The Man with the Golden Arm Who Saved MILLIONS of Lives

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"Thank you for donating almost $7 million to our Boca Raton Synagogue community." Chaim didn't know what I was talking about when I called him to thank him. $7 million? He had made a generous contribution but only a fraction of that enormous amount. Why was I thanking him for something he didn't give?

Two months earlier, Chaim was visiting Boca Raton and made an appointment to meet with me. Before we began discussing the topic he had come to meet about, he casually asked me about the BRS campus expansion.

"Why is there no energy or excitement, where is the publicity and active campaign?" I shared that we had been successful raising a significant amount but had hit a wall and encountered some challenges that were holding us back. "Why not do a matching campaign? Raise new money from matchers who give on condition that the local and global community respond generously and match it." I reflexively shot him down and told him we don't do those kinds of things, that will never work, it isn't for us. He made one more push, explaining why he thought it was a good idea, and we quickly pivoted to his topic.

For the rest of that day, I couldn't stop thinking about what he said. Maybe we could do a matching campaign. Maybe it would create an energy, buzz, community buy-in, and excitement. Surely it was worth a try. Fast forward less than two months and not only did we meet our goal of $6 million, we thank G od, blew past it and are so grateful that people continue to give, as our work is not yet done.

Chaim had "randomly" come to Boca and "coincidentally" chose to meet when he spontaneously, "happened" to raise the idea of a matching campaign and the result was an influx of almost $7 million towards helping us build a center of Jewish life and learning from which to share Torah light and inspiration to the world. Had I not alerted Chaim, he would come upstairs after 120 and the Divine would say, yasher koach on raising almost $7 million for a community in Florida you don't even live in.

One person can make an enormous difference with the right word in the right moment and we never know which word and which moment.

The biblical Esther didn't want to go to King Achashveirosh without being invited, she hesitated to reveal her true identity and wanted to continue to keep it a secret. Esther preferred the passive route, the spectator position. But thanks to Mordechai's encouragement and power of persuasion, she mustered the courage and conviction to enter without invitation, to speak despite the risk.

The result was one woman saved an entire nation. The story of Esther and the power of Purim is the story and directive to go from passive to active, from bystander to bringing about redemption. Never underestimate your power to positively impact the world when you simply care enough to step up instead of sitting back.

In 1951, a 14-year-old Australian boy named James Harrison had major surgery to save his life, the removal of one of his lungs. He was alive, thanks in large part to a vast quantity of transfused blood he had received. He was hospitalized for three months but when he came out, he was determined to pay it forward by donating blood himself. The problem was Australia's laws required blood donors to be at least 18 years old. After turning 18, Harrison made good on his promise, and despite a fear of needles, he began to donate blood regularly.

At the time, doctors in Australia were struggling to figure out why thousands of births in the country were resulting in miscarriages, stillbirths or brain defects for the babies. In 1967, they discovered the babies were suffering from Haemolytic Disease of the Newborn, or HDN. The condition arises when a woman with an Rh negative blood type becomes pregnant with a baby who has Rh positive blood, and the incompatibility causes the mother's body to reject the fetus's red blood cells.

Doctors in Australia discovered that a very rare antibody in blood called Anti-D could be used to make a lifesaving medication that when given to mothers whose blood is at risk of developing HDN would keep the baby safe. Researchers scoured blood banks to see whose blood might contain this antibody and found a donor in New South Wales named James Harrison. Scientists asked him to participate in an experimental Anti-D program that turned out to be effective in saving these babies.

For more than 60 years, Harrison donated blood every single week and his plasma was used to make millions of Anti-D injections. Every ampoule of Anti-d ever made in Australia has a piece of James in it. Because about 17% of pregnant women in Australia require the Anti-D injections, the Australian blood service estimates that Harrison has helped 2.4 million babies in the country.

After donating 1,100 times, at 81 years old, despite wanting to continue, James Harrison was forced to retire from donating blood. James Harrison, appropriately nicknamed "The man with the golden arm," passed away last month at the age of 88, one person who without exaggeration saved millions of lives.

Don't underestimate your ability to impact others. Chaim contributed millions of dollars to our community without even knowing it. James Harrison saved millions of babies in Australia. Queen Esther, with one act of sacrifice and courage, saved the Jewish people.

To the world, you may be one person, but to one person, you may be what saves their world.

Rabbi Efrem Goldberg is the spiritual leader of the Boca Raton Synagogue.