Lesson #51: Correcting Injustice
Imagine a person is looking out his window and sees a delivery truck from a local grocery store recklessly pull into a neighbor’s driveway, knocking into the fence and breaking it. The driver runs out of the car, looks at the damage, quickly delivers the boxes to a different house, and then gets back into the truck and drives off, completely ignoring the damage he caused.
The observer knows the driver and his boss – the owner of the supermarket that he works for. He is enraged both at the reckless driving and at the utter lack of consideration, how the driver just ran off without informing the neighbors of what he did and taking responsibility for his actions. The man decides that he must go straight to the boss to report about what the driver did, to correct the grave injustice which he just witnessed. Is this allowed?
Halacha indeed allows reporting the incident to the boss – but only if five conditions are met. We might refer to these conditions in shorthand as: eyes; approach; exaggerate; constructive; no other way.
The first condition is “eyes” – that the person saw the incident with his own eyes. The man must have seen the driver damage the neighbor’s fence, and not merely heard about it.
Secondly, the man must first approach the driver directly, if he surmises that this will achieve his goal. If he feels that the driver will accept his repudiation, and agree to compensate the neighbors and change his driving habits in the future, then he must try to speak to the driver first. Only if this not possible, or if the driver ignored the criticism, may the man then go to the boss.
Thirdly, the person may not exaggerate. He is permitted to report to the boss precisely what the driver did, without any embellishment whatsoever.
Next, the motive for reporting what happened must be purely for the constructive purpose of ensuring that the neighbor is compensated, and that the driver stops his reckless, irresponsible behavior. There must be no vested personal interest at stake.
Sometimes, when we observe wrongdoing, such as in this scenario, we become angry. That anger is not always pure. It does not necessarily come from a “kosher” place. It often stems from personal animosity toward the person, and not from a genuine desire to correct injustice. Therefore, before reporting somebody’s wrongful act, we must very carefully ascertain that our motives are pure, and that we are not acting out of personal hostility.