Yom Kippur is known as the day in which God “seals” who will live and die in the following year.  Over the course of this past Yom Kippur, Israeli doctors played a strong role in assisting God with this task.  The Jerusalem Post reports that eleven different Israelis in need of organ donations were saved on Yom Kippur, itself, due to the deaths of three people whose organs were donated.  Two patients died as a result of strokes at Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center and a third died of respiratory problems and a stroke at Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Campus in Petah Tikva three hours before Yom Kippur began.

That led doctors and specialists into full working mode on the day in which most professionals in Israel rest from work.  A 32-year-old woman and a 44-year-old man received kidneys at Rambam Medical Center and a 54- year-old woman received a liver at Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem.   A 64-year-old father of five and grandfather of 18 received a heart at Sheba medical Center in Tel Hashomer. The Rabin Medical Center was by far the busiest – an 18-year-old girl with cystic fibrosis received a lung, a 64-year-old man received a lung, a 20-year-old woman with Wilson’s disease and a 64- year-old man received livers, a 42 year old woman received a kidney and pancreas went to a 42- year-old woman, and a 25-year-old man and a 58-yearold woman received kidneys.

Dr. Tamar Ashkenazi, the director of Israel Transplant, said the families of those who passed away are “examples for human and generous behavior.”

Many of the doctors and specialists involved are traditional Jews who gave up on the normal Yom Kippur rituals to spend their day saving these 14 lives in accordance with the Jewish value of saving lives as the highest of priorities.

Reported by DOV LIPMAN for United with Israel.

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