Renewal is an amazing organization that pairs kidney donors with recipients who need transplants, while supporting the entire process.
The following message was received by the organization:
I just met an unaffiliated Jewish man who received a kidney donation from a rabbi who lives in Passaic, New Jersey. The recipient told me “I started eating only Kosher food because it would not be fair to the kidney which kept kosher its entire life to now be sustained from Treif food.”
My reaction to this was, wow! We see from this how far one’s appreciation to one who gave him a lifeline goes. Because he now accepted this Kosher diet he will never forget his indebtedness towards the donor.
The Talmud poses the following philosophical question. Is it better for one to be born and go through the spiritual challenges presented to him throughout his life – where perhaps he will succeed and overcome temptations, or perhaps he will fail. Or would one be better off not to be born in the first place?
The Talmud tells us that this debate was between the academies of Bais Hillel and Bais Shamai, and it lasted for two and half years. Finally, the conclusion followed the majority opinion of Bais Hillel; that it would have been better for one not to have been born. However, now that one was in fact born, he should do his utmost to follow the way that G-d has set before him through the Torah and continually examine his actions so that he will become an upstanding person.
We all are faced with the vicissitudes of life which create opportunities for us to make choices. At times we make good ones and at times bad ones. This is a constant internal struggle for us.
We were created with two components, our physical body, and we have also been infused with a spiritual Neshama/soul which is a component of G-d Himself.
There is an immediate tension between one’s physical Guf/body which pulls a person to pursue his wants and passions, and his pure and holy Neshama/soul, which tugs him towards the spiritual.
There are times when a person, for no apparent reason, feels drawn towards G-d; he performs a Mitzvah, comes closer to Torah, or repents from his wayward ways.
This doesn’t just come out of the blue; it is a result of one’s soul flickering and arousing him to attach himself more deeply to spirituality.
Let’s get back to the kidney recipient who decided to treat his new kidney in the way it was pampered in its previous body which sustained it with a Kosher diet.
We can debate if it was his Neshama stirring within him and telling him to use the new kidney as an excuse to follow the dictates of the Torah for him to eat food that befits a member of G-d’s Sanctified nation. Or, was it the physical kidney of the donor which always benefited from a Kosher diet that impressed the recipient to treat it like when it was in its previous home/body.
Unlike when the academies of Beis Hillel and Bais Shamai debated 2500 years ago and they were able to reach a conclusion to their debate, we cannot make a resolute decision as to what truly stirred the recipient to go Kosher.
One thing is for sure, this donor is following Bais Hillel’s directive. Yes, it would have been better for us not to have been created. However, says Hillel, now that we are created – we are to evaluate and assess our actions and, in that way, we can become the best we can be!