09 Jan SPEAK YOUR VUES WITH THE VUES MASTER

SHTENDER
Dear Vues Master:
I want to bring attention to an issue that has been bothering
me for a long time. I belong to a shul that is B’H busting
at the seams and tight for space. There are many people in
my shul who put shtenders to hold their place in shul and
not only that, they put shtenders for their children as well. I
am somewhat for it if a person comes to shul on time , but
in many cases these people come to shul 20-30mns late and
people who come to shul at the proper time don’t sit there as
they don’t feel comfortable doing so. Furthermore, if they do
take a seat with a shtender it creates an awkward situation
when the owner does eventually show up after they finish
their morning coffee and whatever it is they do to arrive late
to shul. Its ends up distracting them from davening as they
are constantly looking over their shoulder to see if the owner
arrives and takes away from their focus on davening. I think
if a person feels they need a shtender to daven, they should
keep it on the side and put it on the table when they arrive
to shul. Much more so their children’s shtender who are not
there for half of the davening.
Sincerely HT
Vues Master’s Note: Just speak to the Gabbai! Anyone that
arrives late forfeit their seat!
REMEMBERING THE MASHGIACH
Dear Vues Master
This past Shabbos my Rav gave a drasha & remembered Rav
Matisyahu Salomon zt”l. The rav said that he was once at a
Chai Lifeline event & before the Rav walked into the room
they told all the men to go one side & all the women to go
to the other. When the Masgiach walked in he started talking
& said that when dealing with children that have cancer it’s
a team effort. The husband & wife must work together & he
asked all the husbands & wives to sit together for the rest of
his speech.
AH
Vues Master’s Note: The mashgiach was a gem. He will be
missed by Klal Yisrael. Yehi Zichro Baruch.

COMPLIMENT
Dear Vues Master:
A bochur in the Mirrer Yeshiva was once a guest in the home
of R’ Chaim Shmulevitz, for a Shabbos meal. After the first
course, R’ Chaim quickly complimented his Rebbetzin on
how tasty the fish was. He paid her another compliment after
the soup was served, and yet another each time a dish was
served. Then he commented to the bochur how delicious
everything was and how his rebbetzin did such a good job

preparing all of it. The bochur was noticeably taken aback by
the Rosh Hayeshivah’s behavior. R’ Chaim explained to the
bochur “are you surprised at how I emphasize something so
trivial as food?” “I can easily explain why I said what I did.” “I
expend a tremendous amount of effort preparing each one of
my shiurim. It takes hours of concentration, time, and energy.
But when I repeat the shiur in Yeshivah and I see the reaction
of the bochrim, it gives me tremendous nachas and I know that
all of my effort was worth it. For my wife, her cooking and
baking for our Shabbos meals is like a shiur. She invests all of
her time, energy and effort into each meal. Her work should
certainly not go unnoticed; therefore, I compliment her and
show my appreciation.
RES
Vues Master’s Note: I would like to compliment you on this
great letter!

KIDDUSH
Dear Vues Master:
I am hosting a kiddush in my house next Shabbos for 12
guys in my shul. Each year one of us is required to host and
this year is my lucky year. My eishes chayil wants nothing to
do with the preparations and I don’t blame her and I plan to
prepare the food myself . It will be a new experiment for me
but I believe I am up for the job. I wish I could auto draft
this kiddush but it’s going to require a lot of effort on my
part as I consider myself an expert on partaking in a kiddush
but not really preparing for one. My main issue lies with my
friends insisting their families come with them as well. A
kiddush for 12 men would turn into a kiddush for 50 plus.
Having kids at a kiddush in shul (let alone my house) has
been an issue for as long as I can remember. Kids grab all the
food , make a mess and by the time the men want to eat they
are scraping at the leftovers. Then there’s the expectations
of food and drink .I myself don’t drink , (a shirley temple is
the worst i would have) but most of these guys do. As far
as food, I would love to keep it simple like I remember in
my shul growing up, gefilte fish , some jarred herring, potato
kugel and noodle kugel , cholent and once in a while falafel
balls and meatballs but these days expectations are high. Are
meatboards and liver platters and a shmorg of herring really
necessary? I would love to make a l’chaim on some grape
juice, (maybe j&b for my friends) and keep it simple like we
used to do back in the days with some herring and cholent.
Here’s to hoping it all goes well on Shabbos!
AT
Vues Master’s Note: We were taught that there is a mitzvah to
feed the animals first. Hence by a kiddush the animals grab
the food first!

HOPE
Dear Vues Master:
The Rav was on his way home, when
he suddenly noticed that his wallet was
missing. The loss was a blow to the gut and
caused him enormous distress. As soon as
he walked through the door of his house,
his wife sensed that something was wrong.
“What happened?” she asked. “My wallet
and my money are gone,” he sobbed. “I had
it in my inside jacket pocket.” “Did you look
in your pants pockets?” she asked. “Sure,”
he said. “How about the side pocket of your
jacket? Did you look there?” “Of course
not,” he said. “Do you want me to lose the
last bit of hope I have left?”
MB
Vues Master’s Note: Eh! There probably was
no money in the wallet!

PARSHA COLUMN
Dear Vues Master:
Hi I am writing to express my
disappointment with the latest issue of
your magazine. I have been a loyal reader
for years and always turn to the parsha
knowledge page but this week it was
missing. I was very disappointed and
confused as to why it was omitted. I have
always enjoyed parsha knowledge because
it is informative and interesting. It is also
a great way to learn about the parsha. I am
very disappointed that you have decided to
remove it from the paper this week. I hope
that you will reconsider your decision and
reinstate parsha knowledge. I am sure that
many other readers would agree with me.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely, A big fan of Parsha Knowledge
Vues Master’s Note: Well Well Well we will
see if it makes a come-back!

PAINT JOB
Dear Vues Master:
Two yeshiva boys seeking to make some
money, asked a neighbor if he would be
interested in having them paint the outside
of his house. After they agreed on the
price, the boys went to buy the paint. But
finding it expensive, they bought only
half the amount needed and added water
to make up the difference. When they
completed the paint job, the homeowner
said “It looks great!” He was ready to pay
them, when heavy rain began to fall. The
rain drenched the house and the paint ran
down the walls. Suddenly, as the three of
them stood there in disbelief, there was
thunder and lightning and a voice roaring
from Heaven: “Repaint. Repaint and thin
no more.”
JH
Vues Master’s Note: Sounds like Shabbos
Shuva Drasha!

DAF YOMI AND HOSTAGES
Dear Vues Master:
In the days of the Talmud, and in our own
day, an ordinary instance of theft is assumed
to generally result in the ye-ush or despair of
the owner or victim ever being in a position
to redeem the stolen item, barring certain
circumstances. The Talmud suggests at one
point that if for whatever good reason the
owner did not yet despair at the time the
thief stole and then sold the animal, the sale
was invalid (Baba Kama 68). The Torah,
of course, takes it a step further. The 8th
Commandment in the Bible, not to “steal”
(Ex. 20:13) has actually been interpreted
to mean not to kidnap – and, presumably,
in today’s world, not to take hostages. The
Torah states “and he who steals a man and
sells him, and he is found in his hand (or
in his power), he shall be put to death (Ex
21:16) (Sanhedrin 86a). In this case there is
no owner’s despair (Baba Kama 68) since it
has been noted that no one ever despairs of
his own freedom (Rashi). It has been said that
“where there is life, there is hope,” and Jewish
law is full of examples of doing whatever
can be done to preserve life in the hope of a
better tomorrow. It usually applies to health,
but in this case, every Israeli hostage hopes
for freedom, and virtually every Jew joins in
this hope. Many, of course, join not just in
this hope, but join the army and the reserves
in helping to turn this hope into reality, or
try to help in any other way possible. (Many
don’t, but that’s for another article!) The
laws of modern Israel are more “liberal”
than the laws of the Bible. The codifiers
of the Israeli legal system created Article
369 of the Criminal Code, condemning
kidnappers to just 10 years. But note that
even the relatively liberal Israeli laws were
created to double the punishment to 20 years
(Article 373) for kidnapping a minor or an
insane person. The laws are liberal from the
point of view of the kidnappers, of course;
not so liberal from the point of view of the
people who are kidnapped, especially those
who end up being murdered in the process,
but there is still no doubt that Israel’s laws
of kidnapping did not envision the kind
of terror, barbarism, fear, and famine that
accompanied the kidnappings of this past
Simchat Torah in Israel. The kidnappers and
murderers of October 7 made no distinction
between adults and minors, women and
children, the sane and the insane, and
soldiers and civilians (except when it
came to releasing them during pauses).
Some college presidents in Congressional
hearings notoriously condoned supporters
of the kidnappers and the murderers of
October 7, and then there were some soft
steps of testifiers trying to walk back their
rationalizations with other rationalizations.
It should be noted that people who testify

and then attempt to change the substance of
their testimony upon being criticized make
a mockery of the concept of perjury. There
would be much less perjury in the world if
people could just change their testimony at
will, and not just to correct the record but
to alter it. Kidnapping civilians of all ages
in peacetime compounded by what else
happened on and after October 7th in Israel
was obviously heinous, but making Jews
and others on and off college campuses
and communities throughout the rest of the
world feel unsafe in their normal places
of study, work, domicile, recreation, and
transportation, because of abuse of the
legislative system and misinformation,
distortions, and double standards can lead
to the creation of technically unrestricted
pseudo-hostages whose ability to come and
go and speak as they please without fear
of bodily or economic harm (even if not
imminent) is limited in scenarios that should
also be unacceptable in a civilized world,
even if the Jews outside of Israel are not
nearly as endangered as the real hostages in
a world that seems to be increasingly unreal.
RAIR
Vues Master’s Note: Mamesh Inyana
DeYoma!

SMACKED
Dear Vues Master:
It was the first day of school in Paris. The
teacher asked each child to stand up and
state his name. When little Mohammed rose
and introduced himself, the teacher said: “In
France, you need to have a French name. As
of today, you will be known as Jean Pierre.”
When he went home, his parents asked:
“Mohammed, what did you learn in school
today?” “I learned that since we live in
France, my name isn’t Mohammed anymore.
I’m Jean Pierre now.” His father was furious.
“What? You’re embarrassed with your name?
You want to reject your heritage?” And with
that, he slapped him across his face. The next
day, Jean Pierre/Mohammed came to school
with a swollen face. The teacher asked him
what happened. “Two hours after I became
French,” he answered, “I was attacked by
two Arabs.”
DA
Vues Master’s Note: That is today’s society
in a nut shell!

PARSHA
Dear Vues Master:
My family and I are avid readers of the
Jewish Vues. The inspirational articles and
content inspire us and help us get through
the long week. One of our highlights of the
Shabbat night meal is reading the Parsha
knowledge article from Aryeh Fingerer.
We take turns reading it and The amazing
and heartwarming torah thought and the

Incredible story always inspire our family
and our guests. This past Shabbat we were
quite disappointed that The article wasn’t
there. I thought I didn’t see it because I was
tired or something. But my son also looked
but To his chagrin, he did not find anything.
We hope all is ok. We are just reaching out.
Thank you and we hope to g-d willing to see
it this week. Thank you!
MM
Vues Master’s Note: I wonder if it will come
back?

REPTILE
Dear Vues Master:
Rashi explains נחש = תנין) snake) The
The רד“ק the from quotes שפתי חכמים
word תנין when it’s on dry land it is a
snake and when it is in water it is a fish. In
modern Hebrew, תנין means a crocodile or
an alligator. Here again, it depends if it is on
land or in water.
MF
Vues Master’s Note: I would not want to
tangle with either one of them!

SHOPPING
Dear Vues Master:
It was Chanukah and the Judge asked the
defendant “Do you know why you were
arrested?” “Yes,” he replied. “I did my
Chanukah shopping early.” “But that’s not
a crime,” said the Judge. “It is if you do it
before the store opens,” he answered.
DQ
Vues Master’s Note: This would not happen
today as we don’t arrest people for stealing
anymore. We live in Sodom Ve Amora!

MAKING OF A GADOL
Dear Vues Master:
The first thing Moshe rabbeinu did after
becoming a גדול was to go out to his brethren
and observe their burdens.
FM DE
Vues Master’s Note: Today’s yeshivas don’t
measure themselves by the Talmidim that
come out of their yeshiva but rather by the
Talmidim they accept! Sad but true!

LEND
Dear Vues Master:
Rav Yissochar Frand once taught that it is
not always easy to lend money, because a
person always reasons that he can “make
money with money.” It is therefore often
hard for one to part with his money. Rav
Frand said, “I recently heard the following
amazing story.” Reuven and Shimon are best
friends, as close as brothers. Reuven went to
Shimon and said, “Shimon, I need to borrow
$250,000. I need this money urgently.
Otherwise, my business will collapse.”
Shimon hesitates. “Where am I supposed
to get $250,000?” Reuven tells Shimon,

“But Shimon, you told me just a couple of
weeks ago that you finished paying off your
house. Please take out a new mortgage on
your house.” Shimon again hesitated, but
Reuven begged and pressed him for the
loan. Shimon went home and consulted
with his wife. She advised, “Go ask the
Rav what to do.” The Rav told him, you
are not actually obligated to do this, but
if you trust this person, then it would be
a very big Mitzvah to help him. Shimon
went back to Reuven and said, “Okay. I
will help you.” He went to the bank and
applied to take out a second mortgage on
his house. Both Reuven and Shimon live
in Far Rockaway, New York. The bank
processed the paperwork and agreed to
give Shimon a second mortgage, but they
warned him that he lived in a flood plain,
and he would not be eligible for the loan
unless he took out flood insurance. Shimon
agreed and took out flood insurance, and
received the mortgage. He then lent Reuven
the $250,000. Three weeks later, Shimon’s
house was flooded by Hurricane Sandy.
However, he was covered because he had
just taken out the flood insurance! Rav
Frand asked, “In reality, who was actually
doing the favor?!”
TUT
Vues Master’s Note: One good turn deserves
another!

PAIN
Dear Vues Master:
Yesterday, I returned from Eretz Yisroel,
and on the way back, I sat next to a fellow.
We nodded a few times as we were waiting
for the suitcases. I introduced myself, and I
asked him why he went to Eretz Yisroel. I
saw he was there with his family. I thought
they went for a vacation. He told me that his
son was Niftar. I couldn’t believe it. I gave
him a hug. I thought maybe it’s his son in
the army. He told me he had an eight year
old child, and the boy was niftar suddenly.
I hugged him again. I was overwhelmed by
the tzara, and that this person was sitting
next to me the entire time, and I didn’t
bother to find out what might be troubling
him. As I was leaving the airport, I thought
to myself, Lo Meever Layam Hei, you don’t
have to go across the Atlantic to find, and
hear the Tzar of Klal Yisrael, and to be able
to try to feel the pain to minimize the tzar
of those who are suffering. There are people
in our communities, people that are sitting
right next to us that are going through
tremendously difficult times. If only we’d
have the sensitivity to be able to try to feel
their pain. I was very moved by the whole
incident, but I think it’s something that we
need to keep in mind. What’s going on
in Eretz Yisrael now is meant to partially
make us feel, make us really, really feel

for fellow Jews. But we don’t need to go
to Eretz Yisrael to act upon it. We can do it
in our own backyards, and hopefully iy”H
we will.
YAS
Vues Master’s Note: Es Felt nisht kein
tzures! We have to be nosey Be Ol.

AS A JEW
Dear Vues Master:
Ya know how when someone says “No
offense but…”, they’re about to offend you?
When they say, “With all due respect…”,
they’re going to disrespect you? So
here’s another one for ya. When someone
says “As a Jew…” they’re about to say
something highly antisemitic. Yes, Jews
can be antisemitic. It’s called self hating
Jews and we’ve had them in literally every
single generation. The antisemites love to
use them as their trophy Jew to justify their
own Jew hatred. Like these dudes…. Every
antisemite who knows zero about Judaism
or Jews, somehow is familiar with Neturei
Karta, an extremist group that often goes
to anti Israel rallies and meets with actual
terrorists. This is a group that is rejected by
literally 99% of Jews but somehow have
become the poster child for antisemitism.
So, yea, look out for the “As a Jew” folks.
They’re the worst of the worst and they
represent themselves and that’s about it.
They sure don’t represent me. I think I’m
going to make a Tshirt that says “As a
Jew…”.
Hillel Fuld
Vues Master’s Note: I’m a Jew I’m a Jew
and proud to be a Jew!

NAME
Dear Vues Master:
The” ,writes שם הגדולים in חיד“א The
אשכנז חכמי have a Kabbalah, that naming
a person with a name of an animal (Dov
Zev Ayalah etc.) prevents sickness from
that person.
GH
Vues Master’s Note: It is all in the name
game!

DENIER
Dear Vues Master:
Queen Rania of Jordan has introduced a new

term into 21st century discourse: pogrom-
denier. “It hasn’t been independently

verified…that Israeli children [were] found
butchered in an Israeli kibbutz,” the queen
said in an interview on CNN. “There’s
no proof of that.” Yet really, the queen
shouldn’t be surprised that Israel’s enemies
are capable of such horrors. After all, her
own country’s troops committed nearly
identical atrocities against numerous Israeli
Jews during the 1948 war. The Jordanian
army, then known as the Arab Legion,

played a central role in the war against
the newborn Jewish state, often operating
alongside Palestinian Arab terrorist forces
that were in many ways precursors of Hamas.
R.M. Graves, an official of the British
administration in Palestine at the beginning
of the war, wrote in his diary (published in
the 1949 book Experiment in Anarchy) that
“the mutilation of the Jewish dead” was “a
common practice” among the Arab forces.
After one attack, he wrote: “Some heads
were cut off the bodies of the fallen Jews
and have been carried round Jerusalem
as trophies of victory. A British member
of my staff met a younger in the German
Colony yesterday, who showed him a
handful of severed fingers.” The renowned
investigative journalist John Roy Carlson
(Arthur Derounian) worked undercover in
Arab areas in and next to Israel during the
1948 war. He wrote of the aftermath of
one Arab attack near Jerusalem: “The next
day on sale everywhere in the Holy City
were gruesome photographs of the battle:
the burnt and mutilated bodies of Haganah
men…had been stripped of clothing and
photographed in the nude….Arabs carried
them in their wallets and displayed them
frequently…” Contemporaneous sources
reveal the same facts. To cite just one of many
examples, a Jewish Telegraphic Agency
report on January 19, 1948, summarizing
Arab attacks in recent days, mentioned
that a Jew murdered by Arabs in Jerusalem
“was mutilated and his body was partially
burned,” while “an unidentified Jewish male
was found near Haifa with the head severed
from the body.” Uri Milstein’s four-volume
History of Israel’s War of Independence, the
definitive study of the subject, chronicles the
1948 war battle by battle. Again and again,
he refers to actions by the Jordanians or the
Palestinian Arabs that sound as if they were
taken straight from accounts of the October
7 pogrom. A Jewish truck from Kibbutz

Negba was ambushed on the Kiryat Gat-
Ashkelon Road on December 6, 1947; the

driver and passenger fled. When their bodies
were later found, they showed “signs of
abuse.” Three days after that, a patrol from
Kibbutz Gvulot encountered Jordanian
troops near the village of Shu’ot. “British
troops later brought the mutilated corpses
of the dead to Kibbutz Gvulot,” Milstein
reports. On December 11, a Jewish
convoy from Jerusalem to Gush Etzion was
ambushed by Arab forces. Yaffa Mundlak,
a medic who survived, recounted: “When
our bullets ran out, the Arabs went down
to the road and slaughtered the [Jews] one
by one. There was a girl there. They yanked
up her head by the hair and shot her in the
forehead…Most of the others were killed.
The Arabs mutilated the corpses and burned
the truck.” A convoy from Mikveh Yisrael

was attacked as it passed the Arab town of
Yazur on January 22. “All seven men in
the pickup were killed, some instantly in
the explosion, the other wounded victims
beaten and stabbed to death by [the Arab
attackers], who then abused the corpses…”
On February 2, Arabs ambushed a Jewish
vehicle going through the Sheikh Jarrah
of Jerusalem. They murdered two Jews,
“burned the car and mutilated the bodies.”
After the last defenders of Gush Etzion
surrendered on May 13, the Arab Legion
forces murdered the prisoners, “stripped the
corpses, looted them, and then mutilated
the bodies until they were difficult and
almost impossible to identify. One body was
decapitated.” The list of such examples
goes on and on, and much of it sounds
remarkably similar to what we know the
Hamas pogromists did on October 7, from
murdering wounded prisoners and burning
Jews alive, to mutilations, decapitations,
and sexual violence. We know that all
happened from the videos that the killers
themselves posted on social media; from
the transcripts of the murderers’ telephone
calls; from the confessions that captured
terrorists have given; and the countless
eyewitness testimonies of the survivors.
This is the evidence that the queen of Jordan
denies. With her charm, elegance, and
Western education, Queen Rania, like her
husband King Abdullah II, is often regarded
as the epitome of reason and moderation.
Her descent into pogrom-denial, however,
undermines that perception. One may
wonder whether the queen of Jordan is so
ignorant, and so enamored of conspiracy
mongering, that she honestly believes
the atrocities stories are all fabricated—
presumably as the result of a conspiracy by
the governments of Israel and the United
States, together with world Jewry and the
international news media. Or perhaps
it’s just that she is so dishonest and cynical
that she denies the atrocities, even though
she knows they happened, simply in order
to undermine world sympathy for Israel.
It’s hard to know which possibility is more
troubling.
Rafael Medoff
Vues Master’s Note: Thanks for your
enlightenment regarding current events!