FAIR LAWN, N.J. — Rabbi Andrew Markowitz, president of the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County and rabbi of Congregation Shomrei Torah in Fair Lawn, turned a student’s halachic question into a personal act of chesed.

It started when a student asked Rabbi Markowitz a halachic question about donating a kidney. Rather than simply answer the question, Rabbi Markowitz turned it into a Shavuos night shiur examining the halachic issues surrounding living kidney donation.

A few days later, he swabbed through Renewal, the organization that facilitates kidney donations.

Then, on Erev Tisha B’Av, the phone rang.

Rabbi Markowitz had been identified as a match.

On Tuesday, Aug. 25, Rabbi Markowitz was mikayem the mitzvah and donated his kidney.

The donation adds a deeply personal chapter to Rabbi Markowitz’s leadership in Bergen County’s Jewish community, where he serves as president of the county’s rabbinical council.

For the student whose question started it all, what began as a halachic discussion on Shavuos ultimately became a real-life example of the mitzvah being discussed.