In Jewish mysticism, one of the most beautiful prayers is A Woman of Valor, or Eshet Chayl. A husband sings this love song to his wife each week at Shabbat, on Friday night, as the family begins a day of rest together. Many are uncomfortable with this blessing by today’s standards. It is old fashioned and easily seen as sexist. And yet the deeper spiritual meaning is far beyond the surface and touches the soul of what makes Judaism a living, spiritually alive religion.

This prayer was written thousands of years ago for my wife.

Dr. Wendy Goldberg Carlyle, my bride of 13 years, is an extraordinary woman. She works at Virginia Mason Medical Center as a board-certified anesthesiologist. She is raising four wonderful and engaged children. And she lifts up my soul and my life. She is the rock of our family. She is a quiet, private person and my entry into the public arena of politics remains a strange twist. But I would not, of course, have had the courage, support or ability to run without her as the family’s foundation.

While Wendy will be embarrassed by this post, I’d like you to know that a year ago this week–days after the chaos of frantic activity from my election day victory–Wendy underwent surgery at the University of Washington Medical Center. She voluntarily donated bone marrow to someone in the world who was dying, and whom it was discovered she had an ideal and correct genetic match. Years before she had signed up (via a DNA swab to the mouth) for Gift of Life, a DNA matching service connecting donors with recipients for bone marrow within the Jewish community (and outside as well). Minutes after the surgery, the doctors packaged up her bone marrow and a transporter immediately left for the airport to go somewhere in the world so her marrow could arrive in time to be implanted in the recipient’s body.

I am in awe of her decision. She made it without hesitation or reservation. She said to me, “I just can’t go through this journey of my own life knowing that I literally could have saved someone’s life and yet did nothing.”

Today–after a year of waiting for information–we received an email from the Gift of Life in New York letting us know that the recipient (whom we still know nothing about other than he’s a man) survived the implantation of Wendy’s bone marrow and is alive and generally doing well.

As a doctor, Wendy gets to help save lives everyday. But this is different.

It is a special person, someone with a heart of gold and a spirit of love who walks in the image of the Hebrew matriarch Sarah, who would undergo voluntary surgery to donate bone marrow to an anonymous person somewhere in the world in need of the gift of life.

She is a woman of valor.

Your partner in service,

Reuven.