And this week, I love Facebook for another reason.  They have incorporated a feature that allows people to include their organ donation status in their Facebook Timeline.  What a brilliant idea!  There are 114,000 people currently awaiting organ donations, and only a small fraction of them will receive their life-saving gift.  This is a tragedy – and one that can be addressed by more people taking the simple step to becoming organ donors.

A common question people ask is: “is it okay in Judaism to donate my organs?”  The answer is, of course!  Saving a life trumps everything else in Judaism.  That said, even if it wasn’t in the traditional Jewish laws to say that organ donation is okay, who cares?!  Organ donation makes sense.  People have the power to save other people’s lives.  There’s no gray area here – it’s our human responsibility.

When I went to get my license several years ago when I moved to Cincinnati, I overheard one of the clerks asking a woman if she wanted to be an organ donor.  The woman said “no, I’m Jewish, and Jews don’t do that.”  Well, I’m a rabbi and I’m here to say, of course Jews can be organ donors!

I hope you’ll consider becoming an organ donor today, if you’re not one already – and perhaps even share it with your friends and/or family on Facebook to let them know of your decision – and maybe even others will be inspired by your choice.

I have worked as a Chaplain at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, and I have sat with many families as they have decided whether to donate their child’s organs or not.  It is a very difficult decision to make at a moment of grief, so I encourage you to think about this choice for yourself before you are in a moment of crisis – and let others know.

I don’t usually quote ancient Jewish texts, but this one is too good to pass up.

It says in the Talmud that, “whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.”  As more people sign up to be organ donors, we can save an entire world – an entire list of people who are desperately in need of a new organ to continue living.  Congrats to Facebook for encouraging this!

From the liturgy of Congregation Beth Adam

Here’s a video showing how it’s done:

Now for the shopping list:

• Saran wrap, plastic table cover, and photo-copied map of Israel
• Vanilla ice cream – or your favorite flavor
• Pretzels with salt (for the Dead Sea, salt being symbolic here)
• Mini Reese’s peanut butter cups (for Jerusalem)
• Gumdrops (for the mountains)
• M&Ms (for Mt. Masada)
• Coconut (for the north, representing snow on Mt. Hermon)
• Gummy fish (for the Mediterranean Sea)
• Graham cracker crumbs (for the desert – I guess that would be desert for dessert!)
• Green sprinkles (for the greener areas)

Enjoy!

Ignorance does not deflect nor learning protect
Against chaos and the darkness of the soul
So it is and will be
If we know but refuse to remember
If we remember but choose not to act

Powerful messages – we must not only remember, but also act.

Today is Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day.  As it approached, I remembered this photo taken by my friend Barbara when she visited me in Israel.  It shows a young soldier eating at McDonalds.  It struck me as such an ordinary moment – someone enjoying a burger and fries.  And then I noticed his gun.  Not so ordinary in my daily routine.  But I know that such weapons are necessary for Israel’s protection.

Tomorrow is Yom HaAtzmaut – Israel’s Independence Day.  A day of celebration.  May Israel enjoy a peaceful future.

First of all, thank you to all who participated in our online seder.  It was a phenomenal opportunity to share the Passover holiday with people from around the world.  I always find this to be one of our most exciting and profound events of the year.  If you missed it, you can still view the archived seder video here.

Rabbi Barr and I were featured in a segment on Face the Nation this morning about the “Internet Religion Revolution.”   You can watch the full Google+ Hangout discussion we had with Bob Schieffer and others here.

There was fabulous coverage of the online seder last night on the local news.  Here’s the story from channel 12, WKRC:

And OurJewishCommunity.org and its online seder were on the front page of the Wall Street Journal on Friday, in an article called “Matzo Ball Soup, Check.  iPad, Check.  For Passover, Jews Try Techie Seders.”

Oh, and I had a piece published on Huffington Post: “What can Elijah Learn from Santa Claus?” - don’t forget to follow Elijah on our Elijah Tracker.

We are genuinely thrilled about this news coverage – as it brings attention to our ever-growing online community, which is enhanced by the participation of all of you!

And here’s an article about the Hangout: From Megachurch to “Gigachurch”

This is the first in a series of Google+ Hangouts that Face the Nation will do, in order to bring their show more onto the Internet and expand conversation.  We’ll be live tomorrow on Face the Nation’s Google + Page at 1 PM Eastern Time, and segments of the conversation will be on Face the Nation this Sunday morning on television.

We’ll be discussing religion and the Internet.  How social media and religion enhance each other, etc.  All things I love to talk about.

Bob Schieffer will lead the conversation, and other panelists will include Jason Illian from GodTube and Rethink Books, Bobby Gruenwald from LifeChurch.Tv, and Sarah Pulliam Bailey from ChristianityToday.

Hope you’ll attend the Hangout or see us on CBS on Sunday morning!

In addition to using technology in all sorts of ways this weekend, I’ve used it to watch basketball.  Last night while watching the Xavier-Baylor game on TV (I’m bummed about Xavier’s loss, btw) I simultaneously watched the Ohio University – North Carolina game on my iPad.  #bliss

So, yup, I’m a big college basketball fan, and today I created the first ever OurJewishCommunity.org Division 1 Passover Tournament Bracket.  You can download a PDF of the Passover bracket here – and it includes explanations of the key terms mentioned on the bracket as well.  Enjoy the Passover Madness!  And the Basketball Madness!

According to their website, the “National Day of Unplugging is a respite from the relentless deluge of technology and information. With roots in Jewish tradition, this modern day of rest was developed by Reboot as a way to bring some balance to our increasingly fast-paced way of life and reclaim time to connect with family, friends, the community and ourselves. Shut down your computer. Turn off your cell phone. Stop the constant emailing, texting, Tweeting and Facebooking to take time to notice the world around you. Connect with loved ones. Nurture your health. Get outside. Find silence. Avoid commerce. Give back. Eat Together.”

While I understand their goal – to get people to connect, nurture their health, enjoy nature, find silence, etc., I can’t get my head around their method.

First of all, as one of my friends noted on Facebook last night:
“sometimes people wonder what would happen if you “unplug” for a whole day. i’ll tell you what will happen. you’ll fall very behind and will spend an entire week catching up on the one day you took off. that’s what.”

An excellent point. A day of unplugging would create much more stress in my life.

But beyond that, here are some of the meaningful ways I’ll use technology this weekend:
• Picking up my iPhone to call my grandmother who lives 900 miles away.
• Skyping with my nephews who live 600 miles away. The three year old especially loves my webcam effects!
• Playing Words With Friends with my cousin in Washington DC who I see all too infrequently, but get to keep up with through our comments during games.
• Watching a TED Talk that inspires me, via their iPad app.
• Reading the New York Times online, and likely sharing interesting links with friends.
• Participating in streaming Shabbat online at www.OurJewishCommunity.org.
• Looking at my online photo albums. As one of my Facebook friends wrote last night, “and now i am looking over all of my old albums on here and can’t believe our baby will be 4 soon… how time flies..sniffle..sniffle…”
• Engaging in interesting conversations with people on Twitter.
• Searching for a recipe to make for dinner.

Imagine all the great other ways you could use technology this weekend! Teach an older relative to use a computer. FaceTime with friends. Reconnect with college friends at a Google Hangout. Learn about and make donations to charities you support. Shop from socially conscious companies, like Repair the World. Or make a purchase on Amazon by clicking through the link on the homepage of OurJewishCommunity.org (we get a percentage or your purchase that way).  Not to be self-serving or anything, but read one of my blogs or listen to Rabbi Barr’s podcasts.

On NPR yesterday I heard a story about Trayvon Martin, the African American teenager shot in Florida. Someone being interviewed for the story said she stayed up late one night earlier this week watching the conversation about this on Twitter, which she described as the equivalent of a vigil. That’s where she found community that night. Powerful stuff.

Community is increasingly found online – why would we deny ourselves access to connections with other people by unplugging?

And, I’m assuming that the National Day of Unplugging is only referring to computers, phones, etc. because it would really be a shame if we unplugged our refrigerators and ovens (how would we share dinner with friends?) or didn’t start our cars (how would we see our extended family?), or unplugged the elliptical machines (how will I exercise if it’s raining?) etc. Technology is a pretty expansive term – and I find that technology enhances my ability to do all of the things that the National Day of Unplugging seems to be promoting: noticing the world around me, connecting with loved ones, nurturing my health (there are apps for that!), getting outside, finding silence, giving back, and eating together. I just choose to do those things by meaningfully plugging in – rather than by unplugging.