Doctor-assisted suicide, live organ donations, the community’s responsibility to those suffering from mental illness. There’s a Jewish perspective – if not multiple Jewish perspectives – on all these profound issues, and once a month for the past 10 years, Rabbi Mordechai Torczyner has been delivering lectures and hosting interactive discussions with doctors on these subjects and others.
His role in the continuing education of medical practitioners has been recognized by the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), which will present him with its Community Service Award on Nov. 3.
“The OMA’s Community Service Award is awarded to non-physician members of a community for significant contribution to the health and welfare of the people of that community. Criteria for determining award winners include length of involvement, roles fulfilled in local organizations and personal achievements,” said Sohail Gandhi, the president of the OMA.
“Rabbi Torczyner is being recognized this year … for his significant contributions in the field of medical ethics. He has for many years delivered two annual series of University of Toronto-accredited Jewish medical ethics lectures. These lectures are attended by a large and very dedicated following of physicians and others, including many leading academic and community-based medical professionals.”
Rabbi Torczyner, who also serves as rosh beit midrash of Toronto’s Yeshiva University Torah miTzion Beit Midrash Zichron Dov, told The CJN that, “I was kind of shocked when I heard of the honour.… I think of what we do as an important service, largely within the Jewish community, even though non-Jews come, as well. It’s kind of a parochial program. I didn’t think that others were paying attention to it.”
Rabbi Torczyner’s colleagues at Beit Midrash Zichron Dov were quick to praise him.
“We are thrilled that Rabbi Torczyner was chosen as recipient,” said a spokesperson for Beit Midrash Zichron Dov. “We feel this is an honour for the Jewish community and particularly Jewish adult education.”
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Rabbi Seth Grauer, rosh yeshivah for Bnei Akiva Schools, said that, “I personally believe that this recognition by the OMA is an important milestone for the Jewish community, highlighting how far we have come in our knowledge of medical ethics and halakhah (Jewish law).”
When Rabbi Torczyner started the medically themed lectures after he arrived in Toronto more than 10 years ago, they were held on a very small scale.
“I was a synagogue rabbi in Pennsylvania and we had two regional hospitals in the community with Jewish doctors. I gave classes to them on medical ethics,” he recalled.
Rabbi Torczyner found there was a similar interest in that sort of continuing education program in Toronto. He started by offering lectures in private homes to groups of five or six doctors. The focus was by and large on pragmatic matters, issues that could arise in a doctor’s daily practice.
“We tried to deal with very practical issues, like conferences on Shabbat, or taking care of prescriptions on Shabbat,” he said.
Other topics addressed were issues like operating a practice in the Jewish community and the confidentiality issues that could arise, or being asked by patients to be put to the head of the line.
There were also deeper philosophical matters, such as the “double effect,” where a beneficial treatment, like chemotherapy, can also have deleterious effects, such as during pregnancy.
There is a wealth of rabbinic discussion and precedents on these topics, and preparing for the lectures entails lots and lots of reading, Rabbi Torczyner said.
His lectures have grown in popularity from the days when only a handful would gather in a private home.
They are now held on a monthly basis, either on Sunday mornings at the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto Congregation, or Monday evenings at the Shaarei Shomayim Synagogue. Attendance runs around 40-50 people for the morning programs, and even higher in the evenings.
“We have had crowds of 70-75” at some lectures, and that includes non-Jews and lay people who are interested in the topics, he said.
Leading the sessions can be challenging. On numerous occasions, doctors have raised issues that he was unprepared for. At times, he’s had to put off answering the question while he consults with rabbinic authorities, which he said makes it an educational experience for him, as well.