Ask The Rabbi 17 February 1996 Issue #96 =========================================================================== This Issue Contains: 1. A Clean Scalp? 2. Yeshiva of Survival 3. Answer to Yiddle Riddle =========================================================================== 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 =========================================================================== All Ohr Somayach Publications are now available in Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft Word formats from our web site: www.jer1.co.il/orgs/ohr =========================================================================== 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!" =========================================================================== Follow-up to Ask The Rabbi #92: 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. =========================================================================== Yiddle Riddle 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 =========================================================================== ** Spend This Coming Summer Break In Israel For As Little As $599 ** ** (including airfare from New York) ** =========================================================================== JLE Israel Summer Seminar '96 7 weeks of study and touring, optional Ulpan, and structured encounters with Israeli Dignitaries Departure June 13th Optional free time from July 28th through August 8th For Jewish men between the ages of 19 & 30 with demonstrated academic achievement and a sincere motivation to explore their roots Minimum scholarship price: $599 Covers round trip ticket, room, board, tuition and tours Undergraduates attending college anywhere in North America who PERMANENTLY reside in New York City (the 5 boroughs), Long Island (Nassau & Suffolk counties) or Westchester County _ as well as undergraduates attending college in any of these areas although permanently residing elsewhere _ may qualify for additional scholarship monies. 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