There once were two wicked brothers. They were rich and very unethical in their business dealings. In fact, that is how they got rich in the first place. They attended the same shul, they were Shabbos regulars, they donated generously to the congregation, and to everyone else, they appeared to be upstanding Jews and even pillars of the community.
One day, the rabbi of their synagogue retired and a new one came onboard. But this rabbi was different. This new rabbi was not fooled by the two evil brothers and saw right through them. He wanted to kick them out of the congregation, but the board said, “Rabbi, you can’t kick them out. The brothers may be a little shady, but their shadiness pays your salary, so please drop it.”
As time passed, the synagogue started a fundraising campaign to renovate the building. But there was a problem—the economy was in a recession, and there simply wasn’t enough money to break ground. To make matters worse for the shul, one of the wicked brothers died.
The remaining brother sought out the new rabbi the day before the funeral and wrote him a check for the amount needed to complete the renovations and have money for an endowment leftover, a total of four million dollars. He held the check for the rabbi to see.
"I have only one condition," the surviving wicked brother said. "At the funeral, you must say my brother was a mensch. You must say those exact words: “he was a mensch.” After some thought, the rabbi gave his word and took the check and deposited it immediately with his phone.
At the funeral the next day, however, the rabbi told the truth about the dead brother. "He was what our tradition calls a rasha gamur, a completely evil man," he said. "He cheated on his wife and abused his family. His generosity was always given on the condition that he be praised to the sun and moon.” He railed on and on about the deceased and all of his sins. After nearly a half hour of the evil truth, the rabbi paused and shrugged his shoulders. Finally, he said, "But compared to his brother, he was a mensch.”
Rabbi Eli Garfinkel
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