21 Feb SPEAK YOUR VUES WITH THE VUES MASTER

PESACH
Dear Vues Master
What should I do? My wife wants to go away for
Pesach & we just can’t afford it. I understand that it’s
a lot of work & I really try to help her but it still falls
mostly on her. What should I do?
LP
Vues Master’s Note: Good Question! Talk it over with
your wife and explain to her we can’t afford it and
that you need to marry off your kids etc. Hopefully
she will understand!
THE PRICE OF SIMCHAS
Dear Vues Master

I can’t believe how much I just spent on a Sheva Bra-
chos. The wedding cost me over $75k & I didn’t pre-
pare to spend $15k plus on a Sheva Brachos. This is

really getting out of hand.
BK

Vues Master’s Note: It sure beats spending for a le-
vaya!

PURIM
Dear Vues Master
My favorite Yom Tov is Purim. My family gets
dressed up & the whole day is a lot of fun. My wife
really wants to go to someone else’s seudah this year
in Teaneck & I don’t want to leave my family &
friends in Brooklyn. What should we do?
JK
Vues Master’s Note: Maybe do one year this way and
one year the other way!
RAMOT TRAGEDY
Dear Vues Master
Thank you for giving front page coverage to the Ramot

tragedy. Certainly, the magnitude of such a tragedy war-
rants such attention. If I may, however, I would like to raise

a question for us to consider- at such a heart-wrenching time
in their lives, do the family members sitting shiva: a) want
their pictures taken, and b) do they want their pictures put
on the front page, or on any page for that matter? I think we
can assume not. Thank you for a very worthy publication.
DY

Vues Master’s Note: If they don’t see it and it helps
other people to use it for introspection one can argue
that it is OK.
BLIND LOVE
Dear Vues Master
A woman asked her husband: “If you saw me with
another man, what would you do?” “I would break his
cane and kill his dog,” he replied. “What makes you
think he would have a cane and a dog?” she asked.

“Only a blind man would be attracted to you,” he re-
sponded.

MB
Vues Master’s Note: I guess this couple is a lesson of
how marriage is supposed to be like. No way!
MONEY
Dear Vues Master
A woman once approached Rabbi Soloveitchik of
Brisk with a strange question. She wanted to know
whether someone could use milk instead of wine
for the four cups at the Seder, since she simply
couldn’t afford the wine. He responded by giving
her an especially large amount of money. One of
the Rabbi’s students asked him, “I understand you
gave her money because she can’t afford the wine,
but why so much?” The Rabbi explained, “If she
wants to drink milk at the Seder, it is obvious she
has no meat for Pesach” (since the laws of kashrut
forbid the mixing of milk and meat). “So I gave

her enough to buy both wine and meat for the en-
tire Yom Tov.” The other day a man approached

his Rabbi, and wanted to know if he could take his
son to the Prospect Park Zoo instead of the Bronx

Zoo during the middle days of Pesach. So this Rab-
bi gave the man a few thousand dollars. His wife

asked him, “Why so much?” The Rabbi replied that
if the man wants to take his child to the Prospect

Park Zoo, it’s obvious he can’t afford to go to Or-
lando for Pesach.

JB
Vues Master’s Note: Maybe you should tell that to the
other letter titled Pesach

WHY THAT OHIO TOWN IS
NAMED “EAST PALESTINE”
Dear Vues Master

A toxic spill has drawn the nation’s at-
tention to the little town of East Pales-
tine, Ohio, just as another tragedy, the

explosion of the space shuttle Colum-
bia in 2003, turned the nation’s gaze

upon the town of Palestine, Texas,
where much of the debris landed. The
tragic spotlight now shining on Ohio’s
“East Palestine” naturally leaves some
people curious as to why it has such an
unusual name. The answer is that it’s

not a very unusual name at all. Else-
where in Ohio, there are towns named

Hebron, Gilboa, Canaan, and Shiloh
(two of them, in fact). There’s even a

Sodom, which was given its name af-
ter a prohibition advocate, disappoint-
ed at the small turnout for his lecture

in 1840, jokingly compared the locale
to that infamous biblical center of sin.
In Texas, in addition to Palestine, there
are towns named Hebbronville and
Joshua. There is a Hebron in North
Dakota and a Sinai in South Dakota,
a Jerusalem in Arkansas, a Jericho in
Vermont, a Bethlehem as well as a
Nazareth in Pennsylvania, and a Zion
in Maryland. Nearly every state has

one or more towns named after bib-
lical sites or individuals. Altogether,

there are more than 1,000 biblically-
named towns from coast to coast.

Towns such as East Palestine, Ohio,

were established by 19th-century re-
ligious Christian settlers; they chose

those names to express their spiritual
attachment to the land and people of

the Bible. When they thought of Pal-
estine, they recalled the Jewish king-
doms and temples of ancient times,

as well as the events surrounding the
origins of Christianity in the Jewish
town of Bethlehem. In their prayers,
they prayed for the return of the Jews

to the Holy Land, which they under-
stood to be inextricably linked to the

coming messianic age. The area that
became East Palestine was originally
known as Mechanicsburg. There are
a number of towns in the U.S. that
were originally settled by mechanics
of various types. But in the case of
Ohio, “Mechanicsburg” was changed

in 1836 because—according to an ear-
ly history of the region—“the wife of

Dr. Robert Chamberlin desired a more
euphonious appellation and desired it

[be] called ‘Palestine,’ the quiet beau-
ty of the little town, and the earnest,

virtuous, simple life of its people sug-
gesting to her a name recalling holy

memories.” Since there already was a

town named “Palestine” in the west-
ern part of the state—likewise found-
ed by religious Christians who wanted

to infuse their town with “holy memo-
ries”—government officials, in assign-
ing the new post office, added the pre-
fix “East.” That early account of East

Palestine’s founding was published
in 1905, when it was common for a
married woman’s name to be hidden

behind that of her husband. But a his-
torical marker in front of the log house

where the Chamberlains once lived
tells us that the name of the doctor’s
wife was Rebecca—an appropriately
biblical name for a woman who took
her Bible seriously. Not surprisingly,
numerous churches quickly sprung up

in East Palestine and its environs. Lu-
theran and Reformed congregations

established the Salem Church, choos-
ing a name derived from “Jerusalem.”

Evangelical Lutherans founded the St.
Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church,
while Methodists originally held their

services in a local school—the sepa-
ration between church and state was

still rather fuzzy in those days—be-
fore eventually erecting their Method-
ist Episcopal Church. East Palestine

also had a United Presbyterian Church
and, later, another house of worship
with a biblically-inspired name, the
Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church.
When America’s religious Christian
settlers thought of the Holy Land, they
thought of the Hebrew bible and the

area’s 3,000 years of Jewish inhabita-
tion, not the Koran or the more recent-
ly-arrived Arab residents of the area.

They thought of the many Jews who
appear in the accounts of the birth of
Christianity (including its founder),

texts that do not mention any Palestin-
ian Arabs. Certainly Americans were

aware that there were Arabs living in
Palestine in the 19th century. Mark
Twain, for example, had mentioned
them in his account of his visit to the

Holy Land, The Innocents Abroad
(1869). So had Herman Melville in
his famous Clarel: A Poem and the
Pilgrimage in the Holy Land (1876).
But it was common knowledge that
the Arab population of Palestine was
relatively small and unsettled, and
that the Arab residents of 19th-century
Palestine regarded themselves as part
of southern Syria, not as a separate
nationality. H. Allen Tupper, Jr. wrote
in the New York Times in 1896, after
having “ridden on horseback more

than four hundred miles through Pal-
estine and Syria,” that virtually the

only local people he encountered were
“merchantmen with their long camel
trains” and “wild Bedouin tribes” that
“reside in one locality not more than

two months.” Today’s residents pro-
nounce East Palestine “Palesteen,”

but the original settlers undoubtedly
pronounced it the more common way.
Because it was the Holy Land, with its
deep Jewish roots, that burned bright

in the hearts and prayers of the found-
ers of the many biblically-named

towns across America. And it is for
the same reason that Bible-believing

Christians today—probably includ-
ing more than a few residents of East

Palestine, Ohio—constitute one of the
major sources of pro-Israel sentiment
in the United States.
Rafael Medoff
Vues Master’s Note: As Usual Thanks
for the history lesson!
A YIDDISHE KRENK
Dear Vues Master
A Frenchman, a German and a Jew
walk into a bar. “I’m tired and thirsty,”
says the Frenchman. “I must have
wine.” “I’m tired and thirsty, as well,”
says the German. “I must have beer.”
“I’m tired and thirsty,” says the Jew. “I
must have diabetes.”
KM
Vues Master’s Note: Wow sounds like

he needs Chicken soup Jewish Penicil-
lin!

READING THE MEGILLAH
Dear Vues Master

The Gemara emphasized the impor-
tance of reading Megilat Esther on

Purim in its original language and the
original script it was written in. This

is different from other areas of Jew-
ish law, especially areas dealing with

publicizing a miracle. When publiciz-
ing the miracle of the Pesach exodus by

reading the Haggadah, the language it’s
read in isn’t important, understanding
the miracle is the priority. Why is it that
Megilat Esther is different and must be
read in its original language and the
original script it was written in? The

Chofetz Chaim discouraged the chang-
ing of prayers in shul to a different lan-
guage. He had seen in his time that com-
munities in Europe were beginning to

use local translations of the prayers and
instead of reciting them in Hebrew, as
the custom was traditionally since after

the destruction of the first Beis Hamik-
dash, they had begun reciting them in

German, Polish, etc. It’s important to

keep the prayers in shul in Hebrew (al-
though in one’s own davening any lan-
guage is acceptable) because language

is strongly tied to culture. The congre-
gation’s change to a different language

from Hebrew is a break from the tradi-
tional past of the Jews in Eretz Yisrael

and transforms Judaism into a religion
of exile. Keeping prayers to traditional
Hebrew puts a priority on returning to
Eretz Yisrael. The Purim miracle was

that the Jews were tempted to assimi-
late into the Babylonian culture of the

land they were exiled to after the de-
struction of the first Beis Hamikdash

and were saved. Haman wanted the
Jews to bow to him and to Babylonian
culture. Mordechai refused to bow, not

just to Haman, but to Babylonian cul-
ture. The Megillah is read in its original

language and the original script it was
written in to emphasize the miracle of
Purim saving us from assimilation.
RUP
Vues Master’s Note: Thanks for voirt!
SAVE MONEY
Dear Vues Master

“I saved a few dollars today,” a wom-
an said to her husband. “I saw the bus

from a distance and ran to catch it,
but it took off before I could reach it.
So I walked and saved the bus fare.”
“Nice,” her husband said. “However,
it’s a shame that you didn’t run after a
taxi. You could have saved a lot more.”
DF
Vues Master’s Note: I would have told
her to chase a helicopter!

FATHER
Dear Vues Master
I object to the Rosh Yeshiva’s notion
that the baton of emunah (faith) and
mesora (tradition) has been given over
from father to rabbi. If so, it was done
unknowingly or worse he was coaxed
to do so. This article demonstrates how
children are seamlessly taken away
from their parents. The students are
surreptitiously taught while they are

young and trusting or old and rebel-
lious that their parents are outdated and

disposable. It is not hard to fathom how
such ideas can be taught in the frum
world because the country we live in
espouses parental alienation and those
who have power and know the truth are
afraid to speak up. One person told me
that he spoke to a gadol about helping
his alienated child by making a phone
call to a rabbi and he said, “What can I
do, I can’t fix the world.” No, you are
not obligated to fix the world, you are
obligated to do what you can, and leave
it to G-d to fix. Make a call, one child
at a time, and show G-d that you are on
board. If you are not actively making
peace between child and father at least
do not berate the one who is. There are

two philosophies on how to handle pa-
rental alienation, one is that the father

has to kowtow and the other is that the
father has to straighten. I take the latter
approach, which is uncommon, so you
might disagree with me but our goals
are the same. I appreciate constructive
criticism, perhaps one day he will pick
this up and rethink what his father has
to say. Regarding the recent remarks
on the one sided theme I write about
I will quote my Rav. Rav Brevda gave
a three hour shiur once a week and he
would occasionally apologize, when it
was close to midnight, and say, “What
can I do, I only have one day a week to
clean up last week’s rubbish.” My work
is less than a three minute read and on
a topic that is hardly called out like
“Not talking in shul.” G-d would prefer
that a son go to his father’s house and
talk then go to His house and not talk.
If I scream it is because I’m not being
heard. I reached out to my son’s RY
dozens of times and he ignored me. So
any finger pointing should be at him,
not me. He can resolve this because he
is not obligated to keep a student that is

a thorn in his side.
DG
Vues Master’s Note: The more you
scream the less chances you have to get
support!
PARENTS
Dear Vues Master
(Shemos 20:12) The Chazon Ish once

visited a yeshiva ketana to test the stu-
dents. The students were awed by the

great leader’s presence. He noticed one
of the boys whispering to the rebbe but
the rebbe silenced the boy. The Chazon

Ish asked if the student wanted some-
thing. The rebbe sheepishly nodded his

head. “What would you like?” he asked
the boy. The boy shyly asked, “How can
I become a Chazon Ish too?” The sage
thought a bit, and then he said, “If you
honor your parents like I did, then you
can become like me too!” The Chazon

Ish was exemplary in honoring his par-
ents. He was once suffering such excru-
ciating pain from a kidney stone that he

could hardly move. Suddenly he heard
his elderly mother coming. Quickly
he straightened himself and continued
studying aloud as if nothing was wrong,

in order to prevent his mother from see-
ing his pain. The Chazon Ish did not at-
tribute his great accomplishments to his

genius, or to the extraordinary efforts
he put into studying; not to his prayers,
nor to his abstinence from luxuries. He
attributed it primarily to the honor he
showed his parents!
– R. E. Nisenbaum
The Kotzker’s Yahrzeit
The Kotzker Rebbe states that it is
natural that the love of a father for his
son greatly exceeds the feelings of the
son for his father. Indeed, it is said that
one father can tend to the needs of ten
children, but ten children cannot tend
to the needs of one father. It is told that

an elderly man once came to the Kotz-
ker, pouring his heart out how impov-
erished he was and yet his children, for

whom he sacrificed a lifetime, and who
were quite well off, did not look after
his needs. “How can this be?” he cried
to the Rebbe. The Rebbe responded,
“Why the wonder? We see this clearly
in the Torah, when Binyamin is held by
Yosef, Yehuda pleads for mercy, lest the
elderly father will die. Why not plead
for Binyamin’s children who won’t
survive their father’s loss? “From here

we see that parents are filled with much
greater pain for their children’s tzaros,

than vice versa.” From this, the Kotz-
ker Rebbe derived the truism that, “…

parents have more compassion for their
children than children have for their
parents.” A child will rebel against his
parents, but a parent will stay true to

his child – regardless of behavior, fail-
ing or circumstance. Is this not just like

God, the Kotzker taught? Is this not

exactly like our ultimate Father’s devo-
tion to us? We rebel. We fall short. We

fail. Our shortcomings hurt our Father
deeply and cause Him suffering. But
He never turns away!
– R.E. Safran
Vues Master’s Note: You write about
one thing only! I feel for you because
no one is going to listen to you!
BRAINS
Dear Vues Master
I was surprised to see the answers to
the fun question. What quality is most
important for a president to exhibit?
We got all kinds of answers, but the
most important one nobody mentioned.
That is “BRAINS”. How come nobody
answered that?
Yf
Vues Master’s Note: I guess seichel
comes at a premium. Hence the phrase

why is common sense not common any-
more?

SUPER
Dear Vues Master
I was a bit disappointed to see last
week’s Jewish Vues. A whole issue
dedicated to the Superbowl?! Are these

people who we look up to? You want
to speak about it? Fine. But don’t start
being machshiv it. Show more respect
to our gedolim. Now that I am writing
this, it would be a good time to bring up
another point. In the Yom Kippur issue,
there was an article about the 3 dinner
guests’ questions. On the same page

you put a picture of Rav Dovid Fein-
stein ZT’’L and lihadil, football player

Sandy Kofax. (I only know the name
because I say it in the article). Not
only that, but the picture of the football
player was a nice big picture while the
picture of Rav Dovid was this small
picture in the corner. I don’t care if the
article was mainly about that football
player. That is not the way to do things.
It is time that the Vues start showing
the right respect to the right people.
YF
P.S. I am not a Lakewooder and I am
not such a yeshivish guy, But rather
someone who cares about the respect
of our gedolim. Vues Master’s Note:
WOAH! You put a lot of thought into
this letter!
CHINA
Dear Vues Master

When I tried ordering from Sports Illus-
trated the Super Bowl issue, I was told

it would take 2-3 weeks for delivery. I
told them never mind, I’ll try ordering
instead from China, since they’ll send
it faster by Balloon! Lol
RMS
Vues Master’s Note: This joke just blew
up in my face. Eh! It is a bunch of hot
air!