22 Nov Speak your VUES

RESPECT THE RABBONIM

Dear Editor:

I don’t get people nowadays. If the pope asked people to not look at their phones 
and most of them listen, why can’t any rav say the same thing and get the proper response? It is a disgrace that this is not so.

1. Green

Editor’s Note: Good point. I think you should definitely spread this through social media so people become more aware of it.

ADDICTED TO DANS DEALS

Dear Editor:

My son is really hooked onto Dans Deals and I feel now with Black Friday approaching he is going to spend a lot of money buying stuff he does not even need and thinking he is saving money.

Please Help

Worried Mother in Flatbush
Editor’s Note: In some cases, people who look for these deals are behaving like someone with a gambling addiction and they need to be treated as such.

GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE

Dear Editor:
It’s time for us to gather together and question this old time myth. Who said great minds think alike?
Doesn’t that put us in a narrow, suffocating box? If I think I am a great mind, and my contemporary thinks he/she is a great mind, and we don’t agree on something, does that diminish our greatness?
If so, whose greatness is lessened? How to decide?
So many questions to ponder.

Mordechai P.

Editor’s Note: You know, the other day I was thinking the same thing!

5 SECOND RULE

Dear Editor:
My son came home yesterday discussing the 5 second rule. I am not sure what this is as I never learned that rule in school. Can anyone explain?

Zlaty Hiller

Editor’s Note: There is a theory in science that misconstrues the concept that germs do not go into food if it touches the food for less than five seconds. Whoever thought of this theory spent about five seconds on it.

COMBATTING APATHY

Dear Editor:

I came across this interesting response of Rav Avigdor Miller and I thought I’d share it with your readers.

Q: How are we supposed to find the inspiration needed to serve Hashem, when most of the people around us are apathetic to the whole concept of serving Hashem by always thinking about Him?

A: The answer is that you have to know that today you can buy avodas Hashem at a bargain. You know that sometimes a man manufactures a certain article, and then he can’t find any customers for it. And so you come along and you offer him a very low price, and he’s willing to sell it to you. At least somebody is willing to buy it; and he’s happy to sell it to you. And so you gain a tremendous amount of property for cheap, and you’ll be able to make a very big profit on it. He sold it all out to you because nobody else wanted it.

Now, when Hakodosh Boruch Hu sees that other people don’t want it, that they’re not interested, and they don’t serve Hashem; and then you come along and you choose avodas Hashem, you’re making a tremendously good business deal. You’re gaining something that will give you a tremendous profit. Just because of that opposition, that apathy to avodas Hashem, just because of that, those who do serve Hashem are going to be so much more rewarded.

Now, today is an opportunity that we never had before. Once upon a time everybody kept kosher. Everybody! Everybody kept Shabbos. Everybody! Who are you?! You’re just keeping Shabbos? Once upon a time you were a nobody. But today, a Shomer Mitzvos, someone who keeps the mitzvos, is an exception. So Hakodosh Boruch Hu will give a very great reward.

And don’t be satisfied with that. Don’t think that it’s enough. But at least you’re starting out with some big capital. Now, we don’t want other people to be reshaim, to be wicked, so that we should profit by their wickedness, but still, that’s how it turned out, that we’re lucky enough to be in this generation. And therefore, because we are the ones who choose to walk on the derech Hashem, on the path of service of Hashem, therefore Hakodosh Boruch Hu is going to give us a much greater reward than we would have ordinarily deserved.

So don’t feel discouraged by those around you. On the contrary, it’s a metziya today, it’s a real bargain today.

As you walk in the street, and you’re thinking about Hakodosh Boruch Hu, and nobody else around you is doing that. The people around you are thinking of everything in the world except for Hashem. You should know that you’re getting a tremendous schar, a tremendous reward. “I’m thinking about Hashem, and nobody else is!” Hashem is looking at you. At you! “You’re my man,” He says. “I’m going to reward you for this.”

Now wasn’t that a great answer?

Zalman King

Editor’s Note: What a great response by a great scholar.