I will begin with a statement: The Torah of Israel does not support democracy. The people of Israel are commanded not to set a king over them, and to entrust the enforcement of the law to the judge/prophet and the Sanhedrin and the courts.
Indeed, "and because of our sins we have been exiled from our land and have been removed from our soil, and we are not able to do our duty," and since there is a need to regulate government so that everyone does not do whatever comes to their mind, the tradition of Moses receiving the Torah from Sinai and passing it on to Joshua, and Joshua to the elders, and the elders to the prophets, continues until the days of the first and last Mishnah and Talmud, and from them to the adjudicators of future generations.
For the past 65 years, the method used in Israel for choosing and organizing government has been democracy. Since we are subject to the knowledge of Torah and the leadership of the great men of Israel, the representatives who represent us in government institutions are elected by the great men of Israel.
However, questions have recently arisen about how they are selected.
The questions arose from a public that feels unrepresented, and that those charged with representing it do not do their job according to the opinion of those who sent them.
An equally important and charged polemic revolves around the question: Is there a place for female representation on behalf of the ultra-Orthodox parties?
We don't have democracy.
And here the question arose: is there a place for democracy/referendum/or in the language of elections, primaries?
And the answer is: absolutely not.
Democracy is the granting of the right to vote and representation by a majority of elected/voters. Can a majority of voters over the age of 18, for example, decide anything? Does their life experience reflect an opinion?
We in the Haredi community believe that leadership is passed down from generation to generation by the transmitters of rumor, who are the great men of Israel. The teachings of Israel are not equal to the teachings of Greece, where democracy was invented.
Unfortunately, in the absence of a Sanhedrin or a court authorized to deal with personal matters, we rely on halachic rulings that, even when they are not understood by us, are binding on us. Laws and rights are also granted to us only according to Jewish law, and the question of how a public representative should be chosen is also a question of dedicated leadership.
Even if it seems to us that our representatives are not doing enough - democracy is not a solution. The solution is to bring the problems before the great men of Israel and they will guide us in terms of public leadership.
What is democracy worth?
Indeed, what good is democracy as long as it is not based on religious law? Who can decide who is an 'ultra-Orthodox voter' who has the right to vote? Are primaries of businessmen whose campaigns are financed by economic interests a solution?
The only solution handed down to us from generation to generation is:
Prayer, repentance and charity.
Prayer – our judges responded as before.
Repentance – is the way to erase sin, and to accept it for the future in the laws of man to his place, and in the laws of man to his fellow man. When peace abounds and peace is pursued, even the few against the many can prevail.
Charity – The commandment of charity is an act of giving and receiving from both directions, as the moralists taught us, when a person acts for the benefit of another, he becomes a part of them. Nothing unites more than doing good to others.
It is our duty to listen to the voice of our sages and resist the attempt at division and not deviate left or right.
Walking in the light of our rabbis is a declaration before the Rabbis that we are in the position of "observing and receiving." In this way, we participate in the continuity of the transmission of the Torah from generation to generation.
In prayer that the Blessed One, blessed be He, will restore our judges as at first and will counsel us as at the beginning, and that we may merit to see the House of Choice built, and our messengers as priests in their work and accompanied by their song.
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