The Jewish Vues | Speak Your Vues

28 Dec Speak Your Vues

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SPEAK YOUR VUES WITH THE VUES MASTER

Please note that the author of Speak Your Vues is in no way affiliated with the publisher of this paper. The author of this column is an independent third party contributor. The views and opinions expressed by this author may not reflect the views and opinions of the publishers. If one has any issues with any of the views, please write a letter to the Vues Master.

DIFFERENCE

Dear Vues Master:

Most underrated dividing line between Modern

Orthodoxy and Charedi Judaism: What

does the first grade Morah/Rebbe teach that

Pharaoh’s daughter’s name was: Batya or Bisya?

RSZ

Vues Master’s Note:I don’t know if my Rebbe

said Basya, not Batya and not Bisya. I guess

whatever works.

BLOOD

Dear Vues Master:

The וילנא†גאון†and ר׳†חיים†מולוז׳ין†were approached

on שושן†פורים†by a man who, not

recognizing them, asked for a נדבה†. “Tell us

a piece of תורה†מעניני†דיומה†and we will give

you,” said ר׳†חיים†. The man responded: “From

where in the מדרש†do we know that

גזירת†המן†נחתמה†בטיט†ולא†בדם†?” The two גדולים

thought about it, but didn’t have an answer.

The man told them: “Why, the מגילה†explicitly

states: ”.כתב†לא†בדם

Vues Master’s Note:I am not sure where this

is written. But OK.

REALITY

Dear Vues Master:

Connecting Parsha Shemot To Israel’s Reality

I read a commentary on this week’s Torah Portion

(Shmot). It really struck a chord. For the

longest time I have thought and opined that

the left in Israel is so interested in being just

like the rest of the world that they don’t remember

their roots. They just want to be liked

by the rest of the world so that they bend

over backwards to espouse western ideas and

opinions. Little do they realize that this will

backfire for them. The commentary spoke

about the “why” of the hardships that befell

( and continue to do so) the Jewish people;

the “chosen” people. In his book, Lilmod

u’Likamed ( Learn and Teach), Rabbi Mordechai

Katz discusses why the Jewish people

have suffered throughout the years. He finds

the answer to the banishment, pain, and humiliation

throughout history to have its beginnings

in Egypt. When the jewish people went

to Egypt, they did not intend to settle there

permanently. However, their mistake was that

they wanted to be just like the Egyptians. They

were enticed by the abundance of riches causing

them to to break out from their secluded

life and branch out to all areas in Egypt. They

assimilated into Egyptian society. Their Jewish

identity was compromised (much like the

Jews of Germany who thought that being part

of the German society would save them from

the horrible fate foisted upon them my Hitler

and his Nazi cohorts. It did not bode well for

them. As the Jews who remained loyal to

their roots were rounded up, so were they.

All throughout history the story repeats itself.

Different places, different names in the cast of

characters, but in the end, same results. Persecution.

The left of today are mirroring history. They

champion Palestinian causes. They cry crocodile

tears for their “cousins,” while their

cousin’s only real cause is to wipe Israel off

the map. Their “peace” is no peace at all. It

is domination and eventual destruction of the

Jewish people. We are faced today, with a

government of fools who are aiding and abetting

our enemies to destroy us. Abbas sits in

our government. He is in a position to pull

the strings because if Bennet, Lapid, and their

band of merry fools don’t comply with Abbas’s

demands, their government will fall.

Rather than truly having Israel’s best interests

at heart, they are more concerned with their

egos. They are now in power. Instead of protecting

the Jewish people and the sovereignty

over the land of Israel, the land promised to

our forefathers, they are setting us up for the

Palestinians to go in for the kill. The people of

Israel need to take back our government from

these traitors and bring back the moral high

standards of our JEWISH NATION!

Vues Master’s Note:It seems like this happens

every generation. Hence we say in Hagada

Shebechol Dor Vodor.

TZEDAKA

Dear Vues Master:

It is not the Jewish way to demand that people who are taking tzedaka should not have more than basic necessities. The Jewish way is that we support the poor up to the standards of the time, place and social class. If what the person needs for his dignity is to hire someone to run in front of him to announce his presence, we provide that as well.

Vues Master’s Note:Just pay with cash or Credit Card we do not extend credit!

SHVIGGER

Dear Vues Master:

According to the ו”עש†םידיסח†רפס¨†Before marrying a woman, one should check out not only her brother but also her mother. (Future Shvigger)

Vues Master’s Note: I know some people who did not do a good job

checking them out!

SKEPTIC

Dear Vues Master:

On Erev Shabbos of Parshas Shemos, the דמלמ†asked his students who was the mother of השמ. One boy answered “It was the daughter of הערפ.” Surprised, the דמלמ†said “Don’t you remember that the daughter of הערפ†went to bathe by the river and found השמ†there?” The boy answered: “Sure. That’s what she said!”

Vues Master’s Note:What are we going to do with that kid? He needs some Emunah!

BRACHA

Dear Vues Master:

A man and his wife came before a בר†asking for a divorce. “My wife throws away money, without ןובשח,” the husband complained. “She goes to cafes almost every day and spends my hard earned money on cookies and cakes.” “It is he who is throwing away the money,” the wife countered. “He’s a רוכיש†and spends the money on wine and liquor.” The Rav told them: “This is a difficult case. I need to check with a ןינהנה†תכרב†≠†תוכלהב†החמומו†יקב†who can rule on ףידע†המ†in a situation like this, תונוזמ†or לכהש.”

Vues Master’s Note: Wait, is there a Bracha when one gets divorced?

WISE

Dear Vues Master:

I personally don’t want to read tranThere is a תקולחמ†between בר†and לאומש†as to whether שורושחא†was a םכח†or הטוש. Interestingly, there is a זמר†in the king’s name:

לאומשו†בר†וקלחנו†הטוש†םכח†םדא.

Vues Master’s Note:That would be the difference between Wise guy and wise man.

PSA

Dear Vues Master:

Dear Parents – a time of essence opportunity!

The American Rescue Plan Act of March 2021 includes a Child and Dependent Care tax credit that may help you with the care of eligible children for 2021. We are told that the credit is 50% of the expenses up to $4,000 for one qualifying child and $8,000 for two or more qualifying children, and potentially refundable. You might not have to owe taxes to claim this credit. Please consult with your accountant to confirm the above and that it is applicable to your situation.

Payments need to be made before December 31 2021 – not much time left.

Your tuition payments in 2021 are considered a qualifying expense for which you may receive a refundable credit. Pay up your tuition balance prior to December 31 to take advantage of this great opportunity. Please contact the A1 office to arrange payments so we can provide you with a timely paid receipt.

Kol Tuv

Vues Master’s Note: Thanks for the heads up. I hope our readers take

advantage.

KIBBUD AV

Dear Vues Master:

Esav and Kibbud Av

R. Dovid Lichtenstein asks, that Yaakov bought his burial plot from Esav but how can he do that if the Torah says such a purchase is nullified because it’s dishonorable to the family? See from here that it’s true and that explains why Esav’s head was buried there. Also it explains what he was arguing about with Yaakov’s sons. He honored his father, by desiring to be buried there, and it happened. If this is

the reward for honoring a father, when he’s not in this world than imagine the reward for doing so when he’s alive.

The Spiritual Over the Physical

R. Dovid Lichtenstein asks, what was Yoseph proving to his brothers by showing them his bris as it’s well known that the Moslem also do circumcision?

The premise is wrong as the circumcision among the Moslems came from Yishmael and at that time is was only two generations old.

Nevertheless, the question remains as Yoseph had all the Egyptians circumcised, as it says in Rashi, so what was he proving with his circumcision?

The brothers knew he was Yoseph as soon as he said so as Rashi says, “They were amazed at his presence – out of shame.” So Yoseph came to address a different question which was, are you still religious? By showing them the covenant, symbolized by the bris, he made it known to them that he was still religious.

This idea is brought out more poignantly when Yaakov spirit came back

after seeing the wagons and knowing his son was still righteous.

Also, he was going in the ways of his father. Just as Yaakov informed his brother Esav, after being away for 22 years, that he was still righteous so did Yoseph inform his brothers that he was still righteous. So we see the importance of not just being alive physically but also spiritually

Vues Master’s Note:I will try my best to do the mitzvah of Kibbud Av. How many times do I need to write it teacher?

THE ALIENATION PLAGUE

Dear Vues Master:

I was absolutely gobsmacked by Dr. Meir Wikler’s PARENTING PARTNERSHIP article “My Thirty Year Old Son Has Severed All Ties With Me”. His response to a Jewish mother’s cry was pathetic and unprofessional. He

assumed all sorts of issues that were not at all presented in her heartgrieving letter, asking for his advice. And he justified the cruelty of this young man, where he had no right doing so.

Parental alienation is an issue plaguing the frum world and this article shows the abysmal level of therapists that the frum world has to offer. Dr. Wikler shows himself to be much more a part of the problem than the solution.

Vues Master’s Note:I guess everyone sees it in his or her own view.

TZEDAKA

Dear Vues Master:

I’ve been noticing lately that the new trend with all these organizations raising money is to say that on this and this day that someone is doubling, tripling or quadrupling their pledge. Do you really believe that? Is that really happening? Is that deceiving if it isn’t just to get people to give tzedakah?

Vues Master’s Note:Does it really matter? As long as a Tzedaka makes

their money, why not?

VACATION

Dear Vues Master:

I’m really bummed out. I was supposed to go with my family for yeshiva break to Eretz Yisrael & it’s pretty unlikely because of the situation that I’ll be able to go for a while. My family wants to go to Florida instead. I feel like we need a change of scenery. It’s been a rough two years. I’m just sick of all the gashmius involved in going to Florida. Everyday it’s Disney, Seaworld or something else. That’s including how expensive it is these days for a family of 6. What do you think?

Vues Master’s Note:Be happy you are well and not sick like many are.

QUESTIONS

Dear Vues Master:

Your new page called Torah IQ is awesome. This past Shabbos I asked my family all the questions and they really loved it! Keep up the great work. You guys definitely have the best paper in the area!!

Vues Master’s Note:What do you mean we are the best paper in the area? I did not know there were any others. We are the only ones worth reading. We don’t have canned articles and articles that copy our paper.

RABBI WALDMAN

Dear Vues Master:

I’m so glad that you had three pages last week on Rabbi Eliezer Waldman zt”l. He was such a huge talmud chachum and did so much for Klal Yisrael. He has so many students around the world. I only met him a few times, but he went out of his way to talk to me in his gentle way and I will forever remember him. Yehi zichro Baruch.

Vues Master’s Note:That is the least we can do. He was a special

person and will sorely be missed!

RABBI WALDMAN

Dear Vues Master:

Vues Master’s Note:That is the least we can do. He was a special

person and will sorely be missed!

BIDEN

Dear Vues Master:

I’ve always been a huge fan of President Biden’s character. Yesterday he did what has become rare in today’s age – he credited and thanked a political opponent and critic. President Biden thanked and credited President Trump for developing the COVID vaccines. I’m impressed (again). I know, the cynics will say that by crediting President Trump for the vaccine, President Biden is actually cornering President Trump by making him look bad to President Trump’s anti-vaxx supporters. If that was his intention, it’s a masterful political move. But knowing President Biden, his statement was genuine and impressive.

RUP

Vues Master’s Note: I tend to think that he is covering up the fact that these vaccines seem not to be working as promised and as hoped so he is able to say that it was Trump’s fault he rushed the vaccines. Biden himself does not know which planet he is on hence he said Let’s go Brandon but he sure has some evil advisors!

PAGINATION

Dear Vues Master:

I called a weekly magazine that formerly had page numbers on most pages (now they don’t). The rare page with a page number has it much too small. They said that their advertisers want “full bleed.” That’s an advertising way of saying “me, me, me: none of the pages I’m paying for should have the name of the periodical, the date or parsha, or even – gasp – a page number.”

How foolish. When I see an ad of interest in something I’m reading, I write it on the cover, whether it’ to show someone in the family or

even for myself. This newsmagazine is wasting Yiddishe gelt, since the obvious workaround is to take more than one copy, from which to tear out pages. Another reason it’s wasting Jewish money is that part of what we pay for things goes into funds spent on advertising. Of course HaShem gives Parnassa to all, but what about the command to not be wasteful? Time is said by some to be money; others says time is life. Either way, page numbers are a courtesy.

What pushed me to write this letter is their multi-page article about

the new Hatzalah Museum: it’s not even an ad, yet it too lacked page numbers! As to how the people running the above-referenced publication know, they probably (perhaps even nervously) read The Jewish Vues, including the letter pages. As for “full bleed” Hatalah is about stopping bleeding. The subtitle of the referenced feature is “What do you want to be when you grow up?” – that includes going beyond “me, me, me” and seeing how enabling others to find things (via page numbers) is the proper Derech when it comes to advertisers and those who print what we allow into our homes.

(signed)

Blinking/Missing Page Numbers

Vues Master’s Note: Wait which page are the letters to the editor? I

am so confused sometimes in the beginning and they finish at the end!

HOPE

Dear Vues Master:

With a New Mayor, Comes New Hope for Special Education

By Senator Simcha Felder

In the early summer of 2014, after years of fighting with the New York City Education Department, families of children with special needs finally received good news. Mayor de Blasio held a press conference where he announced significant administrative changes to ensure that parents have a responsive process to meet their child’s special education needs.

“We are cutting red tape, speeding up the process, and reaching outcomes that do right by families,” said the mayor.

Politicians, advocates and families all cheered. The contentious process to help children with special needs was over, we hoped, and the future seemed bright for our most vulnerable children. Even though my previous efforts to find a permanent legislative solution hadn’t

been successful, I was cautiously optimistic that the mayor’s administrative solution might work, if he followed through.

Fast forward seven years. The bright future that families of children with special needs were promised never happened. The Daily News has highlighted the persistent struggles for so many families, and the sad reality is that the situation is worse than ever. Simply put, de Blasio lied to the families of children with special needs and failed to fulfill the commitment he made at that 2014 press conference. Of course, this wasn’t the only time that de Blasio said one thing, while his actions and administration did another. But of all his blunders, misrepresentations and inactions, this one stands out as the most permanent ugly stain of his administration, and it is simply inexcusable.

According to Chalkbeat, a nonprofit news organization covering public education, more than 16,300 special education complaints were open and unresolved as of Nov. 9, 2021. That is a 34% increase from the number of cases in the 2019-2020 school year. As of last month, 9,399 of these cases have not yet been assigned to a hearing officer. Despite federal law requiring these cases to be resolved within 75 days, more than a quarter of these cases have gone unassigned for six months or more. Even then, after cases are assigned, it takes months to come to a resolution.

Beyond the startling numbers and statistics, every one of these cases is a child with special needs. These are children who need physical therapy, speech therapy and other services to be successful in their daily lives. These are children who have been diagnosed with autism, Down syndrome or cerebral palsy, just to name a few. So many of these children have been devastated by the pandemic, many losing the services they fought so hard to receive in the first place. Sadly, these are children and families that the de Blasio administration has failed to adequately serve.

Most frustratingly for me personally was that back in 2014, there was a real chance everything might have turned out differently for children with special needs. My colleagues and I in the state Senate passed legislation in May 2014 which would have streamlined the process of special education placements and cemented the process in state law. In an effort to prevent the passage of this legislation in the Assembly, Mayor de Blasio promised to make the changes to the special education complaint process. I begged then-Assembly Speaker Shelden Silver to reject the mayor’s empty promise and pass the legislation.

If the legislative fix had been passed by both houses and signed into law, the process would have been be permanently fixed and the changes couldn’t be ignored by the mayor. Instead, the speaker chose to believe the mayor. Unfortunately, aside for a reduction in paperwork, three of the four promised changes never happened at all.

It is easy for us to look back now and grumble about what might have been, but every day the situation gets worse for the many families of children with special needs who are stuck in the due process complaint system as a result of the failures of the de Blasio administration.

Yet, as they say, hope springs eternal. De Blasio’s time in office is almost over and there is a real sense of optimism across New York City that incoming Mayor Eric Adams and his incoming schools chancellor, David Banks, will do better.

I respectfully implore and beseech Mayor-elect Adams, who has shared that he had a learning disability that wasn’t discovered until late in life, to address the long, difficult and contentious system by which complaints are resolved for children with special needs. The families of children with special needs have suffered long enough. It is my great hope that Adams and his administration make it a priority to help this long-maligned group of families, who struggle every day with the challenges of raising a child with special needs, all the while fighting an educational system meant to provide relief.

Vues Master’s Note: Let’s give Eric Adams a chance otherwise NY will look like the dysfunction of the Adams family!

Have Questions or Comments?

28 Dec Speak Your Vues