To Almog,

The Rabbi here was asked for his opinion, and this is the Rabbi’s opinion, and the topic has been discussed to exhaustion. But you—do not be swayed by him and do not listen to him. The Rabbi doesn’t like the existing reality (and rightly so), and he also thinks it can’t get any worse. And there is some justice in the claim that in the name of “something worse” you can always perpetuate mediocrity. But the damage the left today may cause has a pretty good chance of bringing the state to thousands of deaths and into a deep economic pit. First of all, the right is not corrupt. The Rabbi has simply been swept along by the media that says so (and of course it couldn’t possibly be otherwise). What he calls corruption is just human nature at work (that is, the human species is corrupt—which I actually agree with, aside from a few individuals who truly fear God). And of course the media, as a shaper of public opinion, uses the flaws of human nature for its own benefit—and that’s in cases where it isn’t explicitly lying, but merely distorting reality, which is its craft. In addition, the left is no less corrupt (it’s just not in power; but let me remind you of the Mapai days), and it is also self-righteous, which means a kind of wickedness. (I absolutely believe there are traitors among them, though not consciously—that is, the non-Zionist left. Anyone who supports a state of all its citizens is a bit of a traitor. That is, he believes the Jews do not deserve a state of their own and feels no shared fate with the Jewish people, yet poses as a brother. That is in the case where he is self-aware, but a substantial part of them are simply clueless.)

In addition, before he even dares raise to his lips the foolishness of the right (who exactly? Sephardim who vote for Bibi?), he has apparently forgotten that the left (all of it!) is several times more foolish than the right. Every day another contradiction pops up in the behavior of these people, and they suffer from an extreme lack of self-awareness. Literally mental illness. So add that to their usual problematic nature.

The Rabbi simply behaves in everything like a little child (that’s just what it is!) who thinks the things he has are self-evident. He thinks he lives in an abstract world where indeed general principles govern reality. A bit like someone who thinks game theory can run an economy. The left will not act here on matters of religion and state the way the Rabbi thinks; rather it will impose its anti-religious religion, or whatever other religion it holds. Just as it is already doing these days (Haredi events with gender separation, core studies).

I also can’t stand the way Bibi gives in to the Haredim time after time, but rest assured that all matters of religion and state will fly out the window, and Meretz (and apparently all the left today, including the anti-Bibi camp) will put on a shtreimel if they can, so long as in a fit of ideological madness they get to evacuate a few more settlements.

In the end you have no choice but to believe in someone, and to believe that he will do the right thing even if he hasn’t done so until now. You shouldn’t choose the lesser evil, but the best available—and from there on, believe in him that he can develop. Otherwise you will go mad all your life (lose your mind). That is the principle of madness. I too, for example, choose to believe that Rabbi Michi will soon be healed in our days from this mental illness that the left suffers from, but meanwhile anyone who is mentally ill cannot run anything, and also ought not to have the right to vote on matters concerning those who are not mentally ill.

I’ll phrase it on a slightly higher level. One needs to vote in elections (for people who believe in the Jewish people and in sharing its fate, and who are not busy with civil rights and civic equality, which are simply a laundering machine for non-Zionism—like the German Reform Jews who wanted to assimilate into the Germans and got it in the face. The hard Israeli left is a kind of those Reformers). And this is required if only out of gratitude to God, who gave us the state. (Rabbi Michi does not believe that the state is from God, and in any case he moves to general electoral considerations as though we were in the U.S.) This is your effort. Put a slip in the ballot box and don’t look backward. All the rest is already beyond your ability to influence (leave it in God’s hands), and the rest of the time don’t busy yourself with the media but with the ordinary work of repairing the world (which really is the important thing), and from that the other flaws in politics will also be repaired. Don’t think that just because you voted for someone, that person will save the world. About this it was said: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man.” You need to vote because that is what God wants (that is how it seems to one who believes in Zionism as coming from God). One must trust in God, and God wants us to believe in human beings. (There is a fundamental difference between “trusting in” someone—relying on him—and “believing in” him.)