Yesterday we discussed the concept from the Brisker Rav, about not saying that you can’t. Rather, saying that you don’t want to. In other words, if a person really wants to do some thing on someone else’s behalf, they can.
The following story needs a preface- It took place in Communist Russia, where the justice system was not the most fair, to say the least. People were sent to Siberia for the smallest of charges. In such cases, one is permitted to take extreme measures, even if doing so may go against the law of the land. If the law of the land is corrupt, one is allowed to to take measures to save people, even in a dishonest way.
This obviously does not apply to the democratic world of justice, peace and liberty for all that we live in today, where we must follow all the laws of the government.
And now for the story:
There was a man from the town of Brisk (where the Brisker Rav was the Rabbi) with a large family. He was accused of a minor tax evasion charge, and had he been tried for that crime, he could have been sent to Siberia. The Brisker Rav knew that no successful lawyer would take on the case, because representing somebody who went against the country was, in itself, a crime. No lawyer would subject himself by representing this client. So the Brisker arrive called in one of the top lawyers and told him that it was he himself, the Brisker Rav, who was had committed the tax evasion, The lawyer turned white, but as much as he tried, he could not figure out a way avoid the sentence to Siberia. The only thing the lawyer was able to come up with was that he would endanger himself, go into the court, and remove the file from the court system and “lose it.” That was the only way out that the lawyer could think of, to help th with Brisker Rav avoid his sentence. Obviously, there was a big danger in this plan. but he was willing to do it in order to save the Rabbi from Siberia.
It was only after the whole plan was worked out that the Brisker Rav revealed that in actuality, it wasn’t he that was in trouble, but another man- a simple man that the lawyer did not know and felt no responsibility toward.
However, once the lawyer admitted that there was a way that it could be done, the Brisker Rav put him into the position, of “Don’t say that you can’t, say that you don’t want to.”
The Brisker Rav gave the lawyer a guarantee that, “People that are on a mitzvah mission will not be hurt.“
After much convincing, the lawyer went ahead with the plan and saved the man from being sent to Siberia.
Again, we do not apply these means to a democratic country, but we can take from this story the concept that sometimes there are things that we can do.
Rav Ades once gave the mashal that people can raise $100,000 for a child who has a need, lo Alenu, but they can’t do it for another cause. Which means that obviously they can do it for somebody else, but they don’t have the same want to do it for somebody else. This is a tremendous eye-opener on the concept of can I, or do I really not want to.
Have a wonderful day.