Question: I don’t think you’ve ever received a question like this one. I live in Queens and am extremely agitated about the prospects of a socialist, anti-Israel and anti Jewish candidate being elected mayor of our great city. Is there any path for us to follow that can change the outcome of this election?
Zelig Aronson
(Via E-mail)
Answer: The first is that you vote for the candidate who you feel will serve the people of New York City in the best possible manner.
I’ve spoken about this from the pulpit and suggested a path for those in our Jewish community. In the Amidah, the Shemoneh Esrei that we pray three times a day, there are numerous berachot (blessings) that we recite – nineteen to be exact. My suggestion, which really is basic to all prayer, is that one have proper kavanah (intention or concentration) during, at a minimum, three of those recitations.
The first is Avot, the first blessing that concludes “…Magen Avraham” (the shield of Abraham). We should have in mind that G-d should shield His people from those who seek to harm us as well as the American way of life.
The second is Chonen ha’Da’at, the fourth blessing, which praises Hashem for giving us understanding. We should have in mind that He should impart understanding to all those who vote that they do so with better understanding of the consequences of their decisions.
The third is Shome’a Tefillah, the blessing that implores G-d to hear our prayer and therein beseeches Him to intervene on our behalf and on behalf of all well-intentioned people of this great democracy.
I also shared the following parable (which might just be true). There was once a drought – an atzirat geshamim – that left the town with no rain for over ninety days. The rabbi of the town issued a proclamation for everyone to fast and, as the Talmud states (Taanit 15a), to take the ark that contains the Torah scroll from the synagogue to the town square where all were to gather in fast and prayer.
Everyone was gathered, and they saw from afar that the rabbi was approaching to join them – but he abruptly turned away. Mystified, some of the leaders ran after him, and when they caught up with him, they asked him why he had told them to gather and then now refuses to join them. He answered them simply in Yiddish, “Kein einer hut nisht gebracht a shurem” – No one brought an umbrella.
Indeed, if one prays and truly believes, then he must anticipate the goodly consequences of his prayer. However, if prayer is just mouthing words without real intention, then of what value is such prayer?
It is also told that during the Napoleonic wars, a delegation of rabbis was sent to the Russian czar to inform him that prayers on his behalf were being said in the synagogues of the country. The czar responded, “But I have heard that in France, the Jews are praying to G-d for Napoleon.” The rabbis wisely responded that G-d responds to prayers for the one who is better to His Jewish children.
Of interest is the early history of the American dream. William Bradford and a group of Pilgrims, oppressed in their native England, sailed to these shores and arrived in what would become the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. He soon became governor of the colony and included in the colony’s charter a system of communal property and labor – in other words, socialism. The project totally failed, and what ensued is the American Dream that each may accumulate wealth commensurate with his labor – that is, capitalism.
When we have a candidate who seeks to uproot the very underpinnings of our free society in the land of opportunity, who seeks to eliminate the gifted programs from our public schools, who seeks to arrest one foreign leader, the Prime Minister of Israel, should he visit New York City, the home of the United Nations – then we know that we have a candidate who has an anti-Jewish bias. As for his socialism, it was the great prime minister of the U.K., Dame Margaret Thatcher, who described socialism in one sentence: “Socialism works until you run out of other people’s money.”
To me, it’s very simple: Prayer alone is not sufficient if there is no action. So go and vote for Andrew Cuomo, the candidate with experience who stands a chance of defeating the socialist Zohan Mamdani. A vote for any other candidate is a vote for a socialist New York City. Oh, and since it is the Hebrew month of Marcheshvan, the seasonal time for rain, please remember to take along an umbrella.