I'm not sure why this hit me today while reading a certain paper, and whether or not it's just this Pesach season that elicits this reaction within me, but this was the case today. Read the papers carefully these and what do you find? it's one of several things: 1) ads asking for קמחא דפסחא etc. 2) sales for clothing and stuff you can't afford 3) worse yet, ads for Pesach in extravagant locations that only the 1% can afford, or 4) features on organizations that distribute food etc. And not much else. I'm not complaining, papers need to make money, and they do that through selling ads. But why would I want to read them? All I see is tens of thousands of Jews suffering hunger and disease. There's little I can do to help. I can't possibly help all of them, there's just too many. So I just turn the page and sigh. Maybe I get a שטיקל התעוררות תשובה seeing all those who ר"ל need a רפואה שלמה, So maybe it does have some affect on me. What about the fancy clothes and hotels, you ask? What about the לפני עור that they're עובר on for making me want that which I cannot afford? טאקע א שווערע שאלה. I cannot answer that, but maybe that's what the עיני העדה meant when they discouraged people from reading newspapers. טמא'נע בלעטער is a חידוש that you may not read? אלא מאי they were referring to the kosher ones. If so, if they're kosher, why not read them? מוז מען זאגען because of the ads.
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