04 Jan Speak Your Vues

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.

THE FINAL EXAM
Dear Vues Master:
At Penn State University, there were four
sophomores taking chemistry and all of them
had an ‘A’ so far. These four friends were so
confident that the weekend before finals, they
decided to visit some friends and have a big
party. They had a great time but, after all the
hearty partying; they slept all day Sunday and
didn’t make it back to Penn State until early
Monday morning. Rather than taking the final
then, they decided that after the final they
would explain to their professor why they
missed it. They said that they visited friends
but on the way back they had a flat tire. As
a result, they missed the final. The professor
agreed they could make up the final the next
day. The guys were excited and relieved. They
studied that night for the
exam. The next day the Professor placed them
in separate rooms and gave them a test booklet. They quickly answered the first problem
worth 5 points. Cool, they thought! Each one
in separate rooms thought this was going to be
easy … then they turned the page. On the second page was written… For 95 points: Which
Tire?
AH
Vues Master’s Note: I guess the wheels were
turned on them!
WHAT’S PSHAT?
Dear Vues Master:
I just went this weekend to a yeshiva dinner
which had over seven hundred people attending. There were maybe 10 people in total
wearing masks. Why are people acting this
way? Everywhere you go people are getting
covid or the flu. Yeshivas & businesses are
closing down because they don’t have enough
staff. I don’t believe the yeshivas or the businesses should close, but not to wear masks?
What’s pshat?
Vues Master’s Note:Most scientists say that
masks don’t help. They just help minimize the
chances of getting Covid. It’s easier these days
to get covid than it is to get the flu. People are
tired of fear mongers and people are just not
ready to be hoodwinked anymore. Look, the
only way they got so many people vaccinated
was via bribes or threatening to lose their
jobs. That does not sound like something we
believe in! It’s more like communism!
ISRAEL
Dear Vues Master:
I don’t know if Israel should be open or
closed. I don’t know if Israel should make
America red and prohibit travel to America.
I don’t know if Israel’s leaders have the right
to deny entrance for Jews into their homeland,
or if Israel’s leaders have a responsibility to
Israel’s citizens to keep them safe – even from
fellow Jews. If asked what Israel should do, I
don’t know what I’d advise and I’m grateful I
don’t have this burden on my shoulders. I do
know one thing. I know my pain and struggle
hearing my American friends who love Israel
and can’t visit their homeland. I hear the hurt
in their voice as they cancel tickets. I know so
many parents and grandparents who want to
see family, hug their babies – and can’t. I miss
my friends and family who I can’t see, and
now that Israel might forbid us from going to
America, I can’t go and visit. The saying goes,
absence makes the heart grow fonder, but it
also makes the heart hurt. American Jews and
lovers of Israel, I know it seems we don’t care
about you, but please understand, even as our
borders close, we love you, we miss you, and
we hope we are able to see you very soon.
RUP
Vues Master’s Note:By the time I finished
your letter the policy of traveling in Israel has
changed multiple times. It would seem that we
are not finished with Variants etc. The politicians will milk this for as long as they can!
SELF DESTRUCT
Dear Vues Master:
R’ Hirsch Gottlieb of Sighet said Haman was
a fool for wanting to give כסף ככר אלפים עשרת
to אחשורוש to destroy the Jews. He should
have given the money to the Jews to divide
amongst themselves and then they would
have killed each other.
MB
Vues Master’s Note:You see how Hashem
saves us!
SUICIDE
Dear Vues Master:
*הלכה ולא למעשה
EVEN A TZADIK WHO COMMITS SUICIDE
The reason we don’t apply the Halachos of
ברכי יוסף a on based is today מאבד עצמו לדעת

and we assume it wasn’t done with
דעת .We assume that those who commit suicide were mentally ill at the
time they acted and can’t be blamed.
However, we can’t ignore a whole Siman (chapter) in Shulchan Aruch regarding the Halachos of dealing with
a person who takes his life. It must be
that there is a time when we don’t assume the person to be mentally ill and
the Halachos are applicable.
Perhaps, when a Gadol & renowned
Posek**says on an individual,
“What made things very clear was the
suicide note. This was not a depressed
person writing a note. This was narcissism at its best, this was manipulative,
this was a person preparing to commit
a violent crime, murder, and the victims…all of us, [he intended that] we
should all feel guilty for his death. I
think to any level-headed human being who has any sensitivity to human
beings and a bit of nuance–it’s obvious.”
Then it would be in order to apply the
Halachos of לדעת עצמו מאבד even if
the only עבירה he was ever עובר was
suicide.
1) The אדם חכמת writes there is no
greater עבירה than committing suicide.
It is considered like killing a whole
world.
2) The סופר חתם writes he is עובר on
דמים שפיכת one of the עבירות‘ ג In addition for every Yid even Reshaim
מכפרת מיתה except for him.
3) The השלחן ערוך writes If we know
for sure that he wasn’t mentally
ill even ע“ר would admit that we may
curse and shame him. (הרע לשון(
* I am a Pashute Bal Haboos not a
Rav (Can’t Pasken) **Harav Hagaon
R. Yitzchok Berkowitz Shlita
MF
Vues Master’s Note: Sounds like a
killer issue.
DOG
Dear Vues Master:
Benny’s dog died and he went to see
his rabbi. “Rabbi, I wonder whether
you could find the time to say a special
blessing at my dog’s grave?” The rabbi replied: “I’m afraid it isn’t possible,
Benny. The rules don’t really make
any allowance for animals.” Benny
said, “But I’m really upset, rabbi.”
“Well, perhaps you should go to see
the Reform rabbi down the road,”
said the rabbi. As Benny walked away
dejectedly, he turned to the rabbi and
said, “What a shame. I was willing
to donate $1,000 for such a service.”
At which point the rabbi shouted,
“Come back, come back.” Benny
turned around and said, “I thought
you couldn’t help me.” “Ah,” said the
rabbi, “but you didn’t tell me your dog
was Orthodox.”
GS
Vues Master’s Note: Maybe he can
make the dog a Kohen too?
SHARP RETORT
Dear Vues Master:
The החושן קצות בעל was once approached by a critic who had all sorts
of arguments and questions concerning his ספר .The critic asked if he could
respond to his questions. “אשיב אני
לכבודו ואכתוב “,he said. But when several months passed without any response, the critic complained that he
didn’t receive the promised response.
:said בעל קצות החושן The
“You misunderstood me. All I meant
is that when you write a ספר like mine,
I’ll return the favor and will write a
קונטרס cataloguing all your errors.”
NK
Vues Master’s Note: It is amazing
how our Rabbis were so sharp!?
CELL PHONES
Dear Vues Master:
Cell phones on Hoshana Raba
The מר“א quotes from the *לבוש
“ואין רגילין לעשות מלאכה של חול עד אחר
יציאה מבה“כ”
(We are not used to doing a weekday
מלאכה on רבה הושענה ,until after we
leave Shul.)
The אברהם מגן adds, “also not to carry
money (מוקצה (in the pocket.
There are Shuls who collect “Esrog
Money** on רבה הושענה but it is not
right to do so”.
The מגדים פרי argues on the א“מג and
writes that it was intentionally done
so to collect the money on רבה הושענה
when there is a large crowd in Shul.
The חי איש בן writes, that money for
צדקה overrides the Minhag of not carrying money on רבה הושענה.
It would seem that carrying מוקצה
other than money (eg: cell phone etc.)
in Shul on רבה הושענה might be אסור
to do so.
* This Chumra only applies while in
Shul (Levush)
**They used to buy one Esrog for the
whole Shul. The first opportune time
to collect money for it was on Chol
Hamoed but some communities didn’t
have a Minyan on Chol Hamoed except for on H.Rabah.
KJ
Vues Master’s Note: I’ll keep it in
mind next year! I think it is a good
idea to have our cell phones on flight
mode during davening.
TZEDAKA
Dear Vues Master:
In two separate editions, you had the
picture of Rabbi Dovid Shek ( Sept 1-
page 51 and Sept 9- page 58).
Rav Sheck is an extraordinary individual. Rav Sheck was personally asked
to open Yeshiva Mishkan Hatalmud
by Rav Chaim Kamiel Zatzal (Rebbe
of Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel zatzal
former Rosh Yeshiva of Mir Yerushalyim) to address the specifics needs
of boys in Ofakim, one of the poorest
areas in Eretz Yisroel.
The Yeshiva works with High School
age boys, from among the poorest chareidi families in Eretz Yisroel. Some
of these families are so poor that they
go to the nursery schools at the end of
each school day to collect the leftovers
from the government sponsored lunch
programs to feed their families.
These children would have very little
chance of being accepted into yeshivos gedolos or even remaining frum
without the work of Mishkan Hatalmud.
The Yeshiva is built on the principle
that whatever is needed to help these
bochrim succeed will be done, including providing each entering bochur a
kollel avreich to learn with one seder
a day and supplying each boy with
one set of shabbos clothing per year,
something that their parents cannot
provide because of the poverty level
in Ofakim. The Yeshiva also runs a
short summer camp for the boys during bein hazmanimn so that they will
continue to grow in a torahdik atmosphere during the summer.
The Yeshiva services both Ashkenazim and Sephardim.
The Yeshiva has had tremendous success. I believe in its approximately
20 years of existence every one of its
graduating boys has gone on to learn
in Yeshiva gedolah.
Only 20% of the yeshivas budget
comes from the government, and the
parents have the ability to pay minimal tuition at best, so the rest of the
money has to be raised.
Rav Sheck struggles to raise his
budget shortfall because he has no
American alumni, Americans generally are not familiar with Ofakim and
he only speaks Hebrew. Rav Shek
himself does not take a salary for his
work because there are insufficient
funds to pay him. I believe that he has
never taken a salary from the yeshiva
in the almost 20 years of running the
yeshiva.
Rav Shteinman called the yeshiva a
meis mitzvah because of its lack of
donors and gave Rav Sheck $1000 a
month. Rav Ben Chaim of Yeshivas
Tifrach and son-in-law of Rav Shmuel Brundy zatzal has stated that he is
jealous of the zchus one has for assisting Rav Sheck.
Checks can be made out to Ahvas Tzedaka V’Chesed and sent to 1836 East
15 Street, Brooklyn New York 11229
Thank you, Tizku LeMitzvot,
SM
Vues Master’s Note: Hey! Add it to
the list of campaigns we get bombarded with!
YU MANDATES BOOSTER SHOTS
Dear Vues Master:
On the weekend before its fall finals,
Yeshiva University, located in New
York City, sent out a school-wide
email informing its students that they
would be mandated to receive a booster shot for the COVID-19 vaccine in
order to return for the spring semester.
YU still plans to enforce mask-wearing and testing weekly for everyone,
even the boosted.
Prior to the fall semester, students
who were unvaccinated were told that
getting a COVID-19 vaccine would
allow them to take off the mask, to
not be forced to test weekly, and most
importantly, students would not be
forced to take a COVID-19 booster
shot. With the spread of the Delta variant, YU reversed its promises to leave
the vaccinated alone and resumed testing and masking for everyone.
As the Omicron variant surges, YU
has now mandated a booster shot, and
now a petition is demanding that YU
pull back its requirement.
“As the Omicron variant surges,” the
petition reads, “YU has inexplicably
mandated a booster shot, even as this
variant is the most evasive of our vaccines yet (we all know friends and
family who got Omicron despite their
vaccines or even boosters). With this
decision, YU has essentially rendered
its twice-dosed students and faculty
members as ‘unvaccinated.’”
The petition continues, “While we respect the students who have decided
to get a booster shot of their own volition, there is a plethora of YU students
who do not want the booster shot
forcefully injected into their bodies.
We recognize that if we comply yet
again, the administration will never
stop with the mandates. It is time to
say enough is enough.”
Vues Master’s Note: Schools like YU
get a lot of funding so they stand to
lose it if they don’t comply. I believe
it’s pathetic!
INSULIN
Dear Vues Master:
In a letter sent Tuesday, December 14,
Senator Simcha Felder joined with
members of the NYS Legislature to
express their support for a federal cap
on insulin co-pays, which was included in the Build Back Better Act passed
by Congress (sections 27001, 30604,
137308 and 139401 of HR 5376).
With the bill now coming before the
U.S. Senate, fifty-five NYS Senators and Assemblymembers urged
U.S. Senators Charles Schumer and
Kirsten Gillibrand to support passage
of the national $35 cap on insulin copays for commercial insurance plans,
ERISA plans and Medicare Part D.
“It is simply unacceptable to have
people in the U.S. rationing a life-saving medication that has been around
for 100 years,” said Senator Felder.
“To effect broad change and help seniors on Medicare who are living with
diabetes we need federal partners, so
I am grateful to Senator Gustavo Rivera for coordinating this effort. With
costs rising through the roof, now is
the time to ensure that insulin is easily
affordable.”
Advocacy groups report that diabetics
can spend as much as $1,200 a month
on insulin supplies, and despite life
threatening results, nearly a quarter of
Type 1 diabetics in the U.S. ration
their insulin to save money. Spurred
by the rising cost of insulin, NYS
lawmakers have previously taken
action with legislation capping copayments for insulin at $100 and

ensuring diabetic New Yorkers
have access to emergency insulin.
A bill to further cap the co-pay at
$30 (S-1413) is currently before the
state. However, only federal law can
cover this broad range of insurance
carriers.
ST
Vues Master’s Note:Guess what?
If vaccines would not be mandated
they would cost a lot less. No one
would want them.
VACCINE PASSPORTS
Dear Vues Master:
I would like to notify the community of an alarming bill that was
just passed on November 30 by the
U.S. House of Representatives. It
is called H.R. 550. The bill would
expand state and local health department vaccine-tracking systems
to monitor the vaccination status of
all American citizens. States would
provide this information to the federal government. The bill also creates a mechanism for federal, state
and local governments to enforce
vaccine passports or no-fly lists and
appropriates $400 million dollars to
expand vaccine tracking. The author
of the bill, Rep. Ann Kuster of New
Hampshire, has said that the bill
will help the government “remind”
patients when they are ”due” for a
“recommended” vaccine or booster
and “identify areas with low compliance.”
I recall former Governor Cuomo’s
identification of our community as
being in “low compliance” and do
not wish to see a repeat of that. Additionally, if Rep. Kuster is really
speaking about “recommendations”
and not mandates for vaccines or
boosters, I don’t think we need to
have the government use federal databases to “remind”
us of a need for them.
The bill is now under consideration
by the U.S. Senate where, if
passed, it could be implemented in
under 12 months.
This bill will significantly expand
the government’s ability to be “Big
Brother” and monitor us, take away
our medical freedoms and rights to
privacy, making it that much easier
to create and enforce medical mandates that we may not agree with.
I believe that it is very important
that everyone contact both of your
U.S. Senators to tell them that you
oppose bill H.R. 550.
FX
Vues Master’s Note:It would be
more appropriate not to vote Democrat anymore!
GIFT OF GIVING
Dear Vues Master:
At the conclusion of Purim, a man
met his friend and told him “I was
just יוצא the mitzva of מתנות
לאביונים in the most מהדרין way. The
poor man had ממש nothing to eat.”
“Who is he?” his friend asked, “I’ll
give him as well.” “What?” the first
man responded, “and ruin it for me
for next year?”
LM
Vues Master’s Note:May we all be
on the giving end not the receiving
end!
MISQUOTE
Dear Vues Master:
I saw a letter last week misquoting
an avnay nezer. it claimed that he
held the shalosh shvuos are not lihalacha he does not say that. i was
also amazed that you said that most
gedolim hold it is not halacha limaisa i am not aware of such poskim
perhaps you can enlighten me.
DS
Vues Master’s Note: I guess you can
learn the poskim. We usually don’t
pasken based on Agadta.
ISRAEL
Dear Vues Master:
t has often been said that if only
the State of Israel had existed in
the 1940s, its air force could have
bombed Auschwitz, interrupting the
gassing of countless innocents.
Well, now it does exist. And it turns
out that it has been using its air force
to interrupt a contemporary regime’s
gassing of countless
innocents.
The Washington Post has just revealed that two Israeli bombing
raids inside Syria in 2020 and 2021,
which previously had been shrouded in mystery, were in fact part of a
covert campaign to stop “a nascent
attempt by Syria to restart its production of deadly nerve agents.”
Syrian dictator Bashar Assad has
used sarin nerve gas to slaughter
thousands of civilians whom he regarded as his enemies since the
outbreak of the country’s civil war
in 2011. One attack alone left 1,400
dead in a Damascus suburb. Assad
promised the Obama administration
in 2012 that he would stop using
chemical weapons and destroy his
arsenal. But he secretly held on to
part of his stockpile, and has carried
out “more than 200 attacks” with
deadly nerve agents in recent years,
the Post reports.
The Israelis are well aware that Syria’s original purpose in developing
the poison gas was to use it against
the Jewish state—to continue, in a
sense, the gassing of the Jews that
began in German-occupied Poland
eighty years ago this month.
Rather than wait for such an attack
and then belatedly respond, the
Israelis decided to preempt the attempted genocide—and in so doing,
potentially interrupt the Assad regime’s ongoing use of those weapons against Syrian citizens.
On March 5, 2020, according to the
Post, Israeli bombers struck a compound in the Syrian city of Homs, “a
hub for Syria’s chemical-weapons
production.”
The Homs facility was preparing
batches of the chemical tricalcium
phosphate for Syria’s top military
laboratory, known as the Scientific
Studies and Research Center, which
oversees production of the regime’s
chemical weapons. Then, in June of
this year, the Israelis bombed additional chemical weapons sites near
the towns of Nasiriyah and Masyaf.
Some critics have opposed the idea
of Western military action against
Syrian chemical weapons sites, on
the grounds that bystanders might
be harmed. “People already living in
fear of losing their lives in unlawful
attacks must not be further punished
for the alleged
violations of the Syrian government,” Amnesty International USA
has declared. And to this day, an
occasional pundit will argue that
bombing Auschwitz in 1944 would
have been a bad idea because some
of the prisoners might have been
harmed.
The critics were wrong then, and
they’re wrong now.
It’s troubling that Amnesty International seems less concerned about
the actual daily murder of Syrian
civilians than the theoretical risk
to a small number of bystanders in
the course of eliminating the murder weapons. No war can be fought
without the risk of some civilian casualties. Indeed, the Israeli attack on
the Homs facility left seven guards
dead. But how can one compare
that to the thousands of Syrians who
have died agonizing deaths because
of the gas produced in that laboratory—or the many Israelis who would
be Assad’s next victims?
It is likewise nothing less than
scandalous to argue that the possible danger of air raids harming a
relatively small number of prisoners should have prevented the Allies
from interrupting the certain gassing
of 12,000 Jews in Auschwitz every
day.
In any event, the question of civilian casualties had nothing to do
with the actual discussions in 1944
about whether to bomb Auschwitz.
Most of the bombing requests by
Jewish groups were for strikes on
the railways and bridges leading to
the death camp, not the camp itself.
Such attacks on the transportation
routes—over which hundreds of
thousands of Jews were taken to
their deaths—would have involved
very minimal risk to civilians.
That’s why the excuses the Roosevelt administration made for not
carrying out such bombings had
nothing to do with the danger of
civilian casualties. U.S. officials
claimed that American planes were
too far from the camp. In reality,
U.S. bombers regularly struck
German oil factories just a few
miles from the gas chambers of
Auschwitz.
Today, the term “bombing Auschwitz” has become a metaphorical
catchphrase for the moral test that
the Allies failed during World War
II—and then failed all over again
during several other genocides that
blighted the post-Holocaust world
ever since. “Bombing Auschwitz”
is now a moral obligation for every
generation, because every generation finds itself confronted by perpetrators of atrocities. The idea of
using military force against mass
murderers is no mere history lesson; it is a military strategy for a
better world. On a few occasions,
the United States and its allies have
recognized this principle—as in the
bombing that ended atrocities in the
Balkans, pre-empted massacres in
Libya, and rescued thousands of Yazidi civilians in Iraq. Israel’s bombing of Syrian chemical weapons
follows
that noble path. The names Homs,
Nasiriyah and Masyaf are not well
known in the West. Neither was
Auschwitz—or Chelmno, in German-occupied Poland, where the
gassing of Jews began in December
1941. Perhaps the next generationwill remember the names of those
S yrian towns as the places wheregenocide was stopped in its tracks.
RM
Vues Master’s Note: IIt is very easy
being a Monday morning quarterback!
LIES
Dear Vues Master:
In Response to a remark by the
Vues Master regarding the letter by
RMS claiming his letter put you to
sleep,therefore perhaps embarrassing
RMS.The response from the Vues
Master was “at least The Vuemaster
didn’t lie.” I ask you, is this nowadays
the correct Halacha? As long as one
is telling the truth, is it OK to embarrass someone?If my memory serves
me correctly there is a story of a great
man Who rather than embarrass someone put his head in the furnace. Will
honesty be the best policy in cases like
this? Thank you
Devora Leitner
Vues Master’s Note: It is only embarrassing if you know the person who
is being embarrassed and the one
embarrassing. The only person who
is busy trying to get their name in the
paper is yourself so I guess you
can not be embarrassed. Unless you
say since you don’t know who I am it
is not embarrassing. One thing is for
sure no names have been dropped in
the telling of the truth!