Rabbi Dr Nossel
Chief Rabbi Dr W Goldstein
Message from Chief Rabbi Dr W Goldstein
Message from Rabbi Dr Nossel
Saving the blood of your fellow
Right at the top of Jewish values are the two big ones: Talmud Torah
and Hatzolas Nefashos - Torah study and Saving lives. One of the
major points of distinction between these two magnificent
endeavours is that in Hatzalos Nefashos the less the time taken to
hesitate and contemplate, the better the service; in Talmud Torah it’s
the opposite - the more one hesitates and contemplates, the better
the result.
Let’s take the following piece of Talmud for example: “From where is
it known that one who sees his companion drowning in a river, or a
wild animal is pulling him, or robbers are confronting him that he is
obligated to save him?” Answers the Talmud: “Studying reveals: ‘Lo
ta’amod al dam re’echa - Do not stand on the blood of your fellow’
(
Vayikra 19:16)”.
If we waste no time in injecting this piece of Talmud with our fast
reactive type thinking we will surely miss the subtlety of the
Talmud’s question and the profundity of its answer!
When the Talmud asked how we know that a person is obligated to
save his companion who is in trouble, it was well aware of the verse
in Vayikra. The Talmud doesn’t play dumb! Rather, it held that this
verse has
no bearing
on the obligation to actively save one’s
companion! After all, the verse is a negative command ‘Do not stand
on your fellows blood’ - a warning not to actively devalue your
fellow’s life. Okay, so one must desist from actively trampling on
another person’s life-force; but who says one has to get involved in
saving it?
On this the Talmud answers: with sufficient study and contemplation
we should come to realise that one’s fellow’s blood is not limited to
the life-giving plasma and corpuscles that flow through his body
alone. We too carry ‘blood’. In fact WE are the blood of our
companions. And when we are passive we are
still
‘
standing on the
blood of our fellow’. In fact, the very passivity IS the standing on our
fellow’s blood!
Only when one realises that
we carry within ourselves the blood of
our fellow
does one tap into the tremendous Torah call to save one’s
companion, and begin to appreciate more fully the deeply devoted,
dedicated calling that Hatzolah does on behalf of each and every
one of us by ensuring that OUR own blood gets to where it needs to
go, and we are not left standing on it!
On behalf of the South African Jewish community, it is my honoured
responsibility to commend and give grateful thanks to Hatzolah for their
holy work in saving lives on a daily basis. All those whomake the work of
Hatzolah possible – the responders, boardmembers, funders and others
–
have the inestimable merit of fulfilling that great Torah principle of
pikuach nefesh (saving life), which is so important to Hashem that it sets
aside almost all of Hismitzvahs.
Hatzolah ensures that we can all live with the peace of mind knowing
that emergency expert medical assistance is only a few minutes away.
This reality strengthens and comforts the South African Jewish
community, for whom lifewithout Hatzolah is unthinkable.
May Hashembless Hatzolah with another year of great success in saving
lives and helping peoplewith such chesed.
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