Last week, Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburg and Dr. Abed Halaila held a joint press conference that was unexpected and very moving.

A year ago, Rabbi Ginsburg, who is closely associated with Chabad and with many of the “hilltop” communities, underwent a kidney transplant at Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital. Other medical centers had declined to operate on him due to his advanced age, but Dr. Halaila, head of Hadassah Ein Kerem’s transplant unit, reviewed the file of the 80-year-old rabbi and agreed.

“Age is only a number,” he explained this week. “A kidney transplant can be beneficial even at an older age, enabling the patient to continue giving.”

The donor was there through the Matnat Chaim organization. Senior Hadassah leadership attended as well, headed by Prof. Yoram Weiss. With everyone present, the rabbi delivered a brief teaching on the meaning of kidneys in Jewish thought. Dr. Halaila sat beside him, and when the rabbi called him a “righteous gentile,” he patted his hand. Dr. Halaila smiled and then shared what had impressed him most.

“I asked to check what the rabbi has done since the transplant,” he said. “Well, every Shabbat, a booklet of his is published in Hebrew — 13,000 copies, as well as an English edition read by thousands here in Israel and around the world. It’s simply incredible. This year he published eleven books of Torah scholarship and three children’s books, and he’s planning another six in the coming year.” He added: “The rabbi has a book about the ‘Fourth Revolution.’ I urge you to study this topic. It’s very important, and I personally believe in it.”

“The Fourth Revolution” is a concept Rabbi Ginsburg has been advancing in recent years: expanding Torah and Jewish learning to non-Jews as well. In his view, Judaism is meant to illuminate the world, and the time has come for that message to break outward. Only when the Jewish people inspire respect, he argues, can genuine peace take root.

At the gathering marking one year since the successful transplant, it felt as though one could already see the first shoots of that idea beginning to emerge.

Four Levels of Relating

According to Kabbalistic teachings, there are four levels in creation: mineral, vegetable, animal and human. In one of our Mitchadshot workshops, Rabbi Michi Yosefi applied these four categories to the dynamics in a marriage:

Mineral (inanimate): This is the lowest level. From the outside, everything seems fine. There are no arguments, no shouting. But there is also no vitality. Nothing truly moves. No one speaks about what hurts, no one shares what’s going on inside them, and each spouse remains emotionally alone.

Vegetable (growing): Something is starting to stir. There is emotion, but it isn’t expressed clearly or understood. For example, one partner storms out and slams the door. It’s communication, but in a raw, wordless form like a baby crying. Since nothing is explained, the other partner is forced to ask: “What’s bothering you? What are you upset about?” The silence has been broken, but the relationship is still draining and immature.

Animal (living): There is verbal communication, but it tends to come out as pressure, complaints, or accusations rather than honest expressions of need. This is more developed than mineral or vegetable but still far from healthy. For example: “Why didn’t you buy me a birthday present?” The words are spoken, but the underlying goal is often to provoke guilt or defensiveness, not closeness.

Human (speaking): This is the ideal mode. I speak openly and take responsibility for what I feel. I can share what’s good and what’s difficult, what I need, what I’m afraid of, and what I hope for without attacking. Even if my spouse isn’t there yet, even if they’re still functioning on a lower level, I choose to communicate at a healthy “frequency,” with the hope that the relationship can rise with me.

Rabbi Yosefi added that the first step is identifying how you are operating. From there, the work is to move, together, toward a more “speaking” relationship.

Five Points to Ponder About Sefer Shemot

1. Mazal tov. Last week we completed the book of Bereishit, and now we begin Shemot, the second of the five Chumashim. Shemot is often called “the book of exile and redemption,” as it traces our descent into Egyptian bondage and our journey from slavery to freedom.
2. This week we meet Moshe Rabbeinu. The greatest leader in Jewish history steps onto the world stage with what he describes as a “heavy mouth, a heavy tongue and uncircumcised lips.” In other words: leadership is not measured by eloquence, but by character.
3. After the tension and rivalry between brothers that runs through Bereshit, Shemot introduces three siblings who will guide the people through the wilderness for forty years: Moshe and Aharon, and their sister Miriam. It is a different model of leadership, rooted in harmony, partnership, and shared responsibility. It reminds us that family can work together with love and purpose.
4. The women in this week’s portion also stand at the center of the story. The Hebrew midwives defy Pharaoh’s decree and protect Jewish infants. Yocheved hides her newborn son. Miriam watches over him as he floats in his basket on the Nile. Our sages conclude: “In the merit of righteous women, the Jewish people were redeemed from Egypt.” It is a lasting testimony to the central role of women in the life and destiny of our nation.
5. Shemot is not only history. It describes the stages of liberation that each of us must go through, as individuals and as a people, even today. Every person has an “Egypt,” some form of inner bondage, fear, habit, or limitation that holds them back. In Netivot Shalom it states: “All the missions for which a human being descends into this world are meant to take him out of Egypt.” Leaving Egypt is a lifelong mission, faced anew each day.