What interests me most on the day after elections, in general, and in Israel in particular, is the attempt to analyze the various campaigns. There are many variables with quite a few components that bring about the results of elections, and it’s fascinating. I’m fascinated by it because it teaches us about historical processes and about people’s psyches – what motivates us to act, and what puts us to sleep – and the main thing is that one can learn a lot about how to act and what to do when one wants to succeed.
Three parties had great success in the elections held this week in the Holy Land, and I have already heard professional pundits saying that one can also say that only three parties actually had orderly, well-organized, proactive and efficient campaigns.
One can find many similarities between these three. I am not a professional pundit, but I think that it is quite clear that Shas, Religious Zionism and the Likud simply did a “Lech lecha” (walk, go).
Yes, it is true that they also identified painful issues that their target audience cared about such personal security and the high cost of living and they pressed those buttons hard, but, in my humble opinion, what mainly worked was that for four months they simply traveled all over the country, met the people, spoke with them, to the point that it looked that they were actually pulling people out of their houses.
And there was something else very significant, perhaps the most significant: Binyamin Netanyahu didn’t leave any loose ends; he tied up all the loose ends in his camp, and, as people say, didn’t leave anything to chance.
What do I learn from this?
Sometimes it seems to us that it is enough to shout slogans, that a post in Facebook will do the trick, that a status or a story will be enough, that one sermon or statement is enough to influence people. It is apparently true that these have an effect, and especially as someone who writes from time to time and gives sermons from time to time, I definitely agree that these have an effect. But, and that is the main lesson, it’s not enough if you want to really make a change, transport, touch and influence the world. You have to travel, get moving physically, meet the people, speak with them on the phone, come to them in person, analyze the situation, renew old contacts and do away with new ones, coordinate, tie up loose ends, and move; simply move.
Perhaps that is the reason that that is the first commandment our first Patriarch received in parashat Lech Lecha, and really, the entire parasha we will read tomorrow deals with a massive campaign of Avraham Avinu, consisting entirely of going from one place to another. He went through the entire land, meeting the people in person. Here are a few of the psukim: Avram went, Avram passed into the land, Abram journeyed on, Avram went down to Mizrayim, he (Avram) proceeded on his journeys from the Negev to Beit El, etc. etc. He made a surplus vote agreement with Lot and even got involved in wars as needed.
What do you think: Does this make sense?
And a moment before the “Shabbat Shalom” – this is not a political post; there is no need to comment on it politically.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Zalmen Wishedski