One Vote Can Change the World | Rabbi Fischel Schachter

So I came back into my office and my printer wasn't working. That was the last thing I needed. It said: Deep Sleep. I never knew a printer could be in a deep sleep. I know many times when I speak to an Olam, there's a deep sleep, but a printer? Everyone came in to give me advice. Press this, press that, turn the printer off, turn the computer off, try to go to someone who takes away Ayin Haras, donate money to his grandmother's Hachnasas Kallah fund. I tried everything, the printer wasn't working. So my son-in-law, out of all people, came in and said, Unplug it, I'm telling you. Unplug it for five minutes and you'll see, it'll come back to life. So I unplugged it. Five minutes later, I put the plug back in and Eureka! תחיית המתים! But I can't stop it now. Every time someone pressed Print, Print, when it said Deep Sleep, ha-ha, you thought he was sleeping. Papers are shooting out from all over the place. Looks like even when it's in a deep sleep, it keeps Cheshbon, it has a record of every single time someone pressed the button. So the elections are around the corner. And because the elections are a dead heat and it's a razor-thin difference, so therefore, it's all going to boil down to... swing states. And a swing state could depend on a swing county in the state, and a swing county could depend on a swing district, and a swing district could boil down to one vote. So picture this for a moment. Jack is sitting on his rocking chair, some rural little town in Arizona, and Matilda says: Jack, did you vote yet? What's the difference? Get up and vote! -What's it going to accomplish? Jack, get off your rocking chair. -All right. And he goes to vote. And guess what? He tilts it in his district, in his county, in his state, and the entire country. So let me tell you something. You and I... are Jack. The Gemara says in Masechtas Kiddushin Daf 40, When you're faced with a Nisayon, and you're faced with a test, close your eyes and imagine you have half Mitzvos, half Aveiros. One turn away, one close of your eyes, you're a Tzaddik, you tilted everything לכף זכות. R’ Elazar ben R’ Shimon says: Wait a second. But the world is also measured on a sum total of Mitzvos and Aveiros. So it could very well be that the entire world is half and half, and your actions now are going to tilt the entire world one way or another. Come on, don’t tell me I’m half and half. I know how many Aveiros I have. You don’t know how many times you tried not to look and what that counts for. Rav Shlomke of Zvhil once met a young man that was really off the charts. People said: Don’t go over to him. He’s dangerous. He said: I’m jealous of you. He said: Because I am sure every time you fell through, you said: Maybe not, maybe I shouldn’t, nah, I can’t do this. At the end, maybe you fell through, but you have no idea how those couple of times that you resisted or tried to resist, how that registers in Shomayim. And the person broke into tears. You think there’s a deep sleep. The printer is registering everything. Who the next president is going to be was decided Rosh HaShanah. What's going to be the next four years? It's up to us, because we are the swing vote. So we're not endorsing candidates, but somebody told me that years ago, he went for a walk with President Trump. He was trying to get him to invest in Williamsburg in a new section. He said: No, no. I only build skyscrapers. He said: What's the difference? You spread out in the width. He said: To spread out in the width, you have to buy every house. But the sky is for free. One swing vote, one turn away with your eyes, the Ribono shel Olam says: The Schar for Mitzvos is off the charts. All I need is you to do the first floor. The sky is the limit. It's yours. And one day, the printer will come alive and print out,