03 Sep Speak Your Vues
EXCESSIVE TICKETS
Dear Editor: I don’t understand why we are being ticketed excessively. They are making us change our License plates and we need to pay for it. How come we are constantly being nickled and dimed? Something needs to be done about this!
Daniel J
Editor’s Note: You are so right!
OUTRAGE
Dear Editor: A week ago from when I wrote this, Ilan Omar and Rashida Tlaib were barred from entering Israel. Many on the Left and even some on the Right condemned this action by the Israeli Government. There is a law in Israel that bars BDS activists from entering Israel, no matter whom. In the past 2 years, Democrats always said that Trump isn’t above the law, but when it comes to 2 Democrat Congresswomen, they all of a sudden have the right to be above the law. The hypocrisy is just amazing! Either way, what happened, happened. Then, Rashida Tlaib wrote a letter to Israel saying that she would abide to any restrictions that Israel put on her if she could visits her 99 year old grandmother who lives in the West Bank. She said that because it might be her last time seeing her, she wanted to see her badly. Israel granted her request to visit her grandmother. Ms. Tlaib a few days later decided she wasn’t going to go because she felt like Israel was treating her like a ‘criminal’ and because of the ‘humanitarian violations’ that Israel does. It is just disgusting that a person would use their own grandmother as a political pawn! Rashida Tlaib and Ilan Omar then held a press conference, condemning Netanyahu, Trump and Israel itself. Rashida Tlaib at one point even cried fake tears. Tlaib and Omar are the new face of the Democrat Party. We all shouldn’t try to refute that point by saying that not all Democrats believe what they believe in, which is true, but Democrats refuse to condemn it. Where was the outrage from Nancy Pelosi when these 2 congresswomen shared an anti Semitic cartoon drawn by an Iranian Holocaust Cartoonist (yeah, that’s a real thing). We should give credit to Jerry Nadler for condemning these congresswomen for doing this, but where is the outrage from the Speaker of the House!? It is about time that she wake up from her slumber! President Trump a few days later said that Jews that vote for Democrats are either ‘uninformed’ or ‘disloyal’. Democrats pounced on this by calling these comments an anti Semitic trope. Apparently, calling Jews that vote for people that refuse to condemn anti Semetic comments ‘disloyal’ or ‘uninformed’, is anti Semitic. Hey Democrats, you know what’s an anti Semitic trope? The comment of ‘Its all about the Benjamin’s’ or ‘Israel is hypnotizing the world’. Where was your outrage against Omar then!!!? Not only did you not call her out by name in your resolution, you watered down the language in condemning what she said?! Where is the outrage?! AIPAC, instead of focusing on attacking Israel’s laws, attack the refusal of recognizing anti Semitism on the left itself! President Trump is the best president for Jews and Israel. Liberals Jews have got to stop calling him a Nazi because he just isn’t! Was Trump a Nazi when he deported the last living Nazi in the US?! Obviously not! We as a nation are dealing with a party of lunacy, it is time that we support the party of rationality, The Republican Party, that is willing to call out their fringe lawmakers when the time is appropriate!
Sincerely, Donny Simcha Guttman
Editor’s Note: Don’t you know Liberals have their own set of rules?
RUNNING AWAY
Dear Editor: There has been a comment that I have heard way too many times recently that leaves me somewhat confused. Maybe someone can explain to me what they mean when they make the statement, “I’d like to go away on a vacation around one hundred miles away or so somewhere where I can go hiking, sightseeing, get a nice hotel, preferably a place where there are no Jeews around.” Yes, I have heard this with a stress on the word Jeews. As you are reading this letter you might be thinking I don’t blame these people since Jews are always judging they are so judgmental. I ask why? What are you doing that you do not want to be judged? I mean don’t we buy a nice sheitel and hope the next one will judge it? Don’t the men buy the latest hat and hope the next one will judge it? I once heard Rabbi Yissachar Frand say “It’s human nature to judge, people are always judging yet they must judge favorably.” When I heard this comment, I took the liberty to ask, “Can you give me an example of what it is you mean?” He said, on vacation I’d like to wear a colored t-shirt and shorts but if I meet someone from my neighborhood I’ll be criticized and judged. Then maybe the problem lies with you. You need to ask yourself “am I comfortable, and doing what’s right for me?” If yes, then what’s wrong with wearing a colorful t-shirt? There was a man making sure to be incognito on his vacation at Disney he made sure his tzitzis were well tucked in, and he wore a baseball cap then a Jew came over to him and said, Mincha will be at 5:00 by Cinderella. What would this man have done had there not been ten Jews for a Minyan? We should all be aware that Hashem is everywhere, and He does not go on vacation from Us.
Thank you, Devorah Leitner
Editor’s Note: I hate to say it, but you are so right, it’s scary. Sometimes we don’t listen to ourselves and realize that we are our own worst enemy!
ONEG SHABBOS WITHOUT CHILLUL SHABBOS
Dear Editor: Nowadays, it is common to find snacks, both frozen and non-frozen, individually wrapped and packaged eight, ten, or twelve to a box. On some, the wrappers are nondescript and are not a problem. However, other wrappers are completely filled with print, to the point that it is impossible to open them without tearing any of the print. This poses a problem for Shabbos, when it is forbidden to tear through letters. The frum manufacturers of these products are being machshil the frum Oilom with this kind of packaging. And there is absolutely no rational justification or excuse for it! The manufacturers can put all of their advertising on the outside of their boxes, in order to entice customers to buy their products. But once the customer has the snack in his/her hand and is ready to open it, (s)he has already purchased the product, and now the product has to sell itself, so that the customer will want to buy it again. All of the print completely covering the snack is doing nothing at all to get the customer to want to buy it again, and, in fact, it is turning the customer off, when (s) he cannot open it on Shabbos as (s)he would like to! There is one ice cream company that produces a frozen pareve treat that I used to serve as a dessert at the end of the Shabbos seudah. It used to have a colorful wrapper, with no lettering whatsoever. Well, that has suddenly changed. Now each bar has a wrapper that is completely covered with print, leaving no way to open it on Shabbos without tearing through lettering! I have decided that I will not purchase any of this company’s products as long as they have no problem being machshil frum Yiddin with chillul Shabbos. It’s time for all of us to take a stand on this issue of chillul Shabbos and make our voices heard through our pocketbooks. (I did try contacting this company and I voiced my concern, but they did not bother to respond. Another snack company (nonfrozen) did respond in a positive way, and told me that they were working on correcting the problem.) I think manufacturers should start advertising on the outside of their boxes: Kedushas Shabbos-compliant wrappers.
Editor’s Note: Just remember it is a consumer driven business if there would be enough people demanding this the companies would comply as they are in this to make money. Start a grassroots campaign to educate the Jewish Public and you will be successful.
SHIURIM ONLINE
Dear Editor: What are some good sites to listen to shiurim, other than Torah Anytime. Looking for a wider variety of topics, ideally shiurim on specific seforim that I could follow along. Any help would be appreciated.
Yankel K
Editor’s Note: There are a lot of options including Kol Halashon Yutorah Aish Shas illuminated to name a few. Hatzlocha in your learning.
WEDDING TAKANOS
Dear Editor: I understand why the Kallah & mother’s in law wear a special gown, but why does the extended family need to go through the expense, time, & bother to rent or buy a gown for one time use? Can’t a takanah be made to discontinue this practice? Wouldn’t a fancy Shabbos dress be as respectable & usable in the future? We’ve done away with other needless chasunah expenses why not this one?
Shanny H
Editor’s Note: It is really something that different people feel differently about. I say live and let live.
BLATANT ANTI-SEMITISM
Dear Editor: Today, there was yet another anti- Semitic attack on a Shabbos. This time, right on Ave J, in the heart of Flatbush. Where are our leaders? Where is today’s Meir Kahana, to help mobilize our communities to protect ourselves? Why should the police care, when our own communal leaders do not seem to care? Why do the powerful men in our community act tough, and take a stand on trivial issues, but remain silent when we are under attack? WHY DO WE SEEM TO BE COWERING IN FEAR, WHILE WE ARE BEING ATTACKED?
Jay K
Editor’s note: Who says that you won’t get a full scale war out of this? Remember many a riot started from these things.
SIYUM HASHAS
Dear Editor: As the upcoming Siyum Hashas is scheduled for January 1st, does anybody know what the plans are if it snows etc?
Yudi D
Editor’s Note: Time will tell, but hopefully the zchus of such a wonderful gathering will keep the weather nice.
STRICTER GUN LAWS
Dear Editor: Another mass shooting. It just keeps on happening. What is going to be? We need gun laws desperately!
Eddie T
Editor’s Note: I remember Cuomo saying that NY gun laws are so great that it should become federal law. Yet on Labor day weekend we heard no less than nine shootings in NY. I guess people who are mass shooters don’t comply with the law.
YESHIVOS AT RISK
Dear Editor: I am worried about the proposed NY State regulations that could impact yeshivos. However, there is a question that people have been asking that no one seems to be answering: Many, if not most, yeshivos in New York State – the ones that Jewish Vues readers in New York send their children to – provide an excellent general studies education. In fact, sources have told me that if the schools in question were only these yeshivos, then, because of the existing robust English programs that they already have, chances are that the State wouldn’t even be where it is today, trying to ram regulations down our throat. So who is at fault? It hurts to say, but there are mosdos in certain segments of the community, predominantly chassidishe ones, where the English programs are poor or non-existent. It is hard to understand why the decision has been made to jeopardize an entire yeshiva system in New York by aligning with these educational institutions that insist on having weak or non-existent English departments. It is time that we say in a clear voice that our mainstream mosdos DO have solid English departments and that we do NOT align ourselves with those mosdos that do not. Enough is enough.
A Worried Yid
Editor’s Note: Ke’ish ehad belev echad. We are one nation. Today it’s them, tomorrow it is us. Once the Government gets involved there is no telling where it will end up.
CLIMATE CONTROL
Dear Editor: This hurricane season is starting with a bang! I hope the environmentalists don’t jump on this now and ban more stuff and claim that the weather is related to this. We are not using Styrofoam, we are being taxed for paper bags in certain counties… It sounds like it is all about money.
Chezky U
Editor’s Note: Hakesef yaaneh es Hakol. Money makes the world go round!