Rabbis on HODS

Great new issue of Jewish Action. My copy actually got destroyed in an unfortunate breakfast table incident that is best left undescribed. But wouldn't you know it? Someone brought about a dozen copies to shul to give out that were leftover from his organization. Hasdei Hashem!

Interesting letter from my old friend R. Mordechai Torczyner:

An ad placed in the most recent edition of Jewish Action by the Halachic Organ Donor Society listed me among the rabbis who hold its organ donor card. I do indeed carry version 2 of the HODS card, but when ordering the card I had stipulated that my name not be used for any publicity materials. (The difference between the versions concerns the halachic definition of death.)

I made this request of HODS because I am disturbed by the idea of having rank-and-file rabbanim inveigh publicly on halachic issues of the greatest magnitude. Yoreh yoreh semichah certifies that a rabbi has achieved a certain maturity in his learning and in his ability to teach, but it does not confer posek status on the bearer, certainly not for matters of life and death.

Rabbi Mordechai Torczyner
Allentown, Pennsylvania

Certainly an admirable position and I had actually wondered about his being in the ad.

(I'm sure that HODS just made an innocent mistake.)