Is it Permitted for a Kohen to Donate a Kidney? | @ Chemed Medical Conference (5786)

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in Rabbi Asher Weiss’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

So this is my last year, my last opportunity to partake in this outstanding event. And as I said yesterday night, I've been with the Chaim Medical Conference for many years and it is always a privilege and an inspiration. And uh it's always hard to say goodbye to beautiful people and to very special events. But it is inevitable and we all are headed home and I have a flight today back to Eretz Kodesh, to my kehilla, to my family and uh I hope to see you all again. And I told Dr. Friedman, I hope the next conference will be free of charge in Yerushalayim, Ir Hakodesh. So the topic we will be discussing this morning is a question that that I was actually asked some while ago and that is could a kohen volunteer to donate a kidney? And I said many times in the past for years, the Frum community was was degraded and try presented as lacking compassion. You don't donate you don't donate organs. Why don't you donate organs? And the Frum community in America and in Israel leads the entire world not by 5%, not by 10%, but by 100% in live kidney donors. And this is such a an amazing an amazing chesed. I myself I know about 150 live kidney donors and I've been with them in this journey many times in the past. And it's the greatest chesed one could even imagine. And I say to all the others, it is far easier to donate your heart when you're dead than donate a kidney while you're alive. And this is a really something we should be extremely proud of.

Jump to a moment

1. 0:04So this is my last year, my last opportunity to partake in this outstanding event. And…
2. 3:25we puncture his ear on the doorpost. And the Gemara says, Ein eved kohen nirtza mipnei…
3. 6:33himself to tum'as meis in order at a later stage to donate a kidney? So there's…
4. 10:07and I think it's a such a sensible argument. I think one of the sheerum I…
5. 13:19The number in America probably is far, far, far greater. But 50 people that we're losing…
6. 16:53donation and I spoke to a wonderful person here in by the conference and he is…
7. 20:04And that abbonim told me, "Right now we have enough volunteers, but the burnout rate for…
8. 23:18and see to it that that decree does not affect Jewish lives. We don't know how…
9. 27:01identical. The Rosh says, "If we will use the services of a non-Jew, sometime in the…
10. 30:12steady basis in order that in the future we will have a hot solar. So the…

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