3:20 PM
Gil Student
I saw the debate between Kerry and Bush last night, the only debate that was not on Yom Tov. I concluded two things:
1. Kerry really does look like a horse.
2. Both candidates have good points and major flaws.
I hate it when people try to tell me that the Torah requires me to vote one way or another. The world is too complex for simple statements like that. If I seriously believe that Kerry will do a better job in Iraq, thereby saving hundreds if not thousands of lives, shouldn't that take precedence over his stance on abortion? Or maybe not. Maybe Bush's stance on Israel will end up saving more Jewish lives than Kerry's stance (does he have one?). And whose economic plan is better, which will have a huge impact on poverty not to mention my and my childrens' economic well-being? Call me a post-modernist, but I firmly believe that there is no one right answer to the question of for whom a Torah-observant individual must vote.
Here is an excerpt from a letter that will appear in the next issue of The Torah U-Madda Journal (printed with permission):
[E]ven with a revealed religion, we still have significant moral ambiguities. When we transfer this to the political arena, the complexities multiply even more. I remember the debates in YU when Bill Clinton was running against George Bush Sr. Some were arguing that Clinton was better for Israel so we must vote for him (yes, that was the argument) while one rosh yeshivah announced to his shiur that religious Jews must vote for Bush because his economic policies were more sound and aniyyei irekha come first (which is incorrect, because aniyyei Erez Yisrael come first; but that is beside the point). I also remember discussing these issues with one rosh yeshivah for whom I have the highest regard. We conversed about whether a vote for Clinton was a vote in favor of abortion, and he dismissed the entire discussion. The issues are so complex, and there are so many of them, that no simple formula will suffice.
