Rabbi Jaech's Blog

When I was an undergraduate (a long, long time ago), one day I walked to the campus library and noticed that tables had been set up for a blood drive. The signs encouraging people to donate blood read: “Give the gift of life.”

To be honest, it was not the inspiring suggestion to “give the gift of life” that caught my attention.  I was drawn to the table set up for blood donors to sit down and recover after their donation. At that table were packages and packages of Lorna Doone shortbread cookies.

I had never given blood before, but the cookies made me consider doing so. My student budget for groceries was meager and I could never afford to buy Lorna Doone cookies in the supermarket.

So I made my first blood donation. It did not hurt that much, and I felt fine afterwards, especially after I ate a few cookies!

I continued to give blood regularly as a college student – again, motivated largely by the cookies. And, on occasion, I donated after I graduated when the opportunity presented itself.

It was not until I moved here and joined Temple Israel nearly thirty years ago that I began to donate regularly. At that time, Rosalind Morrissey, may her memory be a blessing, inspired me to donate blood. Rosalind founded a long-running blood drive in the Croton community, a blood drive she organized after her son Evan lost his battle with cancer.

During his cancer treatment, Evan needed blood transfusions.  After Evan died, Rosalind organized the Croton Community blood drive here. Many members of Temple Israel were active volunteers in these blood drives over the decades they took place.

I began giving blood again regularly because I wanted to support Rosalind. I would donate, eat my Lorna Doones, and take the sticker given to donors, pasting it on my jacket as I walked out the door. The stickers resembled a red drop of blood, imprinted with the message “I saved a life today.”

Yet the message that giving blood is a life-saving act did not really sink in until recently.

Some in our community know, firsthand, how the loss of blood threatens life. Some have witnessed the slow drip of blood flow from the container of blood donated by strangers into the veins of your loved one – or into your own veins.  Some have seen how a stranger’s blood can restore color to the cheeks and energy to the body.

There is nothing like witnessing this to drive the point home that blood donors truly do give the gift of life.

These days it is easy to feel powerless in the face of all the “big problems” in the world. There are so many lives that need to be saved – and we, as individuals, can seem so small. Yet we have great power flowing through our veins.

The early rabbis derive an important teaching from the idea that the story of humanity begins with the story of a single human being.

The early rabbis taught: 

“Therefore, Adam was created singly, to teach us that whoever destroys a single life is considered by Scripture to have destroyed the whole world, and whoever saves a single life is considered by Scripture to have saved the whole world. (Sanhedrin 4:6)

“Whoever saves a single life saves the whole world.”

 For those who are healthy and able to donate, giving blood is an easy way to save the life of someone who desperately needs blood.

We should not expect a reward for doing a mitzvah. But there is no greater feeling than to know that your donation can bring renewed life to someone.  And after your donation, the Lorna Doone cookies will make you feel even better!

To schedule a blood donation, please visit the New York Blood Center website at:  https://www.nybc.org