[Avodah] taker but not giver?

[Meir Shinnar]

> 
> Joel Rich wrote on 1/11/2023 Avoda 41:4
> I heard an interesting comment from a Rabbi during a recent shiur. He
> stated that he had been contacted by an international bone marrow registry
> telling him that he was a partial match and to come down for further
> testing. He consulted with a number of poskim and they told him he was not
> required to get tested. He told one posek that if the recipient was an frum
> Jew, that he would do it. The posek told him, very good. The general
> response from the poskim was based on the fact that since the majority of
> likely recipients were not Jewish, he didn?t have to do it. (I?m guessing
> due to lo taamod only being for Jews)
> 
> I suppose we have a similar ethical question with heart transplants ? if we
> won?t donate, but will take. It seems to me in this case there?s an
> additional halachic issue. It appears to me that if there?s a partial
> match, you can?t look at the general population of registrants and ask
> what?s the likelihood the person is Jewish, since the partial match gives
> us some further information and we would have to use Bayesian statistics to
> determine whether in fact the assumption that the majority of likely
> matches were not Jewish should be updated for the additional information
> that there is a partial match. Any thoughts?

This issue keeps coming up in multiple different forms (eg, doctors and ambulances and non Jews on shabbat, heart transplants,

The gaon Rav Yechiel Weinberg zt”l (the Seride Ash), in a letter to his child hood friend, bemoaned the fact that it used to be that everyone accepted the Meiri’s view - that the halachot in the gmara about relations to non Jews are to the immoral idolaters of their time, and not to the current non Jews .  Now, however, some people are whispering that we don’t follow the Meiri, and some are even saying it loudly.

The sources Joel Rich cites are clearly amongst those the Seride Ash bemoaned.

Ignoring for a moment moral issues, but on practical consequences;  From a practical viewpoint, in Bergen County, in early 2000s, the local volunteer ambulance corps, which had (and has) a large Orthodox presence, asked them to set up protocols to deal with shabbat calls - which were to the entire community - both Jews and non Jews.Some “rabbanim” objected.  They called in Rav Moshe Tendler for advice, who told them Rav Moshe’s position.   In Russia, if word got out a Jew did not treat non Jews on shabbat, the entire Jewish community of that town would be wiped out.  Therefore, heter of darche shalom clearly applies

Lest we think this only applies to Russia, one of the issues driving the Crown heights pogrom was the (false) rumor that Hatzoloh left the black children to die because they were black (and shabbat was coming).   This is still an issue.  I used to work in the field of heart transplants, and there is no question that the refusal of Orthodox Jews to donate creates antisemitism- and affects their priority.

However, what is described is far far worse than these examples.  At least in those cases, there was a halachic prohibition.  Here there is no halachic prohibition - just that the “rabbinic” and “poskim” involved are willing to ignore the Halacha of mipne darkhe shalom - that some things are done because its ways are ways of peace which would seem to apply - and just don’t view the nonJews as fully human - worthy of our care.  (Note that ben Azzam holds that the most important verse in the torah - more than ve’ahavata lere’achca camocha - love your neighbor as yourself- is ze Sefer toldot Adam - this is the book of generations of man- that we are all human.

That this should happen so soon after the Shoah is proof of the moral degeneration of the “rabbanim” and “poskim” involved - and of the community that will follow them.
We need to publicly speak out against this.  This is not merely profoundly (and gut wrenchingly) immoral, but a hillul Shem shamayimm befarhesya - public desecration of god’s name.

For those that this argument is not sufficient, I would add that this also endangers all Orthodoxy in America (as in the ambulance discussion above) - and the blatant racism (and this is clearly racism) of those involved - and the communal tolerance of such racism - is one factor driving many of our community away from Orthodoxy.

I would ask Joel, as a public service and to protect the Jewish community from its predators ( and these “rabbinic” and “poskim” should be viewed as predators on the community), to publicize the “rabbis” and “poskim" involved - so we know who to avoid.  Such publicity would be true lo ta’amod al dam re-echa - not standing by allowing someone to die


Meir Shinnar