{"id":29786,"date":"2012-11-08T21:50:11","date_gmt":"2012-11-08T21:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=29786"},"modified":"2017-02-17T06:32:35","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T11:32:35","slug":"who-won-election-raffi-bilek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/who-won-election-raffi-bilek\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Won the Election?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This past Tuesday the standard greeting in the Northeast switched from, \u201cDo you have power?\u201d to, \u201cDid you vote yet?\u201d\u00a0 There was an expectation among most community members that people would be voting, whether or not our lights were back on.<\/p>\n

Participating in the popular vote is one of our foremost duties as American citizens, along with getting out of jury duty.\u00a0 Over the years our gedolim<\/em> (revered rabbis of the generation) have made a point of encouraging Jews to vote.\u00a0 Chassidic communities have been known to bus their constituents together to polling sites and vote in a resolute bloc at the rebbe\u2019s directive.<\/p>\n

Yet our tradition teaches that lev melech b\u2019yad Hashem<\/em>, the heart of a king is in G-d\u2019s hands.\u00a0 We all know (even if we don\u2019t always act perfectly in accordance with this knowledge) that G-d is running the show, and that the good or evil that befalls the Jewish nation depends on how we are behaving and whether we are abiding by G-d\u2019s will–not on how discussions are going in Congress or in the Iranian parliament.<\/p>\n

Fundamentally, Jews recognize that if Iran goes nuclear and threatens our safety, it\u2019s not because too many Midwesterners voted for Obama or for Romney. Rather, it\u2019s because of our own actions and how they measure up in G-d\u2019s book.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean that voting is not <\/em>necessary; it just means that it is not sufficient.\u00a0\u00a0It is one of many ways that we affect the world around us, and therefore we are responsible for what we do with that ability. We are responsible for a certain amount of hishtadlut<\/em>, of this-worldly efforts.\u00a0 That amount is directly related to what we have control over.\u00a0 We have control over which name we check off on the ballot, but not who wins, or what the winner goes on to do; therefore we are responsible for voting, but not for anything beyond that.\u00a0 That means recognizing that our power is limited when it comes to such things as managing the most powerful country in the free world.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Noach Orlowek, shlit\u201da<\/em>, teaches it like this: \u201cYou do the best you can \u2013 and then you stop.\u201d Sometimes, we try to do the best we can\u2019t. We forget to stop. We spend needless hours worrying about who will win and lamenting how he will run our country, our lives and our ability to ever be happy again straight into the ground\u2014forgetting that while the president may control important pieces in our lives, he doesn\u2019t control the essence of our lives: aligning ourselves with the Torah and G-d.<\/p>\n

Even if the victory of one candidate or another affects\u00a0our pocketbooks, or our healthcare, or our civil liberties, it will have little effect on our ultimate purpose, which is the fulfillment of G-d\u2019s will. \u00a0That exists within<\/em> a framework that the president might be responsible for, but is not bound by it. The results of the election are only important insofar as what we do with them.<\/p>\n

Our share in the next Next World won\u2019t be based on whether we had access to healthcare, but on whether we took care of our health. It won\u2019t depend on how much money we were able to bring in, but on how much of our money we gave out.\u00a0 If you are burdened with more taxes or insurance costs because of the way the election turned out, and therefore can\u2019t afford to give as much charity as before, you won\u2019t be penalized for that; G-d takes into account our actions in light of our circumstances most precisely.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t get docked any heavenly points for lacks that beset us due to governmental policy, or to natural disaster, or to anything else outside our sphere of influence; only that which we can<\/em> affect are we expected to.<\/p>\n

Is voting important?\u00a0 It sure is.\u00a0 It\u2019s part of our responsibility as citizens of the United States and of G-d\u2019s world.\u00a0 But far more important than going to the ballots is what you do when you get home.\u00a0 Are you using your assets and your skills to help others, to improve the world, and to sanctify G-d\u2019s name in ways that only you are able? \u00a0Are you doing the best you can within the limitations of your circumstances?\u00a0 If so, then you are not only acting as a citizen of this world, you are acting as a citizen of the Next World \u2013 a ben olam haba<\/em> \u2013 as well.<\/p>\n

\n

Rabbi Raffi Bilek, LCSW-C,\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>is a counselor and speaker in Baltimore, Maryland serving clients all over the globe. Find him online at\u00a0www.frumcounselor.com<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>or www.BaltimoreTherapyCenter.com<\/a><\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

G-d, of course.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":835,"featured_media":55650,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nWho Won the Election? - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Participating in the popular vote is one of our duties as citizens, yet Mishlei states: Lev melech b\u2019yad Hashem, the heart of a king is in G-d\u2019s hands.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/who-won-election-raffi-bilek\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who Won the Election? 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