The ShikkerDovid used to visit any elderly lady who whenever was faced with a challenge would say, ” I have to do it, there is no brarah.” She meant, no choice. It was something she would perservere, risk and do. In Eruvin page 37, the famous concept of Brarah is introduced.

The Rabbi’s meant Brarah to be a concept when things could occur retroactively. The example of the Talmud is making two eruv’s on Friday afternoon and on Shabbat picking the one to use and determing at that moment that this is the eruv. Another example is using a wine from a barrell that the Terumah (Cohen share of 1/50) had not been removed from and saying, “tomorrow I will take out the termuah.” This means you are drinking now as if the terumah is already taken. Thus it happens retroactively. This is a real Jewish thinkings.

I always wondered why this old lady would use the word as “choices.”

I realized when I learned the daf on 37. Someone asks, how can you drink now, maybe the maybe the barrell will break overnight and you wont have a chance to take out the wine for the terumah. Rabbi Meir says, he is not worried about such a scenario. He is not concerned about that unfortunate event. He is confident, he will be able to complete the mitzvah. His faith in the talmudic concept and the world allows to him to operate this way. Maybe a risk, but faith in the process.

I guess when this old lady would say, “no brarah” about something occurring, she meant, its a risk of life. Its part of life. Sometimes we must do things that are risky, unclear, dangerous, scarry… but we have no choice, we must persevere.

The Shloshim for this lady is coming up next week. May her neshama have an aliyah.