Rationalist Judaism

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The Daas Torah Voting Tefillah
www.rationalistjudaism.com

The Daas Torah Voting Tefillah

Natan Slifkin
Oct 22, 2013
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The Daas Torah Voting Tefillah
www.rationalistjudaism.com

Just when you had thought that you've seen everything... here is a flyer that was delivered to my house today, along with a credit-card sized version that fits into one's Identity Card wallet:


You could base an entire course about Ultra-Orthodox Judaism around this flyer. Look at how many elements of charedi society it reflects:

1) The bizarre notion that Rav Chaim Kanievsky is correctly informed about the different candidates and parties running for election - despite only having met one of them.

2) The notion that people are obligated to follow the dictates of the Charedi Gedolim.

3) The claim that by doing so, one fulfills the mitzvah of V'asisa k'chol asher yorucha - despite the fact that according to the dominant view in the Rishonim, this only applies to the Sanhedrin.

4) The prayer being for children who are talmidei chachamim (i.e. learning in kollel), and who enjoy plentiful, easy parnasah - i.e. being supported by the rest of Israeli society.

5) The transformation of following Daas Torah from a directive to a religious ritual, complete with a prayer.

6) Finally, the most absurd aspect of all: The manipulation of the ritual into something that must follow a specific routine - the prayer must be said after placing the voting slip into the envelope (within a halachically defined minimum time?) in order to be effective! The Hebrew writing at the bottom stresses that this is "Very Important!" By describing how to manipulate the metaphysical forces correctly, it emphasizes the nature of voting for the charedi party as being a mitzvah.

This flyer is perhaps the ultimate example of manipulating Judaism for political ends.

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The Daas Torah Voting Tefillah
www.rationalistjudaism.com
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