14 Feb SPEAK YOUR VUES WITH THE VUES MASTER
KVARIM
Dear Vues Master:
Am I the only one that’s bothered that when I go to
daven at a matzevah everyone is facing the matze-
vah. Shouldn’t we be davening toward mizrach,
east bound, toward Eretz Yisrael? It seems to me
that when we daven toward the matzevah it’s like
avodah zarah.
KM
Vues Master’s Note: Well we don’t daven to the kev-
er, some hold one should not daven at a kever!
CHILDREN
Dear Vues Master:
We don’t know why. Over the last few days the Jew-
ish people around the world have lost children in the
most horrific ways. I would give anything to under-
stand. I just don’t understand. THEY ARE CHIL-
DREN. I don’t know Hashem’s ways and I’ll never
know. We just don’t understand the pain HaShem
puts into this world. I haven’t slept, I haven’t been
able to think, I haven’t been able to write. I’ve had
trouble learning and davening. All I’ve been doing
is trying to escape. I’ve been looking to just escape
the pain. I know I’m not the only one. I’ve hugged,
cried, and tried to find solace with so many parents
since Erev Shabbat. It’s been a futile effort. The
loss of a child shouldn’t be that devastating- after
all, we’ve only known them a short amount of time.
Compare the short amount of time we know a child
to the decades we’ve known a parent, and it would
make sense for the pain of losing a parent to far out
shadow the pain of losing a child. Yet, the pain of
watching children, other people’s children, die has
been unbearable.
Our children are our investment,
Our children are our dreams,
Our children are our future,
Our children are our legacy,
Our children are our hopes,
Our children are our comfort on horrific days,
Our children are our second chances at a better life.
When a child passes we lose all of the above. It
doesn’t matter how young they were or how little
time we had with them. Our children are our lives,
they are what we love for, and when their time is cut
short, we are cut short. I don’t know why HaShem
thought it best to have a world with the potential for
so much pain and I don’t think I’ll ever understand.
All I know is that it hurts and I want the pain to stop.
I need it to stop, we need it to stop.
RUP
Vues Master’s Note: How true!
TERRORISM
Dear Vues Master:
I suspect most people are like me, having grown a
thick skin around terrorism, and don’t allow news of
attacks to change our emotions. Like many, I get an-
gry and frustrated by the news of an attack, but more
than that? not much. The same was true for me on
Erev Shabbos when the news of this attack came up
on my feeds. I got angry and wanted vengeance, but
nothing more. I had a wonderful Shabbos like most
weeks and didn’t discuss the attacks. When Shabbos
was over and I checked the news, I learned that an 8
year old died. I mentioned how tragic it was to Aliza
and continued cleaning up the Shabbat dishes. Then
I saw this headline. I hadn’t known the six and eight
year old in the attack were brothers. I don’t know
why, but when I read that these two children were
brothers. I collapsed on to my couch and began cry-
ing. How does a family experience this horror? How
can you go on after losing a child while having an-
other one in critical care and hanging on to life, and
then losing a second child???? I don’t know how to
handle this news. My brain simply can’t process it.
All I have is tears. As a nation we’ve been through
so much tragedy and while I know we’ll get through
this one too, I just don’t know how we overcome
this. It’s just too much.
RUP
Vues Master’s Note: It is part of terrorism is to make
us all immune to it
LIFE
Dear Vues Master:
At a wedding reception I recently
attended someone said, “All the
marreid men please stand next to
the one who has made your life
worth living.” The bartender was
nearly crushed to death.
ML
Vues Master’s Note: Wow! I’ll drink
to that!
EDUCATION
Dear Vues Master:
Yitzchok didn’t have much of an
education but needed to make a liv-
ing. Getting a job was very difficult.
He was almost hired as a Shamash,
when the shul found out he was illit-
erate and turned him down. Unable
to find a job, he went peddling from
door to door and, having a good
head and a good personality, was
very successful. Soon, he opened
a store and then another. Within a
few years, he had a dozen stores in
the northeast. When he went to the
bank for financing, the manager was
stunned to discover that this suc-
cessful businessman couldn’t even
write his name. “Just think what you
could have been if you had an edu-
cation,” the manager said. “Yes,”
said Isaac, “I’d be a shamash.”
MB
Vues Master’s Note: I’m sure he
was more educated than the aver-
age public school kid these days!
ROGUE COP
Dear Vues Master:
I have to share this. 4 years ago
as I was driving home from work
in Brooklyn, I passed an intersec-
tion with a green light. A cop came
running through a red light and
smashed into my car. My car was
totaled. The cop lied saying that I
ran a red light. He ended up suing
me for 300k and he got me into a
bunch of other trouble. He then re-
peated a bunch of lies under oath
at depositions. I filed complaints
with the NYPD but I was told until
I have proof that the cop lied there’s
no recourse. This story left me feel-
ing there’s no justice in this world
and people can just get away with
lying. The cop’s name was Adeed
Fayaz. This week was his funeral.
He got killed by a criminal.
SD
Vues Master’s Note: Wow! What
goes round comes round!
CONTRADICTIONS
Dear Vues Master:
Isn’t it contradictory to run ads for
food establishments that are selling
meals for the Super Bowl and then
turn the page and read an article by
rabbi shay tahan clearly explaining
why it’s forbidden to watch the stu-
pid bowl. About another thing, the
DG letters from a frustrated father.
I know the family, the yeshiva and
the whole situation and you need to
know that the boy will not agree to
communicate with his father until
the letter writing stops. That is not
the way to make peace here. So
please don’t publish his letters and
advise him to see a good life coach
who can help him mend his rela-
tionship with his son. Thank you
YY
Vues Master’s Note: We publish all
sides! We let our educated readers
decide!
PLOT
Dear Vues Master:
The sons of a Momar who died
came to the Chevra Kadisha, seek-
ing to buy a plot to bury their father.
“Our father instructed us to bury
him in a Jewish cemetery,” they
said. The Chevra Kadisha didn’t
know what to do. These brothers
were well-connected with the Gov-
ernment, but how could they agree
to have this מומר be buried in a Jew-
ish grave? After reflecting for a few
moments, the head of the Chevra
Kadisha agreed to sell them a plot,
but quoted them an exorbitant price.
“What!!!?” they exclaimed. “For
that price, we could buy the whole
cemetery.” The head of the Chevra
Kadisha responded: “That may be
so. But it’s only fair. In the future,
all of the dead will arise and leave
the cemetery, except for the מומרים
and therefore your father will for-
ever have the entire cemetery to
himself.”
NB
Vues Master’s Note: You could just
Plotz!
PESACH
Dear Vues Master:
Depending on where you are for
pesach its very possible you may
need to buy extra matza this year!!
Pesach ends on thursday night (in
chutz laaretz) and that doesn’t leave
much time to procure challahs for
Shabbos. I don’t think everybody’s
Rebbetzin wants to stay up a whole
night preparing for shabbos and also
baking challahs. They were busy
enough with that erev yom tov. If
you are away for Yom Tov you bet-
ter be able to trust the people who
are providing food that the challos
were baked without chometz sheov-
or olav HaPesach.
Signed
D.F.
Vues Master’s Note: Oy! We are not
up to Purim yet! Don’t scare me!
LOSS
Dear Vues Master:
A father and son went to buy mer-
chandise. The father bargained for
every penny with the seller. “Dad,
I don’t understand, we’re buying
on credit and you and I both know
that you have no intention of pay-
ing. Why are you bargaining so
strongly?” His father answered:
“Son, he’s a nice man and I feel
sorry for him. I want to minimize
his loss.”
ER
Vues Master’s Note: How consider-
ate!
FOUR
Dear Vues Master:
An old man buried his third wife.
Shortly thereafter, he took a fourth.
Tongues were wagging at how he
keeps getting remarried. “Why is it
an issue?” he asked. “If the
עולם של רבונו sees fit to take
the women whom I marry, why
shouldn’t I?”
RE
Vues Master’s Note: Wow! What
chizuk! There is hope for everyone!
KEEP IN PLACE
Dear Vues Master:
Sforno on Shemos 18:7 – “And
Moshe went out”, Moses did not
stand on ceremony, using his po-
sition to await the arrival of his
father-in-law, Yisro, but went out
to greet him. We find that Queen
Esther, similarly, did not use her
elevation to Royalty as an excuse
to no longer defer to Mordechai
who had raised her. Yoseph also did
not use his exalted position to look
down on his brothers. The Chief of
the butlers, who had reason to be
grateful to Yoseph, is an example of
ingratitude, as we know from Ber-
ashis 40,23, “he did not remember
Yoseph, in fact he erased him from
his memory.” – Sefaria Let’s play
the game of Clue. Here are the char-
acters and the choice is if the “but-
ler” or “brother” did it? Yisro was
indirectly responsible for Moshe’s
speech defect as he told Pharaoh to
test him using a hot coal. Yisro also
put Moshe in a ditch for ten years.
Despite all this, Moshe went out
to meet his father-in-law and even
bowed down to him. Wow, such a
father-in-law get’s this reception
but a father, me, who gently disci-
plined his son gets shunned. Morde-
chai raised Queen Esther and went
to the palace every day to see her.
Wow, as a devoted father, I took
my son out of second grade when
the school didn’t stop the abuse. I
successfully homeschooled him to
the chagrin of those who wanted
to control us with threats. I didn’t
demand the minimum $25 child
support from my ex-wife, and I let
her see him whenever she wanted.
I used my meager income to get
him, among other things, music
lessons. I was his cook, confident
and chauffeur. After a day’s work I
would drive to Queens to pick him
up and go back to Brooklyn for Rav
Shlomo Brevda’s shiurim. Yoseph,
the leader, did not look down on his
brother; even though he was sold by
them. Wow, I sold my son’s Legos
and now he looks down on me by
not coming to my house for Pesach.
Who is the culprit? Is it my son the
“butler” or his mom the “brother”?
It is the mom, she is the “brother”
who sold him to the Yeshiva. My
son is not the “butler” with bad mid-
dos (traits). He is a captive like Es-
ther and he doesn’t know good from
bad because his MOM is behind ev-
erything. Turn over the word WOW
and see she is behind the scenes.
DG
Vues Master’s Note: True! But why
mess up your shtikel by bashing a
Jewish Mother!
ASERES HADIBROS
Dear Vues Master:
What is the significance of the first
and fifth commandments being
bookends on the first set of luchos
(tablets)? To teach that everything
in between them applies to both
of them. For instance, 1. You shall
have no other g-ds before me. – Just
like you should have no other G-d
so you should have no other father.
Meaning He is your G-d after the
Holocaust, and he is your father af-
ter punishment. 2. Thou shalt not
make unto thee any graven images.
– Parents should be the first picture
to grace your walls after marriage.
Also, a father can elevate a rabbi to
father status, but a rabbi can’t ele-
vate himself to that status. 3. Thou
shalt not take the name of the Lord
thy G-d in vain. – This is a warning
for fathers not to lecture, threaten or
warn their children lest they use it in
vain. Instead, teach by example and
don’t let a misdeed go without con-
sequence. 4. Remember the Sabbath
day and keep it Holy – Remember
your father’s mesora (traditions)
and keep it alive. 5. Honor your fa-
ther and mother. – Honoring your
father and mother is honoring G-d
so parents should bite their tongue
and let them honor you even if you
feel unworthy or embarrassed by it.
DG
Vues Master’s Note: Part of this
is having a harmonious home and
if you can’t get along with your
spouse you can’t expect your child
to respect you!
SUPER BOWL
Dear Vues Master:
All these Super Bowl parties feel
like the Gemara when it says that
you could be metaher a sheretz 150
different ways!
Keep this stuff away!
Vues Master’s Note: You are right
but once you have people already
into the game it is probably worth
hooking them up with some Torah!
DEAD
Dear Vues Master:
Looking for an apartment is never
easy. David and Sarah had an es-
pecially difficult time, however.
Blessed with seven children, they
needed a large apartment. However,
each time they found one, they were
rejected because they were not go-
ing to lie when asked the size of their
family. It was getting frustrating.
One morning before going to see
yet another apartment, David asked
Sarah to take the four younger chil-
dren for a visit to the cemetery. He
went with the other three to check
out a beautiful apartment and was
promptly asked by the landlord how
many children he had. “Seven,” he
responded, but four are with their
dear mother in the cemetery.” They
moved in the next day!
DS
Vues Master’s Note: Then the land-
lord learned how there is techiyas
hameisim in our day and age!
DEAD OR ALIVE
Dear Vues Master:
כבד את אביך מכבדו בחייו ומכבדו במותו
The Gemara (Kiddushin 31b) says,
After a person mentions his de-
ceased father, he should add
(זללה“ה)
זכרונו לברכה לחיי העולם הבא
The א“מהרש writes, saying
adding without זכרונו לברכה
הבא העולם לחיי can be said even on
a live person.
MF
Vues Master’s Note: Keep em alive
please!
MARRIAGE
Dear Vues Master:
After delivering a brilliant lecture on
quantum physics and the theory of
relativity, Albert Einstein was com-
plimented by a student for making
his thesis so understandable. “But
what reason do you have to look so
glum?” the student asked. “Plenty
of reason,” Einstein answered. “My
wife doesn’t understand me.“
BJ
Vues Master’s Note: You see it hap-
pens to everyone, not just me!
AVODA ZORA
Dear Vues Master:
Years ago, there were some Poskim
who opposed displaying Gedolim
pictures. Today almost all hold
that it is acceptable to do so. Look-
ing at pictures of Gedolim might
help us & our children to identify
with them and may have a positive
effect. However, if these pictures
are used to perform miracles such
as chasing away Mr.Schwartz & his
family from looting your property,
or getting rid of the mice in your
kitchen or preventing Covid19 from
entering your home, then we must
ask why wouldn’t it be considered
זרה עבודה .Surely there will be
some who will be able to come
up with a סברא לומדישע why it
is מותר and do away one of the
חמורות‘ ג with just a simple סברא .
When they made the הזהב עגל
in the מדבר ,then too there were
those who defended it with some
made up סברא why it is not an זרה
.לשם שמים done but עבודה
GM
Vues Master’s Note: All I know is
that it messed up my mouse on my
computer.