Eleven years of anticipation and disappointment had elapsed since the birth of their firstborn son, Itai. Eleven years of waiting for Rabbi Tzion Cohen, the chief rabbi of Or Yehuda, and his wife. Waiting for another child to light up their life.
The fertility treatments were difficult and painful, and didn’t help. In their sorrow, they turned to the gadol b’Yisrael, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef ztz”l and cried, “Rabbi, it is too much to bear.”
The rav joined their cries and then placed his hand over their heads, and fervently blessed the couple from the depths of his heart.
Their hearts were once again full of hope, and it didn’t take long for the long-awaited news to arrive. After one of the treatments, the doctor told them they needed to start preparing, because they were about to double their family size – there were triplets on the way. The tears of the past 11 years turned into tears of joy. Indeed the happy couple merited greeting two sweet girls and a mischievous boy.
“No one else can understand what we went through, the obstacles we overcame along the way,” Rav Tzion thought, and promised to himself that one day and b’ezrat Hashem he himself would help others with the knowledge and experience he had garnered and pass it on to fertility challenged couples.
And indeed, Rav Tzion established Machon Dorot together with his son, Itai, who is the current director of the institute. Ever since its establishment the institute has given its all – efforts, budget, and resources – to helping the challenged couples with everything they need.
Because everyone has the right to have someone call them “Mommy” or “Daddy”
In recent decades, there has been a tremendous breakthrough in the field of treating and helping couples who experience difficulties in having children. In this area, they can be helped by Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) – where the husband’s sperm is injected into the wife’s body, and In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) – retrieving the eggs from the woman’s body and fertilizing them in a laboratory with the husband’s sperm. These technologies have become so available and common that in 2018, in Israel alone, 9,399 of the babies born that year followed IVF treatment – around 5% of all children born that year!
There are many halachic considerations regarding these issues, such as the child’s parentage, whether the mitzvah of “be fruitful and multiply” was performed, hotza’at zera levatalah (wasting seed), etc. One of the basic questions asked about these treatments is whether it is certain that no mistake was made by exchanging the sperm or eggs with those of other patients in the fertility laboratory, chas v’shalom. As well as the couple, the doctors and lab staff are also partners in the fertility treatments. This involvement makes the process far more complex, leaving room for possible errors.
Therefore, to prevent these and other problems, we at Machon Dorot operate a countrywide service which includes supervision by experienced supervisors, who meticulously watch the entire process and ensure that it is in accordance with halachah.
Are you going through this process and also want peace of mind?
Machon Dorot provides this service and thereby helps the couple create their continuation with complete peace of mind, knowing the entire process is carried out according to their wishes
Machon Dorot provides a complete support bubble for those with fertility challenges: halachic guidance, medical consultations, financial help, emotional support, and supervision in labs and hospitals