sherr
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