Do not think!
Voting for our leaders here in Israel is no different from giving a drunk your hard earned cash.
And if you’re not prepared to consider alternatives, because that constitutes “laziness” and “simply sitting back” and “washing your hands” and “negligence”, well, then, methinks we'd better reevaluate who exactly is being negligent and who in reality is giving up, and who is actually resigned to their son remaining a drunk.
But of course, those who believe the propaganda will contend that there’s a difference, because this is about “civic duty” and “you can't come complaining afterwards” and “after everything Israel gave you” and “one vote might end up tipping the scales” and all the other platitudes they've been fed to make them into dull-witted believers in the status quo, who are incapable of thinking independently or considering rationally and without prejudice that there might actually be a better way.
And while we’re on it, my position doesn’t come from a place of “deep hurt”, as Ms. Liel suggests (though I thank her for the dime-store psychological assessment). It comes from a principled, reasoned conclusion, arrived at after measuring the facts and considering real life history as it’s played out via the hand of G-d countless times, repetitively, over the last 80-odd years.
And, I’ve been democracy-hesitant for nearly 40 of those years, since a college professor I admired whispered one morning to our small class that “the only difference between political parties in a democracy is the rate at which they effect societal rot.”
I became a monarchist shortly thereafter.
My own, dime-store psychological assessment:
Those who think like our friend Lisa (and make no mistake — they’re the vast majority, G-d help us) appear to be living in a brainwashed, Huxleyan Brave New World, where the soma issued every few years by way of the ballot box throws a bone to the weary, and nearly everyone who swallows the democracy pill feels immediately relieved and gratified that they’ve been entrusted with such a ‘responsibility’ and delegated such a momentous ‘duty’, and considering how ‘great the stakes are’ (!) and with the ‘fate of the nation literally hanging in the balance’, and ‘this time it's make or break’ and ‘now, finally, there’s a real alternative’ and so on, and so on — “what a great privilege it is to cast one’s ballot!”
And malarkey and bollocks and billshot and horse hockey.
The truth is far starker.
Tachlis, voting in the Knesset is as valuable to the nation as a Beitar/Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer match, full of sound and fury, signifying absolutely nothing — but with only half the entertainment value.
And while we’re there, can anyone tell me what would happen if the stadium hosting that match only drew to 15% capacity?
Can you imagine such a scenario?
Yes, the game would still be played.
And yes, a winner would be declared.
But no one would be able legitimately to claim that it was an important event, or that the results were even worth considering, or that it carried any meaning to anyone but the whiny, few hall-monitor types who actually wasted their time and money attending.
Advertisers and sponsors wouldn’t expend their energy or cash, and those who were considering buying tickets for the next match would be just as likely to seek something closer to their hearts and more worthy of their time and shekels and thought than just mindlessly going because everyone else was!
But the hype! Oh… the hype…!
And because it’s ‘the in-thing’ to do!
When we arrive at that 15% participation rate, she yihiye b’karov — or maybe even sooner — there will ensue a genuine, broad and penetrating look for alternatives (notwithstanding the fact that they’re already here), and only then will genuine Jewish change be possible.
Of course, there will always be those who insist on jumping up and down, yelling Bibi! or Feiglin! or Ben Gvir! or Pollard! or [insert the Klumnik! of your choice], but the rest of us will see them for the narrow-minded, blindered cheerleaders that they are. Literally nothing more than flag-waving soccer fans, whose yips and hurrahs, in the end, paradoxically yet consistently hand their opponents a surprise victory!
Nahafochu!
G-d is great.
And anyone who’s intellectually honest can see that history teaches that the results of Knesset elections simply don’t conform with the on-the-ground results in the military/defence arena — the prime reason most Israelis cast their ballots (i.e., ‘peace’ vs ‘security’).
”We voted right, we got left,” is the standard, post-election moan. And the masochists respond on cue: “Yeah, well you should have known better! Maybe next time you’ll vote ‘righter’ — for a REAL right-wing party! — and then you’ll see!”
Sort of like what everyone did this last election.
An election that delivered an unparalleled calamity…
That’s still ongoing a year and a half later, thanks to our “most right-wing government in the history of the state.”
And why? is the question.
Why?
The answer is — always — because G-d.
A Jew never leaves G-d out of the equation when answering ‘Why?’
Your answer…?
If you’re a believing Jew, please explain why He would do such a thing?
And why He keeps doing it over and over?
Why, for instance, did the first right-wing prime minister in Israel's history give away the Sinai?
And why did that same gentleman-hero, who ordered the killing of G-d-knows how many while leading the pre-state underground, refuse to kill Arafat when he had him in the cross-hairs in Beirut?
And why did the most storied general in Israel's history, the right-wing, monster fascist, Ariel ‘seize-the-hilltops’ Sharon, give away the Gaza Strip?
Why do these things happen?
Because there is a reason.
Could it be that we’re just not getting the message?
Could it be that we’re dining in the wrong restaurants? Is that why it keeps happening?
Because the answer always lies with G-d.
Always.
And He is trying to tell us something.
And if we’re not thick-headed golems, charging forward like a bunch of mouth-breathing soccer fans, then we’ll stop and think.
Because there's no logical, this-worldly explanation for it.
Only a Jewish one.
And perhaps it’s this —
That G-d doesn’t want evil ever to be credited with good.
G-d doesnt want evil to be credited with good.
It’s an idea that comes, most recently, from the Satmar Rebbe in his writings against zionism (no, I’m not a Satmar chasid, but one has to give genius its due), but can also be found in many other sources, including the Even Shetiya on sefer shemot (p. 94, h/t Rav Richter), who explains that after Pharaoh sent the B’nai Yisrael from Egypt following the plagues, G-d forced him to regret his decision and ride out into the desert in order to return them to slavery.
Why?
SO THAT NO ONE, EVER, MIGHT COMMIT THE ERROR OF THANKING PHARAOH FOR GIVING US OUR FREEDOM FROM EGYPT.
G-d orchestrates history, we know that — just as He’s doing now — to demonstrate, among other things, that good can never come from evil.
The State of Israel, for whatever temporary benefit it may have afforded Jews as a safe haven — WILL NEVER BE CREDITED WITH BRINGING THE FINAL REDEMPTION.
Because that would necessitate whitewashing all the atrocities the zionists committed — injustices that can never be left to stand.
For all the evils they perpetrated and for the viciousness of their efforts to uproot Torah from the people of Israel, they will lose their state.
And that will be a good thing.
Because only then will the redemption begin to sprout.
And that puts those who perpetuate the existence of the state in a very bad place, because they are, in effect, perpetuating evil.
Of them, the Vilna Gaon wrote:
…the klipah of the Erev Rav works only through deception and roundabout ways. Therefore, the war against the Erev Rav is the most difficult and bitterest of all. We must strengthen ourselves for this war, and anyone who does not participate in the battle against the Erev Rav becomes, de facto, a partner with the klipah of the Erev Rav, and is better off not having being born. (Kol HaTor, Ch. 2, Chelek 2)
As for not voting amounting to taking “the easy way out”, it’s quite obvious that anyone who makes such a claim has never attempted it in Israel. Because if they had, they would understand what a trial it is, particularly here, where democracy is literally the religion of the majority — not Judaism, democracy.
The State is Gawd, and democracy is the religion. But that’s for another time.
You should only know, friends, the sturm und drang that my wife and I (and others like us) go through every election season, when we’re browbeaten and lectured and sneered at in our local makolet and at Shabbat tables and shiurim for being among the few who refuse to participate in the dance about the golden calf.
This is not a matter, as Lisa liel claims, of
- “emuna without hishtadlut,” or
- “laziness,” or
- "simply sitting back and washing your hands of things” or
- “negligence.”
It’s also not born “of pain or despair of ever fixing things.”
It’s precisely the opposite.
In our yishuv, it’s known by all who does and who does not vote. And it's not like we stand up and announce the fact. We don't. We come from a place (and time, I guess), when voting was considered a private matter. We tell no one of our intentions.
Yet, come voting day, the phone starts ringing.
“Do you intend to vote today?”
“Are you coming to vote; there are still three hours left?”
“Has your wife voted?”
“Does she plan to?”
“May I ask why…?”
And then afterwards, when the information is made public to everyone in the yishuv, not officially, of course, but it does manage to circulate rather quickly…
Then we and the three or four others who prefer to think independently of the herd, begin to get pilloried and snooted at for being less than dutiful citizens by — can I say it? — the Lisa Liels of this world.
No one can tell me that my choice is easy, or that it amounts to throwing up my hands and giving up, etc.
On the contrary, it’s an active decision that requires us to steel ourselves, because we know it will lead to significant, though not unexpected discomfort in our community.
Try it. Then tell me it's the path of least resistance.
We do it because we believe it's the true path, the only one that G-d really wants, and we choose to live by our convictions.
Those who continue to vote, in fact, are the ones who have despaired. They have washed their hands of doing anything that might change the situation, and they may be guilty of more than just negligence. By way of their encouragement and pep, and their tendentious reasoning and rhetoric, they may be guilty of causing the masses to sin.
And why would they do that?
Because they don’t possess the imagination, the will or the courage to give their thought and energy to anything but beating their heads against a cold, stone wall, even though they admit it’s pointless.
That’s not “trying.”
That’s masochism.
Lo b’shamayim hee, friends. Open your hearts to other possibilities, because there is a way to fix this country, though it doesn’t consist of repeating the same old slogans and marching behind this or that loudmouth with brand new, colorful signage.
It means, in the first place — opting out.
Hitnatkut.
Because the lefties are often right…
For the wrong reasons.
Left or right, we’ll take you.
We have to separate from the tumah and not give them our time or energy or support.
The Erev Rav lives off the kedusha of good, albeit misguided Jews, who've been seduced and ensnared by their wiles.
It therefore behooves all good Jews to divorce themselves to the maximum degree possible from the state and all its institutions, even though it involves pain and enduring insults and inconveniences.
Every Jew will have to decide according to his commitment level and pain tolerance how far he and his family can travel down that road, because the kosher restaurant, remember, is located a tad out of the way.
And not casting a vote, relatively speaking, will be among the easiest of tasks in the campaign to restore the Davidic Kingship.
Not serving in TzaHaL is of far greater moment and import, while general civil disobedience will ultimately win the day.
Because the leftists showed us, unequivocally, what can be done by a rather small cadre of dedicated individuals ready to disrupt the workings of the state on a regular basis for an extended period.
They’re very often right, these leftists — though, again, always for the wrong reasons.
And we have what to learn from them.
Moshe Feiglin, if memory serves, had a good degree of success in this area, as well — that is, working OUTSIDE THE SYSTEM .
However, as soon as he entered the established, zionist political arena, as you know, G-d thwarted him.
Only from without will we win, as the Kaplanists have demonstrated.
[By the way, Feiglin ultimately lost because his followers were too zionist, too establishment, and sadly, not willing enough to take the fight to the next level, as the Hilltop Youth and Peleg Yerushalmi are now doing, may Hashem bless their efforts and their willingness to bleed and be beaten for the cause.]
Real Mesirut Nefesh
If one’s mesirut mefesh only extends to hosting parlor meetings and sticking Feiglin signs on people's front lawns, then one has never known true mesirut nefesh all one's days.
And as far as actual politicking goes, there are, indeed, options for those of a more loquacious nature.
See HERE for a brief discussion on the establishment of an alternate “government-in-exile” for the Jewish nation, a sound departure point for kick-starting the Jewish Monarchy Movement.
The Davidic dynasty will be reestablished, despite the efforts of those who seek to retard it.
And when it does arrive, we’ll support its good kings and criticize and admonish its bad ones — as the entire prophetic tradition adjures us to do.
But kingship itself will never be in question.
Until then, we continue in our efforts to convince, even coerce, G-d through our teshuva, our mitzvot, prayers, Torah learning and ma'asim tovim, that we're worthy of his mercy and of the destruction of the evil ones who rule over us.
We recognize, too, that it's only because of our many sins that the day of our greatest rejoicing, Simchat Torah, was turned into a holocaust.
Continuing blindly in the same direction, and eating at the same treif eateries, only guarantees another such occurrence, G-d forbid.
It's time to decide — all of us — if we're going to follow the path of Ben Gurion, who insisted on working with what he had, (the British), and turning over Jews to the occupier to be tortured, killed or disappeared.
Or to dream of the glory of a rebuilt Third Temple, as Avraham Stern did
And know it well —
That it was to Stern and his followers that Winston Churchill referred when he wrote that the British Empire was “unceremoniously booted from Palestine by a handful of Jewish terrorists!”
If you've been a hostage to Ben Gurion, it's now time for herut.
Time to rise up.
Like Stern.
And operate outside the system.
Dean Maughvet
In memory of Binyamin and Talia Kahane HY”D, Nati Ozeri HY”D and Ariel Bereny, all of whose love for Jews and Israel remains a guiding light for us all.
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