03 Dec SPEAK YOUR VUES WITH THE VUES MASTER
SMART PHONES IN YESHIVA
Dear Vues Master,
This took place in a well known top elementary yeshiva in
Brooklyn. There was a third grade teacher who wanted to
take a picture of her class for a yearbook. After finally setting
everyone up, the teacher took out her smartphone to snap the
picture. Just as she pulled out her phone, a bunch of seventh
grade kids came by and started yelling “No smartphones! No
smartphones!” and convinced the kids to make funny faces
and not allow the picture to be taken. The teacher tried to yell
“Derech Eretz”, to no avail. Luckily, the principle known for
his toughness, and who nobody would dare start up with was
walking by and was able to settle things.
These seventh grade kids went to their rebbe who is a Gerer
chassid and he congratulated them for what they did. This is
outrageous. Yes, the smartphone issue is not something to
take lightly, but we focus too much on the “smartphones are
bad” aspect, and don’t talk about how to deal with someone
that has a smartphone especially when it’s someone who you
owe respect to such as a parent or teacher. If the rabbeim
don’t start teaching derech eretz, all the great chinuch and
hashkafa you are instilling in them is good for nothing. If
they use it against their parents and teachers, or against older
people, it is good for nothing. This is just one of many stories
that happen today. If we will not fix this, who will?
CF
THE POWER OF A SMALL GESTURE
Dear Vues Master
Just heard a beautiful story. There was a child who was a bit
of a troublemaker in school. After giving him many chances,
the school eventually expelled him. Many years later, the
principal bumped into the child, now an adult. He was suc-
cessful. He had a family. He seemed happy. The principal
asked him gently, “What happened since your childhood?
You had a complicated upbringing and a challenging youth.
Look at you now. How do you explain it?” The man looked
at him and said “For two years after I was kicked out, every
single Friday, my rabbi from the school called me to check up
on me. Never missed a single Friday. That deeply impacted
me and helped me improve myself.” The principal was very
pleased to hear that and he wished the man well. A few weeks
later, the principal saw that rabbi, and told him, “Remember
that kid who we kicked out? Well, I saw him and he’s built an
amazing life. When I asked him how, he told me it’s because
you called him every Friday to check up on him.” The rabbi
looked at the principal and said “It’s true. I called him every
Friday, but never once did he answer the phone.” It didn’t
matter. This boy didn’t have to answer the phone to know
that this rabbi cared about him enough to check up on him.
He didn’t have to answer the phone, it was enough to get the
calls to change his life. Never underestimate the power of a
small gesture. You never know how it can change someone’s
life, even if, at the moment, it doesn’t seem like your gesture
was received or appreciated.
Hillel Fuld
Vues Master’s Notes: Beautiful. Thanks for sharing!
BITcoin vs. BITochon
Dear Vus Master,
Regarding the current global craze with Bitcoin. I stumbled
upon Bitcoin while teaching an online finance course at Tou-
ro University as early as 2008.
At that time, the price of a Bitcoin was ten cents. I repeat ten
cents. You can Google it if you doubt me.
Since I was skeptical of Bitcoin, I brought none!
When Bitcoin reached $99,000 last week, I, among many
others, began to imagine and fantasize, “Had I bought ten
dollars worth of Bitcoin in 2008”, etc………..
Now, I have no BITcoin, but a little BITochon.
Sincerely,
Phil Charach, Former Director of Instructional Technology,
Touro University
TRUMP’S IMPACT
Dear Vues Master There is much discussion about what
Trump will or won’t do on day one. Some say he’ll help and
enable Israel to get the hostages back and eliminate Hamas.
Others say he won’t and that he can’t be trusted. Me? I don’t
know, but I do know one thing. The man hasn’t even entered
the Oval Office yet and he’s already making a tremendous
impact. Iran has decided to hold its fire and not attack Israel
out of fear of how Trump will react. (The truth is, I think this
is just a way for them to get off their high horse and they
really had no intention of attacking. Remember, they have
zero aerial defense systems left.) Hezbollah took the cease-
fire deal for many reasons, but one of them is 100% because
they know that the second Trump enters office, there is no
way they’ll get the terms that they’ll get now. Hamas too has
shown signs of weakness and the rumors of them wanting
a deal even without the IDF pulling out of Gaza are begin-
ning to circulate. Putin too is starting to speak with a different
tone. The man hasn’t even stepped foot in the White House
and already the global chaos we saw during the Biden admin-
istration is beginning to show signs of ending. So, trust him
or don’t, like him or don’t, he’s already chang-
ing international geopolitics for the better, and
that’s an indisputable fact. Hillel Fuld
Vues Master’s Notes: Whatever Trump does,
he’ll always be better than Biden!
THE RED MENACE
Dear Vues Master, The Parsha of Toldos begins
to focus on the dealings between Yaakov and
Eisov. They were twin brothers but not iden-
tical or even fraternal; more like polar oppo-
sites. Besides being a hunter of animals with
his weapons, he was also a “tzayit be’pif”. A
tzayet be’pif can mean two things: He could
influence people by their mouth – he would
cook delicious food – and /or he was able to
manipulate people with his mouth, his glib
tongue, much like the social media influencers
nowadays. Eisov showed Yitzchok how he is
following in his footsteps. Yitzchok got mar-
ried when he was forty years old. So Eisov also
did. Eisov has three very infamous shvers. He
was diverse – bipartisan. He married Yehudis
bas Barry. Eisav called her Yehudis because it
sounded Jewish to impress his father. She was
really the daughter of Holybama; he liked to
think of himself as the Holy Obama and later
changed his name to Barack Obama, a Demo-
crat, after he moved to America. The second
one was Basmus bas Elon, later gaining fame
and fortune as Elon Musk, a Republican. Her
name can be translated to Bas-Mus(k). The big-
ger problem for Yaakov’s descendants came at
the end of the parsha, when Eisov additionally
married Muchalas bas Yishmael. The merger
between the two partners of the Axis of Evil
resulted in the creation of evil entities such
as Hamas and Hezbollah. The descendants of
Yishmael have developed into the manifes-
tation of pereh adam. an untamed wildness
whose nature is to look like a man. All that is
an Adam, human, about Yishmael – his intel-
ligence, his trickery, his passion – submits to
and serves the purposes of his basic quality of
pereh. He is out of control, run amok with his
religious fervor, to the point that he trains his
children, almost from birth, to become mur-
derers in the name of religion. When, they use
the sword of Eisov and his glibness to make
themselves into the good guys, they become
very dangerous. The only way we can win is
by separating ourselves from them by increas-
ing our avodas hashem – our chasudim, prayers
and Torah learning – which will iy”h bring the
geula. DF
CHAZKEINU
Dear Vues Master,
We wanted to bring to your attention a vital
matter that affects many of us. Chazkeinu, an
organization dedicated to supporting Jewish
women and their female family members with
mental illness, is currently running their annual
campaign to raise $200,000.
As volunteers, we’ve witnessed firsthand the
life-changing impact of Chazkeinu’s programs.
Most of their services are free, with minimal
fees for larger events. Your support is crucial to
helping them reach their goal.
When a loved one faces a challenge, we often
rally around them with meals, prayers, and fi-
nancial help. But what about those struggling
with mental or emotional illness? Who can they
turn to for understanding and support? Chaz-
keinu is their lifeline, providing a safe space to
share their struggles without fear of judgment.
Your contribution, no matter how small, will
make a tangible difference. Every dollar
counts, and your support will help someone
feel less alone and more validated. You’ll be
giving them the gift of being seen and heard.
On behalf of Chazkeinu, we thank you in ad-
vance for your support. Together, we can make
a meaningful impact.
Saralah, Tirtza, Rivka Tuchinsky, Rachel G.,
Zahava List, Esther Faiga, Riqi, Malky, Esty,
Malky K., Nechie, Aliza, Sheindy, Chaya, on
behalf of Chazkeinu
Chazkeinu 2024
Vues Master’s Notes: Sounds like a great or-
ganization. I hope our
readers contribute.
YOU ARE A
JEW: CHABAD
& THE ANTI-
SEMITES
Dear Vues Master
Everyone has their
favorite Chabad story.
Here is mine. A friend
once approached a
Chabad shaliach (em-
issary) who would
stand at the entrance
to the subway station
each and every Fri-
day morning, asking
people if they were
Jewish and offering
to help them lay te-
fillin. It was exceptionally rare for anyone to
stop and accept his offer and my friend want-
ed to understand how the shaliach kept at it
week after week, despite his repeated failure.
The shaliach’s response was quintessentially
Chabad: “My success rate is 100%. Every Jew
that walks by me is reminded that he or she
is a Jew.” Chabad’s dedicated emissaries can
be found in every corner of the globe, creat-
ing Jewish presence and outposts of Jewish
life and caring, reminding Jews of who they
are. According to Pew, an astounding 37%
of American Jews engage with Chabad from
rarely to often. Two years ago, a group of us
from the Orthodox Union (OU) had the privi-
lege of attending the dinner event at Chabad’s
annual conference of shluchim (emissaries).
We went to demonstrate appreciation for their
lifesaving work delivering aid and support un-
der fire to the Jews in Russia and Ukraine. As
they went through the jaw-dropping roll call of
their emissaries throughout the globe, the big
screen showed Russia – 222. I leaned over and
whispered to a colleague. “Do you see that? We
struggle to find a few people to spend a couple
of years of their lives teaching Torah in com-
munities without a kosher pizza store, while
Chabad has 222 people who at around the age
of 22 decided to go alone to remote corners of
Russia where they will care materially and spir-
itually for Jews, raise their own families, and
remain until they die or the Messiah arrives.”
That is what the angels of Chabad do every-
where in the world and that was the mission of
Rabbi Zvi Kogan in the UAE. No movement or
group even remotely approaches Chabad’s re-
lentless dedication to mission and its reach and
success in reminding Jews- wherever they may
be – of who they are. No one, that is, other than
the antisemites. The vicious murder of Rabbi
Zvi Kogan painfully reminded every Jew ev-
erywhere that he or she is a Jew. It was not an
isolated reminder. The tidal wave of antisemi-
tism that has engulfed the world since October
7 has reminded countless Jews of who they are
and moved them to try to find their way home
to Jewish tradition and community. Much as
the Talmud notes how the empowerment of Ha-
man stimulated more of a resurgence of Jew-
ishness than the positive guidance of genera-
tions of prophets, we can observe how hateful
antisemitism has outdone the ahavat Yisrael of
Chabad in bringing Jews home.
Our hearts are broken for Rabbi Kogan’s fami-
ly and for the entire Chabad community as they
grieve over this devastating blow. We in the
Jewish community would do well to pause and
make note of the debt we owe them for their
steadfast commitment to all of us, for the Jew-
ish infrastructure they have created and main-
tain throughout the world, and for reminding us
of who we are and the values we stand for. The
world would also do well to pause and learn
from Chabad’s remarkable army of men and
women who never hide or shirk their identity
and values but choose instead to work fearless-
ly anywhere and everywhere to bring light to a
darkened world. Their strength should inspire
the many who continue to display weakness in
their epic failure to act with moral clarity and
courage and confront evil and who have chosen
instead to cow to popular opinion and tie the
hands of Israel. What has been done and said
in recent days by the ICC, the UN, the Vati-
can, and by some in the United States Congress
has added wind to the sails of Iran, Hamas, and
Hezbollah, further fueled global antisemitism,
and empowered the enemies of the Jewish
people. If only they had the moral courage of a
Chabad shaliach. The vicious murder of Rabbi
Kogan reminds us Jews of who we are. The
life of Rabbi Kogan and of his fellow shluchim
should remind all people of good conscience to
act with discernment and moral clarity, stand-
ing up fearlessly to evil and lovingly offering
their support for the good.
OU EVP Rabbi Moshe Hauer
DAF YOMI, THANKSGIVING
DINNER & MUNCHING ON
CACTUS
Dear Vues Master
We Yidden celebrate Thanksgiving multiple
times every day, but sometimes we can come
up with new reasons to Thank Hakodosh Ba-
ruch Hu, and sometimes the Daf Yomi triggers
insights we had not thought of.The section we
will discuss now in the page in Baba Basra
studied around the world on Thanksgiving
this year (156b) begins not just inauspiciously
enough, but seemingly headed in the opposite
direction. Rather than discussing any of the
minimum of 100 brachos we are to recite every
day, the passage we will discuss begins with
two klalos. In discussing, the prohibition of
combining two plants (kilayim), Rabbi Eliezer
cursed the sons of Rochel. Why? Rav Yehuda
said that Shmuel says they were maintaining
thorns in a vineyard [and did not uproot them].
Rav Yehuda conforms to his line of reasoning,
as we learned [in a Mishna (Kilayim 5:8), with
regard to one who maintains thorns in a vine-
yard,] Rabbi Eliezer says: He has proscribed
[the vineyard, rendering it forbidden due to
the prohibition against diverse kinds.] And
chazal say that only a plant [the likes of which
people usually] maintain proscribes a vineyard
and renders it forbidden. The Gemara asks,
granted if it were saffron [that grew in the
vineyard], it is useful for seasoning and other
uses, and therefore it proscribes the vineyard.
But what of with regard to thorns? For what
are they useful? (We know what thorns do to
protect roses, but do Jews really clamor for a
cactus bouquet on Valentine’s Day? Or even
on Shavuos?) Rabbi Hanina said: What is the
reasoning of Rabbi Eliezer? It is because in
Arabia they maintain thorns in the fields for
their camels. [Rabbi Eliezer holds that since
thorns are maintained in one place, they are
considered useful everywhere.] The thorns in
Arabia — and elsewhere— serve a purpose,
but to appreciate them we really have to look
at the anatomy of a camel Camels are de-
signed to survive in harsh desert environments
and have tough mouths that can handle thorny
plants like cactus. Cacti are a good source of
water and nutrients for camels in arid regions.
Their thick lips and tough palate allow them
to avoid getting hurt by the spines, and they
can eat the flesh of the cactus for hydration
and sustenance, thorns and all! So because
the Gemorah pointed out that thorns are not
necessarily destructive but may even be worth
maintaining with human intervention, like
pre-industrial revolution gas stations, we now
have two additional reasons to be thankful on
Thanksgiving and on every other day of the
year — for the cacti and for the camels. With-
out the camels and the cacti that may have
helped Eliezer’s camels reach the well where
he met Rivka, Eliezer might have had to settle
for a local girl for Yitzchak (not that there’s
anything wrong with local young ladies today,
G-d forbid, taken from a larger pool of suit-
able frum young ladies) in which case Jewish
history might have been and would continue
to be quite different. Applying the lesson of
the camel to today’s world of shidduchim,
without the shidduch resume and the ability of
people to circulate it on the Internet him(by or
not by a Shadchan, as the case may be) there
might be far fewer satisfactory shidduchim in
the world, and all that follows. Caveat: At the
same time, the “old fashioned” way worked
very well as well, even without a well ap-
proached by future matriarchs. In fairness
to the millions of Jews happily and success-
fully married without a shidduch resume and
a computer, we must keep in mind the Gemara
elsewhere that states “Arba’im yom kodem
l’yitzras havlad bas kol yotzais v’omeress bas
ploni l’ploni — 40 days before the embryo is
created, a Heavenly voice emanates and de-
crees who is for whom” (Sota 2a). The bottom
line is that shidduchim are all from Hashem
(except it would seem, those that end in di-
vorce, although even then some good — even
much good — often comes out of many good
years); and did Eliezer’s camels lead to a bet-
ter result than our shidduch resumes and Inter-
net contacts? So let’s all take this opportunity
to thank HaShem, retroactive to Thanksgiving
Day — and every day — for the camel of antiq-
uity, the Internet of the present, and the unlim-
ited potential of the future. Post-thanksgiving,
the writer is also thankful he isn’t reincarnated
as a camel.
Rabbi Aaron I. Reichel, Esq.
LAKEWOOD EATERIES
Dear Vues Master Many High Schools in the
Lakewood area have warned the parent body
that “emphasizing that certain eateries in town
may not align with the values and standards
of a bas yisroel”. Should these restaurants and
food establishments be off limits to students
and children under 18?
GB
Vues Master’s Notes: Ask your local Rav!
A BOOK THAT SAVED LIVES
Dear Vues Master,
This month marks the fortieth anniversary
of the publication of David S. Wyman’s
The Abandonment of the Jews, a book that
changed the way we think about our nation’s
history—and also saved lives. That is a rare
achievement.
Wyman (1929-2018), a Harvard-trained his-
torian and grandson of two Protestant minis-
ters, did not set out to write about the Holo-
caust. But he was puzzled by the reluctance
of other scholars to confront the question of
how America responded to the Nazi genocide,
so he decided to explore it himself. The Aban-
donment of the Jews: America and the Holo-
caust 1941-1945, was published by Pantheon
in November 1984.
Prof. Wyman often spoke about how difficult
it was for him, as a Christian, to find himself
face to face with evidence of the meager re-
sponse by American Christians, including
our elected leaders, to news of the Holocaust.
Sometimes he “cried for days” and had to take
a break from his research. He said he “had
been brought up with the belief that at the
heart of Christianity is the precept that, when
people need help, you should provide it.”
Prior to the publication of The Abandon-
ment of the Jews, the widespread assumption
among the American public was that there was
little or nothing the Roosevelt administration
could have done to save Jews from the Ho-
locaust.
Prof. Wyman’s meticulous research demon-
strated that there were many ways the U.S.
could have aided European Jewish refugees,
without interfering with the war effort or un-
dermining America’s immigration laws. He
documented how President Franklin D. Roo-
sevelt and his State Department suppressed
news about the Holocaust and ignored oppor-
tunities to rescue refugees. He exposed how
U.S. planes struck within a few miles of the
Auschwitz gas chambers—yet failed to bomb
the railways and bridges leading to the camp,
or the mass-murder machinery itself.
The Abandonment of the Jews quickly rose
to the New York Times best-seller list, and
reviewers were nearly unanimous in their ac-
claim. “We will not see a better book on this
subject in our lifetime,” Prof. Leonard Dinner-
stein concluded. Prof. Hasia Diner wrote that
that Abandonment “systematically demolishes
often repeated excuses for inaction.”
The Abandonment of the Jews won numerous
prizes, went through seven hardcover print-
ings and multiple paperback editions, and was
translated into German, French, Hebrew, and
Polish.
Most remarkably, the book also played a key
role in the rescue of Jews from Ethiopia in
1985.
A secret agreement between Israel and Sudan
in 1984 had enabled Israel to begin airlifting
tens of thousands of Jews from an area along
the Ethiopian-Sudanese border. But an overly
eager American Jewish journalist rushed to
publish the scoop, prompting Sudan to sud-
denly halt the airlifts in January 1985. That
left some 800 Ethiopian Jewish refugees
stranded at the border.
A team of Jewish activists, including Los An-
geles Jewish publisher Phil Blazer and Nate
Shapiro of the American Association for Ethi-
opian Jews, flew to Washington to seek U.S.
intervention. In meetings with members of
Congress and Vice President George H.W.
Bush, they distributed copies of The Aban-
donment of the Jews and pleaded with
them not to repeat the indifference of the
Roosevelt years.
Senators Alan Cranston (D-California)
and Rudy Boschwitz (R-Minnesota) and
Congressman Stephen Solarz (D-New
York) and John Miller (R-Washington)
spearheaded the bipartisan effort to press
the Reagan-Bush administration for ac-
tion.
Learning that Vice President Bush was sched-
uled to visit Sudan on diplomatic business
shortly, Rep. Miller went to see him. Citing
The Abandonment of the Jews, Miller told
Bush “that this was a chance to write a very
different history than the history of America’s
response to the Holocaust.” Sudan might re-
fuse to let the Israelis land on its soil, “but Su-
dan would not be able to say no to the United
States–if our government insisted,” Miller
argued.
On March 22, 1985, shortly after Bush’s
meetings in Sudan, a fleet of U.S. Air Force
C-130 Hercules transport planes airlifted the
800 refugees from Sudan to Israel. The vice
president subsequently sent Prof. Wyman a
handwritten note of thanks and made a point
of saying in a speech afterwards, “Never again
will the cries of abandoned Jews go unheard
by the United States government.”
CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, who at the time
was the Washington correspondent for the Je-
rusalem Post, wrote: “Today’s direct and very
active cooperation by the U.S. government in
helping to rescue Ethiopian Jews is in marked
contrast to the documented abandonment of
European Jewish refugees before and during
World War II…[which has been] well-docu-
mented in David S. Wyman’s recently pub-
lished book, The Abandonment of the Jews.”
In 2008, Prof. Wyman visited an Israeli air
force base, where he met Major-General Amir
Eshel, who was involved in the 1985 airlift
operation, and Moshe Gadaf and Ami Farra-
dah, who, as eight year-olds, were among the
Ethiopian Jewish children who were rescued.
Wyman described meeting them as one of the
most moving experiences of his life.
Forty years later, The Abandonment of the
Jews remains the definitive study of America’s
response to the Nazi genocide. A handful of
polemicists and pundits have tried to excuse
FDR’s Holocaust record, but additional re-
search in the field in recent years has only re-
confirmed Prof. Wyman’s original conclusion:
President Roosevelt, “the era’s most promi-
nent symbol of humanitarianism, turned away
from one of history’s most compelling moral
challenges.”
Dr. Rafael Medoff
Vues Master’s Notes: Thanks for the history
lesson!