Triumph of a Leniency

My synagogue rents a room in a local yeshiva (elementary school), right near the building's catering hall. This week there was a bar mitzvah in the catering hall. On Thursday night, the father of the bar mitzvah called up my rabbi asking for help. It seems that his father, the grandfather of the bar mitzvah boy, has great difficulty walking and usually uses a wheelchair. He wanted to be able to have the Gentile helper who pushes his wheelchair to also open and push the buttons on the elevator so the elderly man would not have to walk down all of the stairs to the bar mitzvah. However, the yeshiva was refusing to allow them permission to use the elevator on Shabbos. Could my rabbi get involved?

My rabbi said that the old man has the status of a sick individual and, therefore, a Gentile may perform any labor on his behalf including running the elevator. So he called up the yeshiva's administrator and discussed the issue with him. No luck. The yeshiva's posek had told them not to allow it. Who is the posek, so my rabbi could speak with him? The administrator did not want to say. But it was easy to figure out. So my rabbi called up this posek, who is by all accounts world-renowned, extremely capable and generally strict.

The posek agreeed that it was permissible but said that the yeshiva wished to set its own policy and he saw nothing wrong with a policy that never allowed the use of the elevators. My rabbi boldly argued with this posek that if halakhah permits the use of the elevators then you cannot prevent this grandfather from attending his grandson's bar mitzvah. The posek agreed, called up the administrator, and the policy was changed.

The posek concluded the discussion with a joke. The community leaders of Bnei Brak wished to institute a policy that contained a leniency in it but the laity were protesting. The leaders then stopped their plans because ein gozerin kullah al ha-tzibbur she-ein rov ha-tzibbur yekholin la'amod bah. (sorry, it gets lost in the translation)

My rabbi ended his speech by saying that, being part of the same community, we can criticize each other without being vicious or mean-spirited. Outsiders, however, have another tone and intent when they voice the same criticisms.

UPDATE: I should add that this rabbi is not Modern Orthodox by any account. His ordination is from none other than the Beth Medrash Govoha of Lakewood.