The Keys of the Mikdash

The Brisker Rav, zt”l, would often receive inquiries from askonim and others who sought leniencies on the pretext that circumstances made them necessary to ensure the Jewish people’s survival. He would answer that even if it appears as though compromising the Torah’s integrity could safeguard its ultimate “survival,” we are still not permitted to “play G-d” and make changes that are not sanctioned by the straightforward halachah.
To better explain his uncompromising stance, he would make use of a proof from the following Gemara in Ta’anis: “During the destruction of the first Beis HaMikdash, the young kohanim took the keys to the sanctuary, climbed up to the roof, and threw them up toward heaven. They said that since they were no longer able to serve as faithful trustees, Hashem should assume the responsibility for the Mikdash. Something that appeared to have the form of a hand descended and took the keys, and the kohanim leapt into the flames.”
The Brisker Rav continued, “This teaches us a powerful lesson. The Torah is not our personal business concern over which we have independent control. In our own enterprise, we have the authority to sell off a product for a song in order to ensure that we have a good turnover until we build up the business and can sell at a profit. But the Torah is not something that we own, something that we can decide to alter by sacrificing certain halachos, to ensure that it will ‘sell’ for the time being until the ‘market’ is better!”
He concluded, “If we cannot accomplish our aims in accordance with the halachah, we accept that our hands are tied and do not act. We are only gizborim, trustees. We are not owners of the Torah with the latitude to alter it and do with it as we wish!”