Over 50 yeshivos have joined in the battle to save a life by joining the Ezer Mizion Registry. The bachurim (students)themselves enthusiastically cooperate. Tremendous excitement is felt in the yeshiva when Ezer Mizion’s staff comes. Everyone feels connected to the great merit of saving lives. At the Torah B’tifartah Yeshiva, for example, the bachurim rallied to the cause in an exceptional way: They brought letters for gedolei Yisrael (religious leaders) about the virtue of saving a Jewish life, and they printed “chaburos” (treatises) on the topic, so as to persuade everyone to join.
In another yeshiva, the bachurim, on their own initiative, put together orderly lists of names and went from one to the next to check that everyone indeed had joined and that no one had missed out on this zechus (merit) . It was moving to see the boys who took on this job without our asking. They thoroughly understood that this is a campaign to save lives and that everyone is obligated to have a part in it, so they rallied to the cause with all their koach (strength) .”
The people from Ezer Mizion encounter this feeling of an obligating privilege in each and every yeshiva. So, for example, in the yeshiva of Hagaon Hagadol Rav Naftali Kaplan shlita, Nesiv Hadaas, a bochur there said that he’s a little nervous, but when they told him that he’s not obligated to donate, he immediately protested: “Not obligated? NOT OBLIGATED? I sure am obligated! There’s an obligation to save a life and the moment I give a sample and am found to be a match — the life of this patient depends on me and I’m obligated to donate to him!” The bachur (student) may have been a little nervous, but he also gave a sample. After all, he’s obligated…
You can learn a little bit about the tremendous zechut there is in donating stem cells from the letter of one of the donors, an avreich (married student) from Netanya, a Sanzer chassid.
When Rabbi Chollak entered the holy chambers of the Sanzer Rebbe shlita, in order to propose to him the campaign of collecting samples in yeshivas, the Rebbe was very happy to hear about the important project, and he displayed great signs of affection toward Rav Chollak. He even instructed his son, the Rosh Yeshiva (head of the Yeshiva) of Sanz, to write a letter and publicize a call to the bachurim to join the campaign.
A while later, one of the bachurim, who had gotten married in the interim, was found to be a match for a donation.
A few days after his donation, the recipient asked to pass on, via Ezer Mizion, an emotional letter in which he thanks the donor who saved his life. Of course, the letter was sent anonymously, since, at this stage, the donor and recipient are legally not allowed to know each other’s identity. The avreich, who read the letter, sent a return letter via Ezer Mizion. In his moving letter, he expresses his thanks for the tremendous zechus he had to save a life and he explained that he doesn’t deserve any ‘thank you’ for doing so. ‘I thank Hakadosh Baruch Hu (G-d) for giving me the privilege to do this,’ he wrote. We at Ezer Mizion read both letters with tears of pride in our bachurim who are truly living the life of Torah that they learn.
