21 Dec SPEAK YOUR VUES
SPEAK YOUR VUES WITH THE VUES MASTER
Please note that the author of Speak Your Vues is in no way affiliated with the publisher of this paper. The author of this column is an independent third party contributor. The views and opinions expressed by this author may not reflect the views and opinions of the publishers. If one has any issues with any of the views, please write a letter to the Vues Master.
MISTAKE CORRECTED
Dear Vues Master:
Thanks to R. Shmuel Lieberman שליט”א
(Cleveland Heights) for pointing
out the שיטת†יש†אומרים†in the ‘מג”א†קכ”ג†ס”ק†ה
I wrote in the previous email- “There is no
Halachic reason to step back 3 steps before
starting the “שמונה†עשרה
CORRECT
I retract what I wrote “or stepping forward 3
steps at the end of “ . שמונה†עשרה
INCORRECT (I was wrong)
ACCORDING TO THE יש†אומרים†IN THE
מג”א†קכ”ג†ONE SHOULD STEP FORWARD
3 STEPS AFTER STEPPING BACK AT
THE END OF THE שמונה†עשרה
Artscroll Siddurim were not wrong by instructing
to step forward 3 steps before חזרת
הש”ץØקדושה†BEING THERE IS A SECOND
OPINION יש†אומרים†TO DO SO.
טעות†לעולם†חוזר
MF
Vues Master’s Note: Thanks for correcting it.
I feel that I am now a step ahead in my Davening.
May our tefillos be niskabel.
DRUNK
Dear Vues Master:
R’ Levi Yitchok M’barditchava went to shul
on Erev Yom Kippur before mincha. He
looked under all the tables and chairs, approached
the ארון†קודש†and said: “ רבונו†של†עולם
look at the difference between בני†ישראל†and
בני†עשו†. The בני†ישראל†are commanded to eat
and drink today. If the בני†עשו†had been commanded
to do so, they would be lying like
drunks under all the tables and chairs. I, ≠יצחק
לוי†, testify before You and before this קהל†קדוש
that I have searched under every table and
chair and I didn’t find even one ”.שיכור
MB
Vues Master’s Note:Love this story. I think we
should make a lechaim!
SOLE SOUL
Dear Vues Master:
As a group of חסידים†were walking home from
Shul to eat their שבת†meal, an אפיקורס†mockingly
said “Enjoy your שבת†meal. Fill up that
נשמה†יתירה†.” One of the חסידים†responded,
“Come join us to fill up your נשמה†יתירה†as
well.” Looking at him, the אפיקורס†said: “My
נשמה†יתירה†? I have only one נשמה†!” “Yes,” the
חסיד†answered, “but it’s ”.יתירה
BM
Vues Master’s Note:I guess he doesn’t believe
in the sole provider! What a shame.
MASKS
Dear Vues Master:
I live in a frum neighborhood. When I walk
around, I see many frum people not wearing
a mask. It seems to me that less than 1% of us
seem to be wearing a mask. Last year, I asked
some people I knew who chose not to wear a
mask why they did not wear one. The answers
were all along the same line… I was vaccinated
and have antibodies… I already had
Covid and have antibodies… I find the mask
uncomfortable and don’t want to wear it… I
don’t know what’s in the vaccine and don’t
want to put it into my body. Did you notice
that their answers are all about “I,” as in “me.”
They only considered how they felt about it,
and did not consider other people at all. What
has happened to caring about other people?
What about ve’ahavta lereiyecha kamocha?
What happened to “if you save one life, it is as
if you have saved an entire world?”
Let’s look at Covid a different way. There
is a large segment of the community who, if
they get Covid, will suffer more than healthy
people. Many of us are overweight (obese),
smoke or are over the age of 65. Many of us
have underlying conditions, such as cancer,
chronic heart, lung, kidney or liver disease,
diabetes, dementia, multiple myeloma, downs
syndrome, or have had organ transplants or a
stroke. Some people have weakened immune
system for other reasons as well. If any of
these people are exposed to the coronavirus,
they are put at greater risk of getting very sick,
and may even die.
When you refuse to wear a mask, and/or refuse
to practice social distancing you may cause
someone great harm. Maybe you do have the coronavirus, but haven’t felt symptoms yet. Maybe you don’t have
Covid, but you are carrying it. You can infect people without knowing it, and cause them great suffering or death. Please remember that your decision to mask or not does not only affect you, it affects every single person you encounter as you go about your day.
Also consider that the amount of people who have Covid, and the amount of people who are hospitalized have risen in the last few weeks. Also, a new variant called Omicron has arrived and the experts believe that it is more contagious than the other variants we had before. And the more people that have Covid, the farther it spreads (if 1,000 people have Covid right now, it will spread much farther than if 100 people have it right now). We need to stop this disease in its tracks. We need to be more caring about one another.
Rachel from Brooklyn
Vues Master’s Note: Like masking is stopping a disease. We need to believe in Hashem and let our bodies build an immunity to this virus as it does to every other virus. Last of all we need tefillah and Torah! Ein Od Milvado
DATE
Dear Vues Master:
The Beis Yosef in Shulchan Aruch (O. Ch. 580) lists additional fast days.
One of the fast days is on the 9th day in Teves. “It is unknown what הרצ†happened on that day”.
The ז”ט†writes” הלודג†המית†(It’s a great wonder) that the ףסוי†תיב†doesn’t know what happened that day. In our Selichos (קוצמ†הרכזא) it is written that רפוסה†ארזע†died on the 9th of the month”. כ”ע
Perhaps, it is not so puzzling why the י”ב†wasn’t aware of the טויפ†claiming ארזע†died on the 9th of תבט
This טויפ†is said, only by םיזנכשא. The םידרפס†say the “ןוילע†העש”†טויפ†and the “םימשב†בשוי”†טויפ
In both of these םיטויפ, it says that ארזע†died on the 10th of תבט.
The ףסוי†תיב, being Sefardi, must have held that ארזע†died on the 10th and therefore there shouldn’t be a wonder why he didn’t know what
happened on the 9th of תבט.
The םישדח†תופסות†on תינעת†תליגמ†writes that Yeisho Hanotzri ym”s was born on the 9th of תבט.
Chazal were scared of the Nochrim, to publicize that we fast on his birthday.
FM
Vues Master’s Note: Now the question arises do we do Nittel all these other dates?
SMOKING
Dear Vues Master:
Bochurim should not smoke, period. This is not an attack on bochurim. If I hated today’s bochurim, I wouldn’t be so upset that so many of them are engaging in this self-harming behavior. Yes, they are working hard and they need an outlet, but that outlet should not be cancer sticks. If you need drugs like nicotine to cope with your life, something is deeply wrong. Maybe our bochurim are too burnt out and they should relax a little and go to the seaside to build sandcastles (now that it’s winter and the tznius concern is not as great) or spend more time singing, taking photography classes and perfecting their cholent recipes. But they should not smoke. Girls in our communities don’t smoke because it has long been known that it can harm an unborn child. Did you know that more recent epigenetics related research has shown that the damage done by cigarettes to a man can affect his offspring? Also, smoking is inconsiderate to others, including a potential future wife who most likely prefers a husband who is not carcinogenic.
JF
Vues Master’s Note:Besides the fact that it is very expensive! In the end the doctors bills and hospital stay is even more expensive. Not a good way to save cash.
BRACHA
Dear Vues Master:
A man and his wife came before a בר†asking for a divorce. “My wife throws away money, without ןובשח,” the husband complained. “She goes to cafes almost every day and spends my hard earned money on cookies and cakes.” “It is he who is throwing away the money,” the wife countered. “He’s a רוכיש†and spends the money on wine and liquor.” The Rav told them: “This is a difficult case. I need to check with a ןינהנה†תכרב†≠†תוכלהב†החמומו†יקב†who can rule on ףידע†המ†in a situation like this, תונוזמ†or לכהש.”
HS
Vues Master’s Note: Wait, is there a Bracha when one gets divorced?
SPEECHES
Dear Vues Master:
I personally don’t want to read transcripts of openly available speeches in the letters section. I feel it’s a waste of space as I can access those elsewhere, while I read the Vues for original material.
Vues Master’s Note:We print almost all letters. No one is required to read them all. There are times where I can’t even read it and I need to respond to it. Sometimes my responses are not good and they get criticized. Ask Mrs Leitner, who is very busy with embarrassing letter writers who I don’t know and they don’t know me. For all you know these letters to the Vues Master may be a figment of a few people’s
imagination.
WHEN FDR APPEASED VICHY
Dear Vues Master:
A Troubling 80th Anniversary
Eighty years ago this month, two tiny French islands near Nova Scotia and Maine briefly became the center of international controversy when De Gaulle’s Free French liberated them—and President Franklin D. Roosevelt demanded that they be given back to the pro-Nazi Vichy French.
The 80th anniversary of this strange and long-forgotten episode, which took place just a few weeks after Pearl Harbor, sheds light on the curious streak of appeasement that sometimes infected the Roosevelt administration’s foreign policy.
“Appeasement” is a term that usually is associated with the policy pursued by England and France in the 1930s, when they repeatedly made concessions to Hitler in the naive belief that doing so would prevent a war.
The policy was manifest most notoriously in the autumn of 1938, when the British and French acquiesced in the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia in the name of “peace in our time.”
President Roosevelt was not directly involved those negotiations, but he pressed both sides to keep the talks going and supported their outcome.
The Roosevelt administration’s support for appeasement was dramatized
by the tragic story of Holocaust rescuer Varian Fry. In 1940, Fry, an American journalist and editor, traveled to southern France, which was then governed by the Nazi puppet regime headquartered at Vichy.
Fry organized an underground network that saved more than 2,000 refugee scientists, artists and political dissidents, many of them Jews. Among the rescued were painter Marc Chagall, philosopher Hannah Arendt, author Franz Werfel, and Nobel Prize-winning scientist Otto Meyerhof.
When the Germans and Vichy French complained to Washington about Fry’s
activities, Secretary of State Cordell Hull instructed the U.S. ambassador in Paris to inform Fry “that this Government can not, repeat not, countenance [him] carrying on activities evading the laws of countries with which the United States maintains friendly relations.” Fry refused to stop rescuing refugees; so the Roosevelt administration responded by canceling his passport, forcing him to leave France in 1941.
“A Nasty Little Incident”
Later that year came the curious case of St. Pierre and Miquelon, the two French islands off the coast of North America, situated between Nova Scotia and New Foundland, northeast of Maine. The two French colonial possessions had come under Vichy rule when the Nazis installed the puppet regime in 1940.
On December 24, 1941, the Free French—the government-in-exile headed by General Charles de Gaulle—sent a naval force that ousted the islands’ Vichyite rulers. A plebiscite held the following day found 98% of the islands’ inhabitants supported the overthrow of the Vichyites.
Rather than celebrate this small but symbolic victory over Axis occupiers in the Western hemisphere, the Roosevelt administration denounced De Gaulle’s “arbitrary” action and tried to convince the Canadian government to restore St. Pierre and Miquelon to Vichy’s control.
The “nasty little incident,” as Assistant Secretary of State Adolf Berle called it in his memoirs, threatened to upset the administration’s policy of tolerating Vichy rule over French colonies. Washington hoped its policy would persuade the Vichy to be less pro-Nazi. Like other attempts at appeasing dictators, it did not turn out as hoped.
The State Department castigated the liberating force as “the so-called Free French,” indicating that it regarded Vichy, not the resistance, as the legitimate rulers of the two islands.
Vichy officials praised the Roosevelt administration’s stance on the islands as “a severe lesson to the dissidents.” A group of prominen American liberal intellectuals, on the other hand, denounced the administration’s policy of “appeasing undemocratic and pro-Axis governments.”
Praise from fascists and denunciations by liberals created something of a public relations headache for FDR. Shaken by the rising tide of criticism, Secretary of State Cordell Hull implausibly claimed that his use of the term “so-called” referred not to the Free French, but to the ships they had used. Pressed by reporters to elaborate on U.S policy toward Vichy, Hull said he would not comment further because the matter “was too complicated.”
After months of floating rumors that the Free French would agree to leave St. Pierre and Miquelon, the Roosevelt administration finally dropped the issue, when it became clear that neither De Gaulle nor the inhabitants of the islands were willing to surrender to Vichy.
Washington’s policy of appeasing Vichy, however, continued. After the Allies liberated North Africa from the Nazis in November 1942, President Roosevelt agreed to leave Vichyite Admiral Francois Darlan in power. That sparked a veritable uprising from FDR’s liberal supporters.
The New Republic protested that it “sticks in the craw of majorities of the British and French, and of democrats everywhere, [that] we are employing a French Quisling.” Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau said the Darlan deal “afflicts my soul.”
A delegation of American Jewish leaders met with senior U.S. officials in March 1943. They charged that “the anti-Jewish legacy of the Nazis remains intact in North Africa,” pointing to the fact that thousands of Jews were still languishing in slave labor camps under the continuing Vichyite rule. The camps continued operating until the summer of 1943, and anti-Jewish laws in North Africa were finally abolished only in October.
From the shutdown of Varian Fry’s rescue mission, to the St. Pierre-Miquelon controversy, to the Darlan deal, FDR’s policy of appeasing the Vichy French constituted a stain on America’s moral conscience and a deviation from the high ideals that the war against the Axis represented.
RM
Vues Master’s Note:Isn’t there a seltzer called Vichy water? Thanks for enlightening us with your editorial.
REDEMPTION
Dear Vues Master:
ץקה†תא†≠תולגל†בקעי†שקב
חישמ†ץק†≠היב†תיאד†םושמ†≠≠†לוק†תב†התצי
איחי†ןבא†ףסוי†predicted (almost 500 years ago) in his שוריפ†on ©י”ק†ףד®†לאינד
“Approximately at the end of the year 5,700 (1940) perhaps a few years earlier or a few years later the end (of Galus) will םשה†תרזעב†arrive.
The לארשי†ינב†will be able to live safely in Eretz Yisroel for the last 300 years of the 6th thousand years. All (Goyim) will see that the truth is with them (י”נב)
The לארשי†ינב†will enjoy spiritually and physically as opposed to the Galus where they suffered spiritually and physically. — Being the לארשי†ינב†were punished with the yoke of תולג†therefore all will enjoy even the empty ones (non-frum etc.) the pleasures of the physical ןדע†ןג†and ינחורה†אבה†םלוע
This will be a sign and show the whole world how foolish they were and how great the Bnei Yisrael are.”
TW
Vues Master’s Note: Can’t wait! Achake Lo!
CONVENTION
Dear Vues Master:
Last week you printed Part 1. Can you please print Part 2 which is the main part of the Aguda Keynote Session. Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel’s speech and the grand finally; HaRav Ephraim Wachsman’s shlita fiery drasha. Rabbi CDZ speech starts on pg 2 -fourth line from the top, and Rav Ephraim Wachsman’s speech starts on pg 2 -10 lines from the bottom and continues onto pg 3 till the end. Thanks for always printing my letters. I worked very hard and long on this letter. [7hrs!] RMS
Vues Master’s Note:It was in last weeks edition! Unless you wrote a third part which I totally did not see. Maybe I slep through that one. Just kidding. Relax this is not personal. I just don’t like speeches unless I am the one giving it!
WHAT WAS I THINKING
Dear Vues Master:
I was calling the whole entire world. What do by my einekel’s bris? I’m the sandek and a levi, but my son, the Avi haben is also a levi. Who gets the Aliya? The Answer? you guessed it. No one! The Bris was on Wednesday!!! RLL BTW -I heard that only a Gvir$ you can give an Aliya even on a Wednesday! True Story -I was at a Shul Shabbos where a oisher Kohen was menadev by the Misheberach a million $!!! To his brother’s Shul to renovate it.
I was thinking that I’m the next Aliya levy. Now how much am I giving? Chai? 2x chai? Matana!
PD
Vues Master’s Note:Oh! Let me wish you Mazel Tov! Btw can you give me
a brocha? Can I get a brocha under the chuppah of this child. May you be zocheh to dance at the baby’s son’s wedding!
YIDDISH
Dear Vues Master:
The first Mishnah in הליגמ†states that the הליגמ†can be read on the 11th, 12th, 13th, or 14th but never states the month. Why? The answer is that the םימכח†knew that ארמג†is studied in Yiddish. Thus, in translation it says you can read the הליגמ†on the 11th, adar the 12th, adar the 13th, adar the 14th.
JF
Vues Master’s Note:I say adaar yu adar nein!
NO TOOTHPASTE NO TOOTHBRUSH
Dear Vues Master:
The רשוי†טקל†writes that his Rebbe the ןשדה†תמורת†cleaned his teeth every morning with water* and brushed them with his (fourth) finger.
MMF
Vues Master’s Note:Maybe he used whitening strips? You got me to smile!
FULL
Dear Vues Master:
A בר†was once asked “How do we know that the day that נח†planted a םרכ†was םירופ?” He responded: “It’s a הליגמב†שרופמ†קוספ. It says
ותוא†השעו†וב†רשע≠העבראב†חונו”
“םרכ†תעיטנמ†≠אלא†התשמ†ןיאו†–†התשמ†םוי†But, the questioner objected, everywhere in the הרות†the name חנ†is written רסח, without the ו, while here it’s written אלמ, with the ו. “Yes,” the Rav responded. “This is to teach us
אלמ†אוה†חונ†םירופבש.”
MU
Vues Master’s Note:I think he was full of it!
HONOR
Dear Vues Master:
Yonatan ben Uzziel stood up on his feet and said: I am the one who has revealed Your secrets to mankind through my translation. However, it is revealed and known to You that I did this not for my own honor, and not for the honor of the house of my father, but rather it was for Your honor that I did this, so that discord did not increase among the Jewish people. In the absence of an accepted translation, people will disagree about the meaning of obscure verses, but with a translation, the meaning will be clear.
Taanis 19b: Nakdimon ben Guryon, said before G-d: Master of the Universe, it is revealed and known before You that I did not act for my own honor, nor did I act for the honor of my father’s house. Rather, I acted for Your honor, so that there should be water for the Festival pilgrims. This can be applied to Chapter of our fathers, Pirkei Avot 1:14 Hillel used to say, If I am not for myself, who is for me? – Be concerned about your honor.
But if I am only for myself, what am I? – Be concerned about your parent’s honor. And if not now, when?
– Be concerned about G-d’s honor.
Dear Dr. Is your modus operandi to give the benefit of the doubt to the children and not to the parent(s)? To illustrate, you assume:
The mother is in denial, for how can she not know what she did wrong?
That the rov knows what’s going on, just by hearing the son’s side of the story. The son was severely mistreated, based on second hand information and about his feelings. That those feelings are absolute, and can’t be questioned. That the son got courage, on his own and just like that. That the therapist is kosher, because the boy’s rov recommended him. That there’s no fiduciary relationship between the rov and the therapist. That cutting off ties is perfectly normal, like going 0 to 60 in aresidential neighborhood. That she is guilty of physically or emotionally abusing him, based on what? That she’s not a real parent, because parents have to be angels. That she’s a liar, because she is denying being abusive or is minimizing it. That she’s egocentric and can’t empathize with her son. That her conversations with the rov are heated and feisty. That the mother needs a therapist, based on a letter she was brave to write to you.
That she’s intentionally hiding something, because she won’t use a microscope to find what she did wrong. That she’s categorically wrong, because the rov and therapist support him. That she should accept his stonewalling, even after she begs for forgiveness. That “making” someone get angry is against the Torah. That the other three children don’t exist. That her son paid his own tuition. That his father is not in the picture. That his son’s wife has nothing to do about his alienation.
DG
Vues Master’s Note: My head is spinning! Kovod is running to or away here?
VODKA
Dear Vues Master:
We have received several letters from reliable sources that there is indeed vodka produced with grapes. It is high time that we start to drink only Vodka with Hashgocha. The same should be with all alcoholic beverages!
RK
Vues Master’s Note:I could not agree with you any more. You are so right, why are we getting drunk on stuff without being kosher? We should only drink kosher drinks!