My friends we have no choice. We must all go out and vote for Yahadut HaTorah. But after the elections we will settle our accounts with the party’s leaders. We are going to the polls not because of the representatives and the parties chas v’chalilah but rather in spite of them. And although this does not give voice to our mistrust of them the obligation to vote is rooted in the directives of the Chazon Ish zt”l. I heard this directly from a person who heard it from the Chazon Ish himself and it has already become public knowledge that the obligation to vote is mainly in order to demonstrate publicly how many Jews in Eretz Yisrael truly desire for their lives to be run in accordance with the Torah. For that purpose every vote counts. Every ballot cast gives voice to this fundamental truth.
But the leaders of Yahadut HaTorah have expressed their fears that this time even the Chazon Ish’s instructions will not achieve the desired result. Suddenly they have begun listening to the voices of their constituents. They have noticed the anger that has built up within so many hearts and that is now spilling out in bursts from large chareidi communities expressing their wrath in every possible way by refusing to vote or by voting for parties that are far from the spirit of the Torah. And while we feel that this anger is justified it still does not warrant the failure to vote in spite of everything. What choice is there? Those people at the top of the political pyramid are busy with themselves with their own internal conflicts. They are interested in nothing other than making it through the elections in peace so that they can return to their daily routine. They are completely detached from the public whose struggles do not concern them. But we return to the point we made at the very beginning of this column: that this has no bearing whatsoever on the obligation of every individual to vote.
Those who are disgruntled and rightly so with the party’s leadership fall into two groups: the bnei Torah who work for a living and the baalei teshuvah. Degel HaTorah has been unwilling to come into conflict with the forces that have dictated the standards in chareidi society for many years and those forces have decreed that anyone who works must be removed from the camp. The result has been the neglect of the working class which has not been accorded the proper treatment and the embrace that it specifically needs at least in the realm of askanus which includes assistance in securing acceptance for its children in our educational institutions along with support in every area. The working people have felt forsaken and this itself has led to attrition and caused them to feel even further removed from the place where they want to be. As a result they are angry now as well when those politicians who want their votes pretend to display true interest in them. We know that it is insulting and painful. And as we promised we will have an accounting with them after the elections. But not now. Now is the time to vote.
The baalei teshuvah are also incensed by the cold shoulder they have been given by Degel HaTorah throughout the years. Perhaps here and there the party leaders have helped individuals on a private basis but not on a large-scale communal basis. These returnees to Yiddishkeit are the new blood coursing through the drying veins of the Israeli public and they should have been embraced even more by the party whose stated goal is to solve the problems of the Jewish people in accordance with the Torah. This party should have taken note of the winds of change that have begun to blow through the land and it should have taken the lead of the teshuvah movement. But instead of finding their place in the party of Agudas Yisrael the baalei teshuvah feel disconnected from the party and from the chareidi public.
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