The following story was told by a talmid of Rav Miller. It was the late in the evening on Election Day in New York City, sometime in the early 1980’s. Rav Miller was very vocal about the upcoming election and had spent the previous four months storming about the importance of voting against the Democrat candidate for Mayor of New York.
The Rav was adamant that the frum tzibbur should come out to the polls in large numbers to fight against the immoral and dangerous ideology of the Democrat Party in New York. He spoke about it before shiurim, after shiurim, even during shiurim. He urged his mispallelim and shiur attendees to call friends and encourage them to vote Republican, and to go as far as handing out papers, leaflets, to others to make clear the importance of the election for the city on a whole and especially for the frum community.
Finally, the polls closed - it was Motzei Election Day, and the final results were coming in. A grandson of Rav Miller was visiting his grandfather in the Rav’s apartment upstairs from the shul and he offered to do a favor for the Rav. “Should I go down to the shul and find out from someone there what the results were, if our candidate won?”
The Rav responded. “No, I’m not interested. It’s fine. Whoever wins, wins.”
“But Zeidy,” said the grandson in shock. “What do you mean ‘Whoever wins, wins’? This is all you’ve been talking about for months; about how important it is to vote in order to fight against the rishus, the wickedness, of these politicians! How can you not be anxious to learn who won? What do you mean you’re not interested?”
“You have to understand,” the Rav explained, “When I fight against the liberals and the enemies of the Torah, I’m doing it because they’re waging a war against Hashem and part of my avodas Hashem is to fight on His side, to fight for what He wants. What the results will be, that’s out of my hands; I just have to do the most I possibly can to battle for Hashem. Once I do that, I’m not interested in following the results, being nervous about it and wasting time with it. Our job is to serve Hashem and fight for Torah values as much as possible. The results? What will be, will be. But we can never stop doing our part.”
That was R’ Avigdor Miller’s outlook on life. It’s all about fulfilling the words of Dovid HaMelech, “Ohavei Hashem Sinu Ra” - if we love Hashem, we must despise evil. We have to do our utmost to be on Hashem’s team. He could not understand how Jews can vote for a party whose platform is virulently anti-religious and anti-Hashem. How can Jews smile when corrupt individuals visit our community in an attempt to garner our votes? How can they justify voting in order to get money for yeshivos when those same votes will bring billions of dollars to the liberal anti-morality causes? Of course, so no matter the outcome of any election, we all must place our faith and trust solely in the One above.
Reprinted from the Parshas Vayera 5786 email of Torah Tavlin.
