A few winters ago, I got a call from a friend who wanted to know if he had a case. He had fallen while leaving someone’s home, slipped on snow or ice, and shattered his wrist. I asked him when it had last snowed. He said, “A few days before.” I said, “A few days? That’s more than enough time for the homeowner to have cleared the ice, shoveled it, and put salt down. That could be a case. Did you fall on the homeowner’s property, on their walkway or stairs, or on the public sidewalk?” He said, “Well, there are stairs in front, but why does that matter?” I don’t like to answer that question for reasons that will become obvious, but he had asked it, so I answered. I told him that if he had fallen on the stairs—which he had said were there—he would have a viable case. That would be a successful lawsuit. If he had fallen on the sidewalk, it wouldn’t be a case, because in the state where he fell, the public sidewalk belongs to the municipality. There’s immunity. It’s a higher level of proof. We won’t be able to hit that. That will not be a case. So I said, “Would you fall on?” He said, “Well, before I answer that, how much money are we talking about?” I said, “I don’t know. I haven’t seen your medical records.” He said, “Look at your phone.” So I looked at my phone. He had sent me a copy of his X-ray. The X-ray was of his post-surgical wrist. Obviously, it had been a displaced fracture. It required hardware. There was a plate and a bunch of screws going through his wrist. I said, “Look, I still don’t know, because I don’t know what kind of recovery you’re going to have. This just happened. You might need multiple future surgeries if there’s a non-union. But let’s assume, God willing, that you have a good recovery and you only need one more surgery to remove the hardware. You’re still talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars net after my fee.”
So which was it: sidewalk or stairs? He said, “Well, let me think. There are no cameras.” Now, do I even need to tell you what he said? Hundreds of thousands of dollars, tax-free, if he says the stairs. Zero, hole in a bagel if he says the sidewalk. And there are no cameras. And he said, “I fell on the sidewalk.” Mi k'amcha Yisrael. Who is like the Jewish people? Who would answer like that? Who wouldn’t tell a tiny little lie? It’s only insurance anyway. A Vayema'en Yid, that’s who wouldn’t tell the lie: someone who realizes that we’ve got to control ourselves. Very tempting to tell that little lie, make a few more dollars, but you remind yourself, “Hashem doesn’t need me to lie in order to put a few extra dollars in my pocket. That number that He put next to my name on Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year), I’m going to get that. He’s not telling me, ‘Come on, you got to work with me: lie a little, cheat a little, steal a little.’” And this fellow understood that because he was a Vayema'en Yid.
But I said to him, “Why did you ask me how much before you answered if you knew you were going to tell me that you fell on the sidewalk?” And he said with a big smile, “Because I wanted to know how big a tzaddik (righteous person) I am.” And I told him, “You’re a very, very big tzaddik.” I hope that his story will inspire others to use their Vayema'en muscles in the same fashion when it comes to financial issues.