05 Sep SPEAK YOUR VUES WITH THE VUES MASTER

YOMIM NORAIM SEATING REQUEST FORM
Dear Vues Master
A shul in my neighborhood sent this letter out to their
kehillah around a month ago & I thought your readers
would appreciate this.
During last year’s Yomim Noraim, many individuals
expressed concern over the seating arrangements in shul.
In order for us to place you in a seat which will best suit
you, we ask you to complete the following questionnaire
and return it to the shul office as soon as possible.
1. I would prefer to sit in the… (Check one:)
___ Talking section
___ No talking section
2. If talking, which category do you prefer? (Indicate order
of interest:)
___ Stock market
___ Sports
___ Medicine
___ General lashon harah
___ Specific lashon harah (choose:)
___ The rabbi
___ The chazan
___ The chazan’s voice
___ Fashion news
___ What others are wearing
___ Why they look awful
___ Your neighbors
___ Your relatives
___ Your neighbors’ relatives
___Presidential Election
___Other_________________
3. Which of the following would you like to be near for free
professional advice?
__ Doctor
__ Dentist
__ Nutritionist
__ Psychiatrist
__ Child psychiatrist
__ Podiatrist
__ Chiropractor
__ Stockbroker
__ Accountant
__ Lawyer
__ Criminal
__ Civil
__ Real estate agent
__ Architect
__ Plumber
__ Golf pro [tentative; we’re still trying to find a Jewish
One]
__ Other:____________
4. I want a seat located (Indicate order of priority:)
__ On the aisle
__ Near the exit
__ Near the window
__ In Aruba
__ Near the bathroom
__ Near my in-laws
__ As far away from my in-laws as possible
__ As far away from my ex-in-laws as possible
__ Near the bima
__ Near the Kiddush table
__ Where no one on the bimah can see/hear me talking
during services
__ Where no one will notice me sleeping during davening
__ Where I can sleep during the rabbi’s speech [additional
charge]
5. I would like a seat where:
__ I can see my spouse over the mechitza
__ I cannot see my spouse over the mechitza
6. Please do not place me anywhere near the following
people: (Limit of six; if you require more space, you may
wish to consider joining another kehillah.)
_____________________________________________
Your name:_________________
Building fund pledge: $______
RAG
Vues Master’s Note: This is hilarious! I really hope this
is a joke. A lashon harah section does not sound good.
Especially when this weekend is the Chofetz Chaim’s 90th
yahrtzeit.

TIPS
Dear Vues Master:
Why are restaurants asking for tips when taking food to
go? It seems like this is a new thing. Restaurants these days
keep making up new charges.
JK
Vues Master’s Note: Unfortunately we are being ripped
constantly! To add insult to injury, who has cash to pay so
we pay with a credit card which the stores now charge you
another 4 percent for using the card! A Shande!

ISHAY RIBO
Dear Vues Master:
This past Sunday I took my family to Madison Square
Garden to watch Ishay Ribo. It was amazing! We had a

great time. How many Jewish singers can get
15,000 people into one place outside of Eretz
Yisrael! What a Kiddush Hashem!
NH
Vues Master’s Note: Why is it a Kiddush
Hashem? Since when is a concert a Kiddush
Hashem?

KEEP THINGS TO YOURSELF
Dear Vues Master:
I’ve noticed a disturbing phenomenon that I
believe has been caused by the partisan nature
of today’s politics and an unhealthy dose
of ego. When commenting- especially in a
complimentary manner – another person, their
writing, speaking, or viewpoints, I’ve noticed
that many times a person needs to qualify
their compliment with a disclaimer listing
the positions they disagree with the person
they’re complementing. It seems to me the
person qualifying their compliment is worried
about one or two concerns. Either they’ll be
thought of agreeing with his positions, and for
some reason that matters, and/or they think
they’re so important that if someone can draw
a conclusion that by omitting criticism of
someone else the world will be detrimentally
affected. People need to chill. There are very
few people in the world today – and they aren’t
reading this – who needs to criticize someone
they’re complementing just in case someone
thinks they agree with everything the person
they’ve complemented has ever said, written,
or done. Be a good person. Complement
others without qualification and don’t worry
about the consequences – there won’t be any.
RUP
Vues Master’s Note: Best of all is silence. No
one has ever regretted not saying something!
Seyag Lachochma Shtika!

FREE
Dear Vues Master:
On Shabbos of משפטים פרשת, after the Rav
spoke about the parsha, one of the מתפללים
said “I don’t understand. The Torah says that
after six years of work, if the eved wants to stay
with his master and not use the opportunity to
go free, his ear is pierced. Why would he not
want to go free?” One of the other מתפללים
answered: “I understand him. Why, the Torah
states ‘עמו אשתו ויצאה. ‘And you want to call
that going free?
LM
Vues Master’s Note: Freedom is a state of
mind!

NEW SPEED TRAP
Dear Vues Master
I would like to inform you of a speed trap on
the FDR southbound just past the Brooklyn
bridge. There is a little sign off to the right
side that changes the speed on the southbound
FDR from 40 mph to 30 mph. A police car sits
there just past the Brooklyn bridge waiting for
unsuspecting motorists to give them a ticket.
The sign is actually quite small and hard to
see. If you’re going southbound you don’t
look in the direction of the sign so you won’t

see it at all. A little further south is a bigger
sign declaring a 30 mph zone. The police pull
you over before you pass the second sign. I
couldn’t take a picture of the sign because I
was driving and it was dangerous for me to
take a picture.
OA
Vues Master’s Note: Thanks for sharing!

IGNORING MASS MURDER, THEN
AND NOW
Dear Vues Master:
The horrifying news that Saudi Arabian
border guards have been massacring African
migrants is now compounded by the revelation
that the Biden administration has been aware
of the mass murder for at least a year, and
yet has said nothing about it. According
to human rights groups, the Saudi security
forces have slaughtered “hundreds, perhaps
thousands” of unarmed African civilians. The
migrants had approached the Saudi border in
the hope of finding work or receiving asylum
from persecution; the Saudis responded with
gunfire, mutilations, and sexual atrocities.
The New York Times reported on August 28
that as early as the autumn of 2022, “American
diplomats received grim news that border
guards in Saudi Arabia, a close U.S. partner
in the Middle East, were using lethal force
against African migrants.” Yet throughout this
past year, the Biden administration has never
criticized the Saudi massacres. The most
any U.S. official has said was, as the Times
noted, “an oblique reference” to the issue: the
deputy American representative to the United
Nations said during a UN briefing last January
that the Biden administration is “concerned”
by “alleged abuses against migrants on the
border with Saudi Arabia.” He called on “all
parties” to permit an outside investigation.
That was it. No reference to the killings and no
identification of the perpetrators, even though
Washington had already received ample
information about the mass murder. The
Times pointed out that in late 2022, President
Biden publicly criticized Saudi Arabia for
cutting oil production, because it might “lead
to a rise in global oil prices before the midterm
elections.” He even threatened there would be
“consequences” for oil cuts. But the president
said nothing about the Saudi massacres.
Apparently there are no consequences for
mass murder. During the Holocaust, too,
the U.S. government received information
about mass murder but chose to look away.
Beginning in the autumn of 1941, Washington
received increasingly detailed reports about
the Nazis’ machine-gun massacres of tens
of thousands of European Jews in occupied
Russia. One eyewitness account described
freshly-covered mass graves “heaving like
the sea” from the movement of victims who
were not yet dead. A report smuggled
from Poland in June 1942 disclosed that the
Germans had “embarked on the physical
extermination of the Jewish population
on Polish soil,” and had already murdered
at least 700,000 Polish Jews. The World

Jewish Congress publicized the news. The
Roosevelt administration had no comment.
In August, a telegram to Washington from
the World Jewish Congress representative in
Geneva, Gerhart Riegner, reported that the
Germans intended “to exterminate all Jews
from German and German-controlled areas
in Europe after they have been concentrated
in the east (presumably Poland).” The
State Department refused Riegner’s request
to forward the telegram to American Jewish
leaders, because of—as one U.S. official put
it—“the fantastic nature of the allegation
and the impossibility of our being of any
assistance.” In fact, there were many ways
the U.S. could have been of assistance, but it
would have meant taking steps that President
Franklin D. Roosevelt was unwilling to
consider, such as admitting more refugees to
the United States or urging the British to open
the doors of Palestine. Finally, three months
later, the accumulation of evidence compelled
Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles to
acknowledge that “there is no exaggeration.
These documents [from Riegner and others]
are evidently correct.” But when the British
Foreign Office proposed that the Allies issue
a joint statement about the killings, Roosevelt
administration officials resisted, fearing that—
as one senior official put it—“the various
Governments of the United Nations [as the
Allies were informally known] would expose
themselves to increased pressure from all
sides to do something more specific in order to
aid these people.” The U.S. eventually went
along with issuing the statement, but only
after watering down some of the language.
For example, the proposed phrase “reports
from Europe which leave no doubt” (that mass
murder was underway) was whittled down to
just “numerous reports from Europe.” The
final version, released on December 17, 1942,
was signed by the United States, Great Britain,

the Soviet Union, and the governments-in-
exile of eight German-occupied countries.

It condemned the Nazis’ “bestial policy of
cold-blooded extermination.” But it did
not propose any steps to rescue Jews from
Hitler. The idea of offering asylum for Jewish
refugees was left out of the statement because,
as one British official explained, it would
mean making an offer “which would dog our
footsteps forever.” How much have attitudes
changed since the 1940s? Eighty years later,
“rights violations, no matter how grave, rarely
take priority when diplomats do business
with their counterparts from rich partners
like Saudi Arabia,” the Times noted. But
“rich” mass murderers should not be given a
pass. The Biden administration has promised
to take international human rights seriously.
It has a moral obligation to speak out against
mass murder, even when it may be politically
or financially inconvenient to do so.
RM
Vues Master’s Note: Wow! How true History
repeats itself and we don’t learn from our
History! This is a historical fact!

HONOR
Dear Vues Master:
The seventh day is Shabbos to the Lord your
G-d. Honor your father and your mother, as the
Lord your G-d commanded you [in Marah]. –
The 4th and 5th commandment respectively,
Devarim 5:13-16 Shabbos and honoring one’s
father and mother were given at Marah, –
Sanhedrin 56b A man, his mother and his father
shall you fear, and My Shabbos shall you keep.
Vayikra 19:1-3. This son of ours turns aside
and is recalcitrant, not heeding our voice, a
glutton and a guzzler, Then all the people of
his city shall stone him with stones and he
shall die. – ben sorer umoreh, Devarim 21:19-
21 The Torah shows that Shabbos and Kibud
Av v’em are connected. They are together
in the Decalogue, given together in Marah
and parshas Kedoshim lists them together.
In Parshas Ki Seitzei a ben sorer umoreh is
stoned just like a Shabbos desecrator. One
parallel between Shabbos and Kibud Av v’em
is that both are a gift. One shouldn’t look a
gift horse in the mouth and complain about
Shabbos or his parents. In fact, the harder it is
to keep Shabbos the more esteem there is for
keeping it and the same is true for respecting
and honoring a difficult parent. On the flip
side, if someone publicly desecrates Shabbos
he disqualifies himself from the community so
a person who denigrates his father is acting in
a disqualifying way. G-d will not judge you
by how your children treat you but how you
treat your parents. Shabbos and parents are the
few things in the world that one can be certain
about.
DG
Vues Master’s Note: A Zaken Mamre was also
stoned!

COMPLETE
Dear Vues Master:
And on the day of Bikkurim (the day of first

fruits, Shavuos), when you offer a new meal-
offering to the Lord at the completion of your

weeks, a calling of holiness shall it be for you;
all work of labor you shall not do. – Bamidbar
28:26 The importance of gratitude is evident
in that the Torah does not refer to the Festival
of Shavuos as the day the Torah was given,
but the “day of Bikkurim” because gratitude
outweighs the giving of the Torah at Sinai.
Rav Chaim Shmulevitz cites the Midrash
that when Hashem told Moshe to go to Egypt
Moshe said, “I cannot go until I take leave
from Yisro, who took me into his home when
I was a wanderer” (Shemos Rabbah 4:2).
Think about it! Moshe has a direct command
from G-d, and it is to deliver the Bnei Yisrael
from the inhuman slavery in Egypt, but Moses
says that he cannot go without taking leave of
Yisro! Rav Shmulevitz says that Moshe knew
that it was G-d’s will that he does so, because
gratitude is fundamental to G-dliness (Sichos
Mussar 5732:32). Rabbi Twerski concludes,
we must model gratitude for our children.
Children are often reluctant to express

gratitude. A mother’s instruction to her five-
year-old child, “Say ‘thank you’ to the nice

man for the candy,” is often met with a grunt,
indicating his refusal to do so. We can only
conclude that reluctance to express gratitude
is innate in children, and it is important that
this resistance be overcome. This can best
be accomplished by the parents modeling
gratitude. Husbands and wives may take for
granted the things that they do for each other.
Saying “thank you” when the wife serves a
meal or when the husband does the dishes
is an important lesson for the children. –
ArtScroll. I think it would be more powerful
for a father to model being a good child to
his parents and being a good spouse. What
do you think?
DG
Vues Master’s Note: You are on the same
track all the time one day the train will run
you over!

PROTECT HOLY SITE
Dear Vues Master:
An American Zionist leader is calling on
the Biden administration to take action in
response to Palestinian Arab violence against
Jewish worshippers at the Tomb of Joseph,
in Shechem (Nablus). Palestinian Islamic
Jihad terrorists carried out multiple bomb
attacks on August 30 against Israeli security
forces guarding the route used by Jewish
worshippers visiting the burial site of that
biblical patriarch. At least four Israelis were
wounded. A spokesman for the terrorists said,
“Our land is forbidden to you, and Joseph’s
Tomb is your tomb,” according to the
Jerusalem Post. Stephen M. Flatow, president
of the Religious Zionists of America (RZA),
has filed an official complaint with the
United States Commission on International
Religious Freedom, asking it to intervene “in
support of religious freedom at the Tomb of
Joseph.” In a letter to the commissioners, the
RZA president noted that this week’s attack
was “just the latest in a series of terrorist
assaults on Jewish worshippers at the Tomb
of Joseph and the security personnel guarding
them.” “The Oslo accords, in which the
United States is deeply invested, guarantee
free Jewish access to the Tomb of Joseph,”
the RZA president pointed out. “And the
Palestinian Authority’s security force, which
the U.S. has armed and trained, is required
to ensure that access. Yet the PA continues
to stand idly by as terrorists interfere with
Jewish religious freedom.” Flatow asked the
U.S. Commission on International Religious
Freedom to urge the Biden administration
to use its $600-million in annual aid to the
Palestinian Arabs as leverage to compel the
PA to fulfill its Oslo obligations regarding
religious freedom at the Tomb of Joseph.
“If Jewish worshippers at a religious site
anywhere else in the world were subjected
to this kind of violence, there would be
international outrage,” the RZA president
said. “Why is the world silent when Jewish
worshippers are attacked at the Kever of
Yosef?”
RZA

Vues Master’s Note: It is sad that we just sit
here and see all this and do nothing about it!

COMPLETE
Dear Vues Master:
Rabbi Yehoshua Kurland tells the story of
a chuppah that was about to begin and the
chosson was nowhere to be found. After
much searching, a friend found him in a
a with מסכת כתובות learning בית מדרש
קידושין מסכת beside him. “Everyone is
waitinsg for you. The chuppah is about to
start,” he was told. “I’m sorry,” the חתן said,
“but I have a מנהג that whenever I’m about
to do a מצוה for the first time, I review the
relevant מסכתות. What can I do? A
טובה הנהגה may have the דין of a נדר. I can’t
break a נדר “!His friend answered: “But had
you known that your practice would cause
your כלה and all the guests to wait, would
you have done it anyways? Perhaps based
on that leniency, you can be מתיר the נדר. “
“You’re right!” the chosson replied. “Bring
“!מסכת נדרים a me
MV
Vues Master’s Note: It’s a good thing he did
not start Meseches Gittin!

ELUL POEMS
Dear Vues Master
Now that we’re in the month of Elul, a time
of intense introspection and soul searching, I
present a series of original poems and lyrics
that depict our common journey of regret,
return and ultimate redemption!
SINNER’S LAMENT
I want
From the ignorance of birth
Brilliant stones that have no worth
And I satisfy the cries
Of my body and my eyes
But ignore the constant crying
of my soul
I yearn
With a monumental lust
For the things I know are dust
And I wallow and persist
In the things I can’t resist
And I wrestle in the silence of the night
I crave
In the shadow of my grave
Not a master but a slave
And I reach to wipe the mud
But it’s running in my blood
And it rots my dying body
Black as coal
And I perish with no body
And no soul
But let’s not get depressed!
The Torah shows us the way back!
It starts with realizing the truth!
It’s been said the two most important days in
a person’s life is:
1. The day he was born and
2. The day he questions why?
MAKE BELIEVE
You’re much too young, my son
Your life has just begun
So let me sing to you

What I found to be true
This life is just a dream
Things aren’t what they seem
For wealth and fame’s no friend
They’re worthless in the end
For they’re only make believe
Some men they seek for fame
The world must know their name
While others yearn, you see,
For gold and jewelry
Until their dying day
When they can’t buy their way
What good’s their fortune then
When life has fled from them
For they’re only make believe?
So listen well, my son
When all is said and done
There’s just one thing that’s real
The treasure that no man can steal
The Torah learnt each day
The charity we give away
These are reality all else is vanity
For they’re only make believe
TICK TOK TICK TOK
Chorus:
Tick-tock tick-tock
Time is passing by
Yesterday we said hello
And soon we’ll say goodbye.
Tick-tock tick-tock
Life soon fades away
And all that’s left are memories
And then the judgment day
So hug your momma
Tell her that you care
Tell her that you love her
For always being there.
Hug your papa
Look him in the eye
Tell him that you love him
You just might make him cry
Chorus:
Tick-tock tick-tock
Time is passing by
Yesterday we said hello
And soon we’ll say goodbye
Tick-tock tick-tock
Life soon fades away
And all that’s left are memories
And then the judgment day
So hug your Bubby
Kiss her on the cheek
Tell her that you love her
Although she’s old and weak
And hug your Zaidy
When he cries RACHEIM NUH
AL TASHLECHEINI L’AIS ZIKNUH
Chorus:
Tick-tock tick-tock
Time is passing by
Yesterday we said hello
And soon we’ll say goodbye
Tick-tock tick-tock
Life soon fades away
And all that’s left are memories
And then the judgment day
So hug your children
Help them learn and play
Find the time to spend with them

They’ll give it back one day
And treat your wife
with tender, loving care
For it is written HASHEM counts
A woman’s every tear
Chorus:
Tick-tock tick-tock
Time is passing by
Yesterday we said hello
And soon we’ll say goodbye
Tick-tock tick-tock
Life soon fades away
And all that’s left are memories
And then the judgment day
Once we realize what’s really important and
our true mission In life
we must turn to HASHEM for help!
IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE
In the blink of an eye
A world can be broken
A lifetime of dreams
Scattered like dust
In the blink of an eye
A word can be spoken
Breaking a heart, love can depart
In the blink of an eye
In the blink of an eye
A soul can be taken
Leaving us numb
Unable to cry
In the blink of an eye
Our souls can awaken
Giving us peace
Our sorrow can cease
In the blink of an eye
CHORUS:
Just when you think
your dreams are not to be
And your soul it cries out in pain
Just raise your voice and call to HIM
For HASHEM he is one
And HIS will it is done
In the blink of an eye
In the blink of an eye
HASHEM can befriend you
Breaking the chains
Healing the wounds
In the blink of an eye
HASHEM can defend you
For HASHEM he is one
And HIS will it is done
HIS Yeshua can come
…In the blink of an eye
WISHING ALL A KSIVA V’CHASIMA
TOVA!
Country Yossi Toiv