25 Oct 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.
MUSIC
Dear Vues Master:
I love davening. I love davening over the yom
tovim even more. I’m undecided as to whether
I enjoy the concerts chazanim have been giving
in shul lately. This past Rosh Hashana my chazzan
ended the final kaddish to the song”Thank
You Hashem” by Joey Newcomb. The entire
shul hummed the nigun for three whole minutes.
Another Chazzan did every tune of Eitan Katz’s
greatest hits. Is that what shul is supposed to be
about? I know it helps people to daven. I get
it. But should a shul davening be like a concert
hall?
AC
Vues Master’s Note: What would you say to the
concert the Leviim put up in the Bais Hamikdash
354 days a year with a hundred piece band!
HASHAVAS AVEIDA
Dear Vues Master:
Many people left their machzorim in shul and
their name and phone number are written inside.
Easy and quick hashavas aveidah! Also,
many coats forgotten in the coat room have a
name and phone number!
DY
Vues Master’s Note: Great opportunity to start
the new zman with mitzvos. Thanks!
LINE
Dear Vues Master:
This past Chol Hamoed my family went to Hershey
Park on Thursday, Yid day. It was packed
& BH the rain held out until the evening time.
Most people that go to Hershey know that on
the way out they stop at the kettle corn stand
& buy some for $20 a bag. It’s sweet & salty &
delicious. My wife & I waited for over an hour.
When we got in front of the line a young frum
boy, probably around 16 years old, approached
my wife & asked her if he could cut her on the
line & purchase a couple of bags because his bus
was leaving in 15 minutes. There were probably
fifty people behind her. My wife said she was
sorry, but it was wrong for him to ask & it could
make a chilul hashem. The boy was very angry
with my wife & she wasn’t sure if she made the
right decision. I told her that I would have done
the same thing & that I was proud of her decision.
What do you think?
CW
Vues Master’s Note: Good decision since everybody’s
time would be stolen and one can
never return stolen time!
SHIDDUCH CRISIS
Dear Vues Master:
If there really is a shidduch crisis, why don’t
the rabbonim allow men to marry more than
one wife again? It would allow the older women
more opportunities to marry and if a wife gives
her husband attitude he can go spend the night
with his other wife so it’s a win win for everyone
!
AB
Vues Master’s Note: Then we would need to
deal with the divorce crisis! One woman is more
than enough!
WORTH MORE
Dear Vues Master:
This is a great Kiddush Hashem story that I saw
on the Yeshivaworld web website last week that
I wanted to share with your readers. An avreich
from France who learns in Kollel Chazon Ish
in Bnei Brak gave up a yerushah of tens of millions
of euros due to the fact that some of the
money was earned through chillul Shabbos,
B’Chadrei Chareidim reported. According to
the report, the avreich’s 80-year-old father, a
French millionaire who owns about 20 luxury
hotels, recently closed a huge business deal, and
together with his two brothers, arranged a new
will for his increased fortune. The father himself is Shomer Shabbos but some of his relatives are not. All the heirs, including the avreich, were asked to sign the will. The avreich asked Rabbanim in Eretz Yisrael and France about accepting the money tainted by Chillul Shabbos and was told that despite the huge personal loss, he can’t accept the money. Several of his relatives tried to come up with legal or business loopholes to allow him to receive the money but he decided to simply forgo the yerusha. The avreich sent a detailed letter to his father explaining the reasoning behind his refusal to sign the will and his father accepted his son’s decision with great admiration and pride.
DT
Vues Master’s Note: What an inspiring story! May Hashem make him even richer in a legal fashion.
ORDER
Dear Vues Master:
Berashis 1:1 In the beginning Elokim created the heaven and the earth. Berashis 2:4 This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, on the day when HaShem Elokim made earth and heaven. Why does Berashis 1:1 write heaven/earth and in 2:4 it writes heaven/earth but concludes with earth/heaven? Rashi says, “It does not state Bara Hashem “HaShem (the Merciful One) created, because at first G-d intended to create the world to be placed under the rule of strict justice, but He realized that the world could not endure and therefore gave precedence to Divine Mercy allying it with Divine Justice. This is what is written in (Berashis 2:4) — “In the day that HaShem Elokim made earth and heaven.” Zera Shimshon adds that the Torah makes a point of writing the Name HaShem First, to teach that not only can’t the world be sustained on din, judgment, alone but mercy comes first. Just as the world was originally created, with din, it also mentions heaven (din)/earth (mercy) and after creation and He tells us the history He tells us based on how it started, heaven/earth; however, since this order was subsequently changed G-d makes sure to point this out at the end of the verse by listing earth before heaven. I would like to suggest that then every binary creation has mercy first and then judgment. For example, Adam/Chava and Avraham/Yitzchok with the first having the attribute of mercy and the second having the attribute of judgment. However, when man creates it is the opposite; the first is din and the second is rachamim as we see with Cain/Hevel and Esav/Yaakov.
D G
Vues Master’s Note: Nice shtikel. Thanks for sharing.
RESPECT
Dear Vues Master:
The Midrash comments that when Moshe wrote the Torah, he recorded what was created each day. When he wrote, “Let us make man.” Moshe said to HaShem, “Ribbono shel Olam, why are you giving the heretics material to use against You [since the word us enables people to claim that HaShem had a partner when He created the world]?” Replied HaShem, “Write, and he who wants to make a mistake can do so.” HaShem explained that they will not make this mistake since the very next pasuk states with unequivocal clarity, “HaShem created man in His image” – clearly proving that there is Only One Deity and none other. The reason Hashem chose to write “Let us make man” was to teach people the character traits of derech eretz (behavior) and humility (thought). We see that if a person is searching for excuses to become an apikoros, it’s not our responsibility to stop him. He already made up his mind before he misinterpreted the words of the pasuk. He has an agenda and will do whatever he can to further his plan. We don’t concern ourselves with such a person. Who is “we” coming to include – the parents. G-d made a stumbling block, for the apikoros, in order to teach derech eretz and humility. So an apikoros is inversely related to derech eretz and humility. The less derech eretz and humility a person has the more he is likely to be an apikoros.
DG
Vues Master’s Note: Of course since an Apikores would bite a Talmid Chacham like a donkey!
FRIENDS LIKE THESE
Dear Vues Master:
Two men met on the train to Baltimore. One asked the other, “Do you know a man named Chaim Goldstein?“ His fellow traveler said he sure does. “He has a temper like an old goat. Dishonest? Believe me, the scales in his store are fixed so that 1 pound comes out two. His poor wife, he beats her black and blue. He’s disrespectful to the rabbi and I know for a fact he eats on Yom Kippur.” “How can you be sure of all these dreadful things?” the first man asked. “What do you mean, how can I be so sure? Goldstein is one of my best friends.”
BM
Vues Master’s Note: Oy! I would not want to meet that guy’s enemies!
ESROGIM
Dear Vues Master:
Please make sure to let your readers know the following: People that bought Esrogim this year from Eretz Yisrael with the Otzar Beis Din, an important reminder that your Esrogim have the sanctity of Shemitah. Therefore they should not be disposed of but rather:1- It can be made into jelly, or other consumed products or 2-Held until it dries out, then wrapped and disposed of.
JG
Vues Master’s Note: I would start with a Jam!Yum! My mother made a great Esrog jam. All you need to do is add a ton of sugar!
RINGS
Dear Vues Master:
Are men allowed to wear rings al pi halacha? This past Yom Tov I was sitting next to a man that was using his ring as a drum to beat to the chazans davening. It drove me crazy. Are men allowed to wear a ring? Is it considered a beged eisha?
TS
Vues Master’s Note:It is not begged isha! It is jewelry which men do not wear ever since we men gave it up for the eigel!
THANKS
Dear Vues Master:
I just want to compliment the Jewish Vues for an awesome Sukkos edition. You guys outdid yourselves. The paper is getting better every week. Keep up the great work!!!
BS
Vues Master’s Note: Thanks! Now tell your friends and your friends friends!
CATSKILLS
Dear Vues Master:
This past Sukkos my family went up to the Catskills for the first time. It was sooo nice! We were so happy that there were so many stores open & so many things to do. It’s also so pretty this time of year with the fall weather. We used the Catskill section that the Jewish Vues had in the Sukkos edition. It was great. Thanks for printing your Chol Hamoed list as well.
YC
Vues Master’s Note: Hope you were not freezing in the Sukka!
WEATHER
Dear Vues Master:
B’H the weather in New York was fantastic almost the entire month of Tishrei. All of Sukkos we were able to eat in the Sukkah & we were able to do many different activities over Chol Hamoed outside. It really made Yom Tov that much nicer this year.
DS
Vues Master’s Note: So your tefillah does control the weather!
CONNECTING
Dear Vues Master:
Someone might think that connecting with one’s father is only on Sukkos and not the rest of the year; however, it says before the Amida on Shabbos and Yom Tov night, “Praised are you, Lord, who spreads the shelter ( (סכת
of peace over us, over all G-d’s people Israel, and over Jerusalem.” Who does “us” in “over us” come to include? It comes to include the immediate family so visitation is for Shabbos and Yom Tov. Rabbi Miller says, “Practice living peacefully with people, and people like you, sit in the sukkah and rejoice with your family.”
DG
Vues Master’s Note: As usual you have one agenda!
WOMEN
Dear Vues Master:
What are three things a woman lacks? She doesn’t have koach. She doesn’t have time. And she doesn’t have a thing to wear. What are the three things a woman does have? She has a son who is a genius. She has a husband who is an idiot. And she has a closet full of rags.
MB
Vues Master’s Note: Wow you nailed it!
STONED
Dear Vues Master:
When Sarah’s husband died suddenly, she was left with only $50,000. After paying all the expenses, she told her sister, she was all but broke. “How can that be?” her sister asked. “What happened to the money?” Sarah explained that she had to pay a $15,000 hospital bill, $5,000 for the funeral and burial, and the rest for the memorial stone. Making a quick calculation, her sister exclaimed “What? $30,000 for the memorial stone? What was it made of? How big is it?” Extending her left hand, Sarah replied “Three carats.”
NS
Vues Master’s Note: She sounds like she belongs in a three Ring Circus!
ELECTIONS
Dear Vues Master:
There are a number of house races in frum areas that are hyper competitive, for example the 4th CD [5 Towns] 13th CD [Staten Island] 17th CD [Rockland] 18th CD [Orange] NJ 7th CD [Union Linden] FL 27 [Miami Beach] PA senate etc The frum vote can make a difference in those areas, if you live in those areas what is current thinking?
YW
Vues Master’s Note: You have to have enough voters to beat all those dead voters!
ANOTHER GREAT
KIDDUSH HASHEM
Dear Vues Master:
A group traveling through Nashville, Tennessee on their bain hazmanim trip weren’t expecting to become agents of kiruv, but suddenly found themselves thrust in that position upon encountering an unobservant Jewish man. The bochurim’s actions that followed made a tremendous kiddush hashem. The bochurim say they met a man who told them that he had not put on tefillin in more than three decades. The bochurim immediately offered to wrap him in tefillin, and he happily obliged. The man proceeded to put the tefillin on himself, wrapping the retzuos with procedural memory as he had been taught decades earlier. What a Kiddush Hashem!
Vues Master’s Note: What could be better? It was a trip meant for relaxation and unwinding turned into an incredible kiddush hashem and an opportunity to bring another Jew closer to Hashem.Tizku L’mitzvos!!
THE EVOLUTION OF
ZIONISM
Dear Vues Master:
In the late 1800’s antisemitic events were rising dangerously high in Europe. For almost two thousand years the Jews had been wanderers without a home. Exiled from their land by the ancient Romans, the Jews had spread to the four corners of the world. Although finding temporary refuge in numerous places, the Jews would inevitably be persecuted by their hosts. The results of antisemitic persecution the Jews suffered under exile ranged from pogroms to a Holocaust. In the two hundred years leading up to World War Two, the Jews and the Gentiles both asked, “What should be the fate of the Jews?” Gentiles no longer wanted to host the Jews, they saw them as permanent foreigners, not a group they wanted to incorporate into their nations. The Jews sensed the world’s rejection of them as neighbors and asked where they would go and find a place to call home. This led Theodore Herzl and other Jewish thinkers to answer the Jewish question in a unique way – creating a Jewish state where Jews could determine their own future. Zionism, as the political movement became known, began as an answer to the Jewish question. As the Zionist movement grew and became more than just Herzl’s speeches and his best-selling book, it gained popularity, and the movement became more practical in its thinking. Aiming to save European Jewry from a coming disaster, the movement turned political and tried to garner support for the creation of a Jewish State. Herzl and his supporters put more emphasis on saving the Jews than the location of their salvation. Herzl and the early Zionists spent a few years researching Uganda, Africa as a possible location of a future Jewish State. Uganda would serve the purpose of providing a safe refuge for the Jewish people. When the decision to accept the British offer of Uganda for a Jewish State was brought to a vote at a World Zionist Congress, it was narrowly rejected. The delegates at the Congress voted the new Jewish State would be in Eretz Yisrael and nowhere else. Zionism had evolved from a movement mostly concerned with saving European Jewry from persecution to a movement demanding the creation of a Jewish state in the Jewish people’s historic homeland, the land of Israel. Jewish national rights demanded that Jews enjoy self-determination in their own homeland. In 1948, the Zionists’ dreams were fulfilled. A Jewish State, fully autonomous, Democratic, and in Eretz Yisrael was established. At this point Zionism required another evolution. The movement no longer had to worry about establishing a Jewish State, it now had to be concerned with sustaining the State of Israel and gathering the exiles from the four corners of the Earth. Almost immediately following its founding, the State of Israel faced an existential threat when five Arab armies attacked it and tried to annihilate the fledging Jewish State. Shortly after the war, the Arab countries expelled its Jews and over 800,000 Jews from Arab lands flooded the State of Israel. The almost immediate doubling of Israel’s population was almost too much for the State to handle, and Israel struggled to absorb its new citizens. Zionism had become a movement focused on survival. Seventy-years later Zionism has become a continuously evolving movement. It has shifted from defense to offense. Zionism no longer worries about survival and focuses more on development. With one of the strongest economies in the world, the State of Israel spends its energy deciding where to invest its resources, mostly cerebral, and not how to protect them from attack. Israel is thriving, and while it still faces consistent threats, it no longer faces existential crises. Zionism is the metaphysical fuel to the physical State of Israel. The Jewish State has become the fulfillment of the early Zionist dreams. Looking forward, Zionism will continue to be the fuel of an even more vibrant Israel but it will also evolve into a global influencer that addresses international problems like climate change, water shortages and more efficient transportation. As it has in the past decade, the world’s technological advances will largely include Israeli ingenuity. Zionism can’t evolve into a solely global movement; there are plenty of challenges it must face at home in Israel as well. Growing divisions within Israeli society and between Israel and the Diaspora threaten to fracture a united Israel. Israel will have to simultaneously address internal challenges while thriving externally to ensure Zionism’s next evolution is successful.
RUP
Vues Master’s Note: Thanks for the history lesson!