There is division swirling around within the Jewish community about the advisability of supporting and electing a perilous man to the mayoralty of New York City on Nov. 4, Election Day.
Much has been written and documented about the ideologies and plans that define the person and candidacy of Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani, the perils his mayoralty would pose to Jews and the havoc he intends to unleash on the largest city in the United States.
It is worth pointing out again that, beyond the general threat Mamdani poses to the city and its citizens, his focused Jew- hated and Israel-hatred is accompanied by the confounding phenomenon of a not-small number of Jews who support and intend to vote for him. While they may fall for his trite and misleading promises of utopia, that buy-in is not only naïve, it is reckless. Jews who want to vote for someone whose every stance places him against the safety and survival of Israel and the Jewish people haven’t a Jewish leg to stand on. Voting for him with full awareness would be shameful and inexcusable.
In this context, I think of this week’s Torah portion, Vayera, meaning “and He appeared,” which we read the story of Sodom and Amora (Sodom and Gomorrah), and see Abraham, the father of the Jewish people, arguing with God about His intention to destroy those evil cities. Abraham pleads for the “innocents” who might be swept away in such wholesale destruction. He challenges God by demanding that if he can find 50, or even 10, innocent people, then the planned destruction will be called off. But alas, no innocents are found, and the utter destruction of the dreadful place and its people occurs as decreed. The widespread and prosaic interpretation of this story focuses on the apparent compassion and justice of Abraham’s challenge to God.
I suggest this story teaches a very different lesson. Abraham came to understand the reality that everything and everybody in that decayed place was absolutely and incurably contaminated; in that environment, innocence was not even an option. He came to realize that support and compassion for—or compromise with—evil is not acceptable. Indeed, the story concludes showing Abraham walking away in silent and humbled awe, absorbing God’s truth, wisdom and promising path.
From this, we would wisely draw various timely messages and warnings: First, our empathies should lie with good people, never with evil-doers, their accomplices or supporters; second, we must totally reject those, such as Mamdani and his ilk, who would bring us harm, thus depriving them of the power and position to achieve and impose their toxic goals; and third, we should use our divinely inspired powers of discernment to determine where best to expend our benevolent positive energies, and then actively cultivate and support the myriad places, people and communities that bring goodness to the world.
Hopefully, New Yorkers, with Jews at the forefront, will heed these lessons and shun Mamdani, thus helping to foster right over wrong and good over evil, helping to protect and preserve New York City—and all its citizens—and helping to ensure a safer and brighter world for us all.
