נכנסים לתוך ביב שופכין בשביל לעזור לציבור: רה"י הגר"י עמית מתייחס לבחירות ופעילות נציגי דגל התורה

"The Election" 

Following is a google translation of the above video; obviously there will be mistaken or misappropriate word usage, so please use your common sense:

This whole election thing, they say that the Ponivezer Rav, a blessed righteous man, told the boy, so he said I'm going to fulfill a mitzvah from Torah to listen to the voice of the Chazon Ish. And they told the Rabbi of Tishbin that it was a mitzvah to vote, so he said yes, right, but it's not like eating matzah, it's like eating maror.

So we need to know, I copied some phrases that Stiepler wrote in a collection of letters. We need to understand, these elections for the Knesset, in fact it was forbidden to vote there at all. In fact, what do we have to do with this Knesset? What do we have to do with this mocking seat? In fact, going there is not easy. At the time, the Ponivezer Rav was asked to run to be a member of Knesset. His cleverness, his ability to speak, he was extremely clever, he was clever with quick thinking. At the time, he was with a certain gentleman, and the gentleman was willing to give money, a large sum of money for a yeshiva, on the condition that they put his picture in the Beit Midrash. What would you do? A large sum, and in that situation it was critical. What would you say to something like that? That was the offer. As soon as he finished speaking, the rabbi from Ponivez replied, "In my room, I'll put the picture! In the blink of an eye, in my room!" And he put it in his room. The speed...

And he said he couldn't be a member of Knesset. They told him why? You were also the representative there in Lithuania. He says yes, but he doesn't have enough shirts. After all, they have to tear them every day, they hear insults there every day, they have to tear them. One day I was at a wedding, my wife's cousin was there, he was a military rabbi. A military rabbi, a lieutenant colonel, with all eight clothes, came to the wedding. So one of them said to me, well, what do you say about him? And he knows my opinions. I said I admire him. He was surprised. So I told him, look, someone who has been in the army for fifteen years and hasn't taken off his kippa, I admire him. Anyone who has been in the Knesset for four or five years and hasn't taken off his kippa, they should be admired.

We need to see them as people who enter the public square to help the public. This is the public square. Now, in fact, we don't expect anything from this place. We are going to vote only because the elders of Israel told us to, otherwise we wouldn't go to vote. It's not a matter of, I think so, I think so. There was someone who came to the Hazon Ish and told him that he was going to make a Haredi list in the municipality where he lives. The Hazon Ish encouraged him and gave him money. When he left, the Hazon Ish told those who were sitting there, they have no chance, they won't put a representative in. So why did the rabbi encourage him? He said, what does it mean? Every vote that votes for this means I want a government of Torah, it's Kiddush Hashem!

He added with a sting to the Shas and Otzma Yehudit parties: Now if you vote for Shas... then you say I'm troubled by the situation of the deprivation of the Sephardim, I don't want this deprivation. I oppose it, I want to help the backward classes. Someone who wants to vote for Ben Gvir, he says I want Beirut to be occupied no matter how many people are killed. It doesn't matter. That's what I want.

Now we've passed the days of mourning for the destruction, it says in the Gemara, "Here are the bullies of Dehav in Jerusalem." "Here are the bullies." Rashi says, what is a bully? Empty and rushing to war. Empty, every generation has its own Ben Gvir. Empty and rushing to war. Empty and rushing to war.

And Steifler writes: The Torah-hating bullies blame all those who refrain from voting on the account of the Torah, may God bless him and not on the account of those who protest, and therefore they refrain from voting and, God forbid, reduce the honor of Heaven. He says, everyone who refrains from voting in any case strengthens the persecutors of the Torah, may God have mercy on them, without exception. And certainly all the results of the desecration of the name of Heaven he takes part in. The very fact of the large number of voters is a tremendous sanctification of God. It is unthinkable to let them, to let our enemies do as they please without a word. And without doing anything according to the place and time that is in their power to pass the decrees.

And this is certainly the case with these representatives (A.H. – speaking of the flag of the Torah), every choice among them is a choice that shows me Want a party that says we want Torah rule. And everyone who votes says I am another one who wants Torah rule here in this country. Today it is a war, do you want Torah or do you not want Torah. And besides, after all, with all the criticisms, there is no one who cares about the Abrahim and the Torah students as much as they do. No one cares. So anyway, we must do this and it is not an issue that should concern us at all. To fulfill the mitzvah, we hope that by the time the elections come, this state will be abolished, but the party that will be in power then must do what must be done, of course.

Documentation credit: Yeshiva Youth Conference.