* Translated by Janine Muller Sherr
This week it was revealed that Guinness World Records is boycotting Israel.
The organization Matnat Chaim (Gift of Life) had approached Guinness to register a milestone of 2,000 kidney donations contributed in Israel. Guinness said that it would not consider entries from Israel.
It would be easy to see this as a Guinness world record in hypocrisy. It is also striking to note the achievement that Israel wanted to register—not the world’s heaviest person, nor the man with the longest moustache, but a record in the realm of chesed, of giving, and mutual responsibility.
This refusal, which Israel’s foreign ministry is working to overturn, was communicated to Matnat Chaim precisely at the conclusion of an uplifting Shabbat. It turns out that since the beginning of the war two things have happened: No Shabbatot were held to honor those who had donated a kidney, and surprisingly, the number of donors has only increased. So now these Shabbatot have resumed. And since there has been a record number of more than 100 donors over the last two years, two additional Shabbatot were organized to honor them all.
The stories are deeply moving: evacuees from northern and southern Israel who decided to donate a kidney; fighters who left the front lines in order to donate a kidney; and so many people who were inspired to give because of the situation. The majority of donors have always come from the religious sector—in some years up to 99% of donors—but there has now been a notable rise in donations from the traditional and secular sector as well.
But what does this mean for all of us? It is worthwhile to keep in mind the following message from the souvenir magnet distributed at the conclusion of the Shabbat. It is a quote from the founder of Matnat Chaim, Rabbi Yeshayahu Haber z”l:
“Not everyone can donate a kidney, but everyone can contribute something: a generous attitude, attentiveness, a listening ear, a compliment, or a kind word.”
