Ask the Rabbi #96

This issue is dedicated to the memories of Moshe Ben Yakov Baruch (Michael Leigh) Z'L, 22nd Shevat, and Yetta Freida Bat Avraham Gutman (Nettie Leigh) Z'L, 26th Shevat

17 February 1996; Issue #96

Contents:

A Clean Scalp?

Yeshiva of Survival

Answer to Yiddle Riddle

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A Clean Scalp?

Contents

Philip Americus wrote:

Dear Rabbi,

I have a question about selling tickets. I attend Penn State and the 'student prices' on season tickets are very cheap (about $12). Since our football team was ranked #1 last year (or #2 depending on how you rank) and every game is sold out, scalping the tickets is extremely lucrative...students regularly sell tickets for about $30. The question is then: Is it OK to scalp the tickets? I know scalping is against school policy, because I've heard of someone getting caught on the day of the game. I also assume it's against the law. Some students will sell a $30 pencil and throw in a free football ticket, so all you are really paying for is the pencil!

Dear Philip Americus,

First of all, Mazel Tov on your team's first place ranking. But hold on to your pencil. I asked Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg, shlita, who said that scalping is 'gezelah' - theft.

As you said, scalping is against school policy. The school offers inexpensive student tickets not for investment purposes, but so that the students get an opportunity to attend the game. When students scalp their tickets the school loses, since the school could easily have sold the ticket for a higher price.

As for the trick with the $30 pencil, it sounds like those students are trying to 'clean their scalp' with it. But the school would never agree to this; therefore it violates the terms of sale. Moral of the story: For a clean scalp, use shampoo.

Speaking of inflated prices, a guy goes into a deli: "Ten dollars for Pastrami!!" he exclaims. "Across the street they sell it for $5.99!"
"So why don't you go over there!" says the owner.
"Well at the moment, they've run out of pastrami."
"Trust me," says the owner, "When I run out of pastrami, I also sell it for $5.99!"

Yeshiva of Survival

Contents

Mordechai Kamenetzky wrote:

Recently in Ask the Rabbi ('Ask the Rabbi #92') you answered the question "What was studied in the 'Yeshiva of Shem and Ever being that the Torah was not yet given to B'nei Yisrael?"

My grandfather, Reb Yaakov Kamenetzky, zatzal, has a beautiful explanation: Shem, the son of Noah, survived the 'Flood Generation,' a generation rife with immorality and cruelty. Ever survived the 'Tower of Babel,' an era when heresy ruled. Together, Shem and Ever established 'The Yeshiva of Survival.' There Yaakov learned how to encounter Lavan and Esau, and come out with his morals intact. It is this teaching which Yaakov passed to Yosef, who would persevere in lewd, immoral Egypt.

Answer to Yiddle Riddle

Contents

Last week we asked: "Who in Bereshit was his sister's son-in-law?"

Answer: Yosef. Yosef married Osnat, who was his sister's daughter. Yosef's sister Dina conceived a daughter during her tragic abduction by Shechem. This daughter, estranged from Jacob's family due to the circumstances of her birth, found her way to Egypt where she was adopted by Potifar. Thus the Torah calls her 'Osnat, daughter of Potifera,' because the Torah credits adoptive parents as though they had given birth to the child.

Source:

Me'am Loez Bereshit, Parshat Miketz

Written by Rabbi Moshe Lazerus, Rabbi Benzion Bamberger, Rabbi Reuven Subar, Rabbi Avrohom Lefkowitz and other Rabbis at Ohr Somayach Institutions / Tanenbaum College, Jerusalem, Israel.
General Editor: Rabbi Moshe Newman
Production Design: Lev Seltzer
HTMIL Design: Michael Treblow

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