A Giving Heart - Ari Abramowitz: The Land of Israel Fellowship

uh but we're talking about live Bahama right now and uh you know over the years when preparing for the fellowship I try to dig really deep and you don't always know what you're gonna get when you dig really deep deep into your soul and and I asked myself what I should have put on my heart to share that day and uh you know because the teachers the stages of Israel they teach devarsha mean that which comes from the heart goes into the heart and so as I reflect back on the years of the fellowship I'm already like seeing certain themes patterns that return again and again and again and perhaps the number one pattern that I see is bringing the light from the darkness every time I dig deep it's like that's what comes out light from Darkness how to harness it how to do it how to live it what that's all about and I think the reason for that is because shining a light from the darkness um is the national mission of the Jewish people it's wired into our Collective Soul you know the prophet Isaiah says we're a light under the nation literally that is our description but the mission it sounds fun and exciting and oh light under the Nations but it's a really painful one because the way it works you know the heavier and deeper the darkness is the more beautiful and inspiring and Illuminating is the light that we're able to elevate from within it right so so being a light means that we need to be very intimately acquainted with the darkness perhaps more than anyone else in the world and so we're going into lagba Omer and I wanted to share two examples of the most beautiful light shining forth from Zion right now and so the first is the latest chapter in the devastating story of the D family right who lost their mother Lucy and two daughters Maya and Rina who were murdered by Jihadi terrorists we've spoken about them before on the fellowship and while many of people would have been overcome with hatred the D family was focused on how they can extract and Elevate every ray of light possible from this unimaginable Darkness they're facing there's so many examples already that would make we can make the whole Fellowship to just just about that but what I want to share with you today is what the D family decided to do with Lucy's organs because you know some people are uncomfortable with the concept of cutting the body open and removing the organs but it is it's an uncomfortable thought but it's widely accepted Jewish belief that it's a great mitzvah uh when you know particularly when it saves lives and so Lucy's heart was given to a 51 year old woman named Valencia who is a healthy athletic woman who suddenly was diagnosed with would have been total heart fatal heart failure and um and it saved her life she spoke so beautifully about how she's almost felt like a different person having the heart of such a sudden decaf such a righteous woman in her chest she said you know she said when I realized I was accepting Leia D's heart I collapsed I started walking around the house gasping for breath muttering I have a heart I haven't she's realized she was she was going to die and she's not only receiving a heart but a heart of this holy holy sweet righteous woman and and here you here's a picture I tried to get the video because I saw the video but for some reason I couldn't get it but this is a picture of the uh the D's surviving their daughters listening to the mother's heart beating inside Tal's chest how beautiful is that you know how remarkable is that she's in the towel with their mother Lucy's under chest is wiping the tears off of their cheeks if they're listening to their mother their mother's heart who continues to beat on and here's a here's a picture of a man named Mordechai he's a 58 year old father of four who's been waiting for a kidney for seven years and here he is and he just was receiving Lucy's kidney and uh yeah you know aside from tall and Mordechai a 58 year old woman received her lung a 25 year old man received her liver and the 39 year old received her second kidney and her corneas are will be transplanted as well and so you know when I when I heard the horror of these vicious murders I could never have imagined such light being brought from it all but just look at it and I imagine the real light hasn't even begun to shine yet in this world we don't even see the real light and then last week a horrible accident happened here in Judea in which another family has been unimaginably devastated there's a car that's strayed from its Lane causing a head-on collision with the dominovich family from Toccoa all throughout the settlements and then throughout Israel you know we've been coming together and having special prayer sessions for this family's because it's just been so devastating you know in the family there was mother and father aliyahu and uh Ayala and they were in the front and their four children Ori seven years old Ned's six-year-old shock our four-year-old and Mayan ten monsters in the back and they're all severely wounded some critically and others moderate but baby Mayan died upon impact here's a picture of Mayan see this picture of Mayan are you able to see that Jeremy this baby Mayan who died upon impact and like the D family the diminovich family decided to harness their Darkness to bring others light by donating little Mayan's Hearts this is the same week and my aunt's heart is going to two different babies that are saving their lives here's a picture of the surgeon who is performing the transplants that's going to be saving the heart of two different babies here's what he wrote dear dominovich family I know you don't know me my name is Eton and I'm a resident in pediatric cardiac surgery last Wednesday on Israel's independence day along with the rest of the people of Israel they heard the terrible news um he was talking about the accident that took Mayan's life I never imagined that in the evening I would get a call from the transplant coordinator who would ask me to meet my young she asked me if I would agree to save his precious good and innocent heart for a future donation of valves despite the enormous burden I felt I agreed immediately and took my place that night in the operating theater to perform the surgery uh along with Alina Levy who is responsible for heart valve donations at Sheba Ayala Aliyah and members of the davidovich dominovich family I have no words to describe to you how beautiful and pure Mayan was and how perfect his heart was I want you to know that I treated him with infinite gentleness with devotion with endless diligence and I even made sure that there was no scar on that night as a new father myself Mayan was the most precious thing to me and I want you to know I a lot that the ACT you did and don't in deciding to donate Mayan's organs is Noble in a way that cannot be described in words your nobility of spirit no longer exists in our world since Wednesday night I've felt a little like a different person I feel like my Yan is with me everywhere I go and I promise you that mayon's heart will save the heart of two babies who will need my young like they need air to breathe I am sending you all wishes for a speedy recovery not again not a day goes by when I don't think of you and pray for your recovery I've been privileged in my life to have quite a number of children I feel with all my soul that the privilege of treating Mayan was the greatest privilege of my life his light is accompanying me thank you Dr etan cosmet you know they say just say the one who saves the life it's as if he or she saves an entire universe and so one of the messages I think Hashem may be sending us as we go into lagba Omer right a holiday that's all about the holiday of of bringing light from the darkness as we need to think about how we are we are bringing our light into the world divides the 49 days of the Omer into the first right it's the 33rd day lag lamid is 30 and gimlers is three so it divides the first 32 days which is the numerical equivalent of live which means heart in the last 17 days of the Omer which is the numerical equivalent of Tove which means good good heart that's what lagba Omer is all about having a good heart and seeing the good in others hearts and we too can opt to follow in their righteous footsteps and we can make the decision now that if God forbid such a situation were to unfold for us we too would want our organs to go to saving lives there's many ways to bring light from Darkness but this is the one I just wanted to talk about at this moment because many years ago when I first heard about this organization I'm going to tell you about I signed up right then to be an organ donor the organization I signed up to was called the hoods h-o-d-s which is called organ donor Society they do it according to Jewish law meaning that it would be administered according to the halacha according to Jewish law but there are many different organizations I don't know how it works outside of Israel I don't know all the details we can study them and we can talk about them later but I think that that's one thing that is been sitting on me that maybe that is just part of the direction of of bringing light from the darkness that Hashem wants to convey us because in the end of the day our body is a garment and it can cease its purpose when our souls depart from it right or we can squeeze even more life and more light out of it for others after our soul departs it the decision is ours but when I saw these two separate stories of two beautiful hearts saving two or even three precious lives in the ultimate Act of generosity imagine them I just felt like this was a story that we should talk about we're in a world filled with so much baseless hatred that ultimately the only thing that's going to bring mashiach that's going to bring Redemption is baseless love