Berachos 55a:
אמר רבי יצחק אין מעמידין פרנס על הצבור אלא אם כן נמלכים בצבור שנאמר ראו קרא ה’ בשם בצלאל אמר לו הקדוש ברוך הוא למשה משה הגון עליך בצלאל אמר לו רבונו של עולם אם לפניך הגון לפני לא כל שכן אמר לו אף על פי כן לך אמור להם הלך ואמר להם לישראל הגון עליכם בצלאל אמרו לו אם לפני הקדוש ברוך הוא ולפניך הוא הגון לפנינו לא כל שכן.
Soncino translation:
R. Isaac said: We must not appoint a leader over a Community without first consulting it, as it says: See, the Lord hath called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: Do you consider Bezalel suitable? He replied: Sovereign of the Universe, if Thou thinkest him suitable, surely I must also! Said [God] to him: All the same, go and consult them. He went and asked Israel: Do you consider Bezalel suitable? They replied: If the Holy One, blessed be He, and you consider him suitable, surely we must!
Maybe this isn’t strictly obligatory, but so what?
Of course, some of those rabbinical arbiters of politics are, themselves, popularly unchosen…
One of our dear writers just reminded me of Rabbi Bar Chaim’s position on voting. While he gives a preferred name (Yamina), he mainly opposes not voting at all or voting for parties with poor electoral chances, since this might let the Left into power.
Rabbi Bar Chaim writes as follows:
1. First of all, it cannot be stressed enough: voting is an Halakhic imperative. A hova mamash. We are required to m’halel Shabath for reasons of Piquah Nephesh even where the chance of saving the life of a Jew is very nearly zero. How much more so with regards to voting in an Israeli election, where it is reasonable to assume that many Jewish lives will be saved by preventing a Leftist-secularist government, with the support of Arab MK’s, coming to power. Even if one considers the chance of saving Jewish lives by voting for certain parties to be very nearly zero, one would be obligated to do so.
2. The fact that some feel that participating in the present system is unseemly or simply wrong is not a valid argument. The Hazon Ish zs’l was not enthralled with the State, nor did he believe in the regime or the electoral system, knowing these to be without Halakhic foundation. Nevertheless, he and all great Halakhic authorities, Haredi and Religious-Zionist, with very few exceptions, were adamant that voting was a hova. A person who flagrantly ignores these facts, placing his feinshmeker sensibilities above a plain Halakhic imperative, is very nearly criminal. Such weighty matters, involving issues of life and death, cannot be decided by the whims of those seeking to express their disdain for current system.
3. Despite the foregoing, it must be stated clearly: a Tora Jew should feel disdain for the present system. It is, however, for the very same reason that engenders this feeling of disdain–a commitment to Tora values and institutions–that a Tora Jew internalizes and accepts that he must vote.
4. To practicalities. Under the present system, voting for a party that is unlikely to cross the electoral threshold is worse than not voting: due to the Bader-Opher amendment, all such votes will be added to the tally of the larger parties, i.e. Likud, Blue & White, and the Arab United List.
5. Given the above, I recommend voting for Yamina. Yamina is far from perfect. We must, however, be rational and mature. We must accept that at this point in time we have neither the luxury of not voting, or voting for a party that is unlikely to cross the threshold, nor the z’khuth to vote for the ideal party of our dreams. We are commanded to strengthen the positive and weaken the negative.
6. I admit that the foregoing analysis is somewhat depressing. It is imperative that we grasp that this state of affairs will in all likelihood endure until we bring about meaningful change for the better. We must strive to change the system.
Dawidh Hanokh Yisshaq ben HaRav Hayim R’phael zs’l
Amen.