CHAZAQ's Torah Talks #204 Mr. Josh Mehlman - Vote Like Your Life Depends On It

zoning, yeshivas, shulles, funding for our organizations, every single step of city government interacts with our lives, with our shs, with our blocks, and our community. Usually to our benefit, but could be, god forbid, to our detriment. So, we need to have a voice. Your voice is your vote. [Music] and welcome to Torah Talks Hadak's program with special guests. We have our dear friend all the way from Flapos, Josh Melman. Welcome. So good to see you. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you for having me. We're going to be speaking about vote like your life depends on it. But before we get to that topic, if we get a little bit background about yourself and the great work you're involved with. Okay. Thank first of all thank you for inviting me to your special podcast and your offices today. I was just taking a tour around the Kazak with uh Ravi and uh just so impressive the unbelievable work that you guys are doing here bringing in watch the women sitting here taking uh ex helping people get transition from public school to yeshiva which is a life-changing experience which dres generations and generations will come out from every phone call that's made every placement that's made such cost for anyone who participates ates and helps Kazak is such a mitzvah. Thank you Anivv for having me. And as far as background goes, so I'm regularly Shiva guy who just learned to marry Shiva in Brooklyn where I and we I was to be involved um for many years Barakashb in many different projects, community projects. Um, but what's relevant for now is I'm the chairman of the Flappish Jewish Community Coalition, the FJCC, which is representing the largest geographic demographic Jewish community in the United States at this point still. Canara, which is the greater Flappish community, and we had um just come through uh an election and I think that's what you want to focus on. But what we do in the FJCC is we coordinate with we over 250 schuls and yeshivas and community organizations. We work as a unified force for the benefit of kisel for the benefit of our community to better as a Torah community. That's the bottom line. We have meetings of Rabonim from all different from the Sharbis to the Russia yeshiva of the Maji yeshivas to the young Israel rabbis from the community from all different types of the merit to be at these meetings many times and it's very very impressive to see the work that you do and bringing everyone together and the the amount of quoteunquote noise positive noise that the FGC has been making uh influences all Jews around the world. We appreciate your hard work and we give you a simpleton's blessings to continue. Amen. Thank you very much. Thank you. So the title vote like your life depends on Josh. Are you serious like life depends on it or is it just a nice way to catch people to watch this? It's been in the news recently and no one has to hear from us about what's at stake at this point in the mayor election. We've been telling people for many years and I'm sure any of you I've been doing it here in Queens and I know your partners in the the broader community, Queens community. I've been talking about this for years is that elections have consequences. Elections matter. It matters for the people living here. People live here. People work here. People go to shul yeshiva. Everyone is affected by somehow by the government, local government, state government, federal government. It's not enough to vote for president for Trump. It's wonderful. He's as we speak, he's in the White House meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu hopefully to bring Shalom in Israel to for the Jewish community. And that's what we're all dotting for. We're all praying for that. It should be shalom. This should stop the the the terror attacks and the the sacrifice that the soldiers have to go through on a daily basis. and the communities, you know, for for weeks they're living in bomb shelters, just not a normal life. And we all pray for Israel. But we also have to pray for ourselves and we have to look out for our own community. Here in Queens, we're affected by the local council members, state assembly, state senate, the mayor, the governor, the president, all has an effect on the local. The most effect is mayor and the local elected officials. So, as as nice it is and important it is to vote for president, it's more important to make sure you vote for who's mayor. We just had a primary where someone who's a 33 year old assembly member from a different part of Queens um who's an a open socialist, proud socialist, proud leader of protests for Palestinian rights, protest more importantly against Israel and against things that are important to our community. now won the Democratic nomination to become mayor, which means I would say nine or eight out of 10 times whoever wins that nomination becomes mayor. It's going to take a lot of effort from all of us to make sure that doesn't happen. There's other things going on behind the scenes with who who should going to be opposing him, but leave that aside. Now, the most important things for every single person listening to this, whether you live in Queens or anywhere in New York City, register to vote. And if you don't live in the New York City area, I'm sure you know someone that lives here. And wherever you do live, I'm sure there's important elections going on over there. Everybody should be actively involved just like Josh is. Thank you. I have this I guess merit to get involved as well and encourage people to get involved. So, so we understand the importance of it and we we hear about it all the time, but why is that people aren't still registered? Why is that people that are registered, they don't go out to vote? What's sh Why is that the scenario? So, first of all, people don't always understand what we just said, right? People don't understand that a mayor affects not just your taxes, but security patrol. You know, just go back. It wasn't that many years ago. Some of us still remember the Crown Heights riots where there was a mayor Dinkens who told if came out afterward he told the police you know what let them vent let them go for protest don't don't put a lot of police officers there a mayor has a right has the ability to do that because the police commissioner works for a mayor zoning yes sh funding for our organizations every single step of city government interacts with our lives and our shs with our blocks, with our community, with our uh benefit to usually to our benefit, but could be, God forbid, to our detriment. So, we need to have a voice. The voice is your vote. The reason people haven't done the past, they're afraid maybe, oh, it's going to get me on jury duty. It's going to send me to the army. It's going to who knows what it's going to do. It's going to raise my taxes. Who knows what they think? People are a misconception that voting brings a negative thing or may have another cause. Instead, registering to vote and we'll discuss in a minute is a mitzvah. It's a mitzvah because you're helping not just yourself, you're helping your community. You're helping your sh your yeshiva. You know, we tell people to register. You can register any way you want, Democrat, Republican, but we usually re recommend red scar as a Democrat. Not because you may agree with Democrats. There's a lot of Democrats that many people do not like for good reason. Not because you agree with their ideals, but you agree with your ideals. Not because you like them. It's because you like yourself. Register as a Democrat because you like your shul, you like your block, your neighborhood, your yeshiva, your basakov. You want your way of life to be able to continue register. Because in New York City, I believe it's six or seven more times more registered Democrats than Republicans in the city. Which means whoever becomes Democratic mayor, governor, city council member, some state representative will you win the Democratic nomination, you are chances are going to win the general election. So the only way to change that is to register as the Democrat and then vote in the primary. And we won't be sitting here discussing this today about a guy winning two weeks ago the Democratic nomination because it wouldn't have happened if 20, 30, 40,000 more people in our community had come out to vote. We could have made the difference. And as a matter of fact, we're sitting in Queens in the holy offices of Kazak. There was a election not too long ago for for district attorney and that election ended up being I think 12 vote difference. Imagine if you went home that night and the socialist anti- police person won that election. They'll be the chief law enforcement officer for Queens. Why? Because ah it's not important. My vote doesn't count. My neighbors vote doesn't. My kids vote doesn't count. It does. And we'll get into the next part now about the Torah sources, Torah personalities, GDOL. What do they say about this topic? If anyone anything comes to mind, that's such an important topic. I'm happy you brought up because we're Torah talks. We got to talk. We are not just Torah talks. We're Torah people. We're Jewish people. We're religious people. And the only thing here is that we trust in Hashem. We don't trust in elected officials. We don't trust in our the lock on our door. We trust in Hashem. And the Rabonim, the greatest Rabonim in our community for decades have told us it is a mitzvah to vote. Ra Mosha Feinstein Zatal, the postador in America for decades wrote a letter. It is a mitzvah, not it's a nice thing to vote or I recommend voting. He said is a mitzvah for every Jew living in America to register and to vote. And if you don't vote, what is he saying? Basically, you're violating the mitzvah because he said it's a mitzvah to vote. I personally drove my rash of the mirror who didn't leave a minute before sedar for even a Talmud's wedding. You want him to be Msada Kaducan to officiate at the wedding, you'll have to wait till the sedha is over or he gives a shir at the wedding hall. But he won't leave. a minute of learning was was was so precious to him. He took the time to go vote because he understood and what every rabbi throughout the decades in America it's number one it's it's appreciation to America for the right to vote for thousands of years Jews us our ancestors lived in countries we didn't have a right to vote how could we now take it and not show appreciation and utilize that right that Hashem gave us, put us in the freest country in the world. For the first time in Jewish history, most of our ancestors came from many different countries and they didn't have the right to vote for anything. We have that right. Use it. Use it. Take advantage of it. The Rabonimon all vote. I personally could tell you moetses members of aura members of Tormas of great rabbis who personally call me to discuss the election before. Okay, I'm going tomorrow to vote. Who am I voting for? Tell me the options. Why this one? Why that one? I could have numerous conversations. I have the same and you have the same thing, I'm sure. Well, great and reach out because they understand that it's a mitzvah to vote. Helping your community, helping your yeshiva, helping your make sure you register, make sure you vote. Josh Melman, Flatbush Jewish Community Coalition Chairman. Uh, amazing 100% music to my ears. We've been preaching and telling everyone and anyone we know about the importance of this Torah talks a final message for our very broad audience. So the final message is we say inim we say it in our davening in our prayers don't trust in people. What does that mean? It means trust in Hashem. But we do just like we go to work to make a living. We don't just say sit home and say Hashem send me money. Hashem wants us, the Torah tells us six days to work and one day to rest for shabas. You have to go to work. You have to try to make a living. You have to make the effort. And the will come from Hashem. The same thing. own trust in the police department, even in the president, whether you like him, if he's the best thing ever in the world, or you don't like him, or the mayor or the governor or anyone else, trust in Hashem. And that is the message. But you have to make your you have to lock the door at night because it's a smart thing to do is what Hashem wants us to do. But who protects our house? Hashem protects the house. have a muza on the door. Muza and you kiss it and you say or look at it and you say you realize it's Hashem protecting my house but I still lock the door. So that's the message. The message is don't trust even in the president. trust in Hashem and then we'll have in all our lives in everything we want will be full of and blessing from Hashem for everything we need Torah Talk Tuesday nights 8:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Special thank you to the various different platforms that hold Kazak Torah Talk. So many of them with a special thank you to our friends at Torah anytime. Special thank you to Daily Giving. A dollar a day goes a very far way. I encourage everyone to look into it and to become a daily giver. Uh daily giving is amazing and the summer is the busiest season for while many people go away. We're actually working double because we want to get as many children into the yeshiva system for the September school year. Over 2,000 have already been transferred at the beginning. We want to do a lot more and we need everyone to get involved any way possible. Whether you know a child, whether you know a family, whether you could contribute in, we definitely need more funding to do much more and to save more kids and families and individuals. Please make sure to get involved with the Kazak revolution and we should only hear you only hear good news only. And I'll just say that you mentioned Torah any you mentioned daily giving all amazing things. Torah anytime, you know, we know them for many years. Uh tremendous respect. They live right here in this neighborhood. It was started here. What a revolution. and told him about revolution and then you know when Khazak came along you can build it up even more Torah any time is people from Queens went to public school that's right exactly what you are messages they went to public school and now they are they run the greatest largest yeshiva in the world to anytime what an unbelievable thing imagine you support Kazak and one of those students starts a revolution like that and builds a Torah anytime imagine the reward that you're going to get you're a partner with that. The problem with Kazak and daily giving how many organizations he saw it's a doctor or nothing to help somebody started an idea and now people give on a daily basis who is as great and wonderful as Kaiso do so much and with their all to help each from. Thank you. [Music]