There is one group in Klal Yisrael that "does their own thing". They have their Rebbe and they hold that his view overrides the view of all other Gedolei Yisrael who disagree/d with him. So among other things they don't get involved in Israeli politics and don't even vote in the elections. One of their primary sources is אל תתחבר לרשע - don't attach yourself to רשעים, no matter what the cost. [All the other Gedolei Yisrael also believed in אל תתחבר לרשע as it is an open mishna in Avos but there are other mitigating factors involved here].
What troubles me is that in Chutz La-aretz they are very much involved in politics and are all encouraged by their Rebbe/s to vote. They even welcome non-Jewish politicians and give them endorsements. What about אל תתחבר לרשע? In other words - Mamdani yes but Netanyahu no. (It isn't just about the שלש שבועות [another one of their main guideposts. Crazy that a מאמר אגדה not paskened li-halacha which is no longer even applicable in today's reality should take center stage]). So Mamdani, who would be THRILLED if every last Jew would disappear gets a strong endosement while Netanyahu [or any other Israeli politician regardless of his level of religious observance] is treif. [Unfortunately they recently received a lot of publicity when one of their guys got the cover of the most popular magazine in the frum world. This probably just made people hate them. It certainly didn't change very many, if any, minds. I didn't read the article b/c I B"H have enough aggravation in life without their help so I didn't want to increase it].
Not only that - but this group is famous for doing chesed in hospitals for EVERY SINGLE JEW, regardless of how pious or observant. What about אל תתחבר לרשע at all costs? Why are you looking at מחללי שבת and even giving them daily meals for free? Obviously b/c the value of chesed overrides the value of staying away from רשעים. But the chesed of voting in the Israeli elections so that religious people have representation and can thus ensure that the Torah community can receive funding and have their religious rights protected does not override אל תתחבר לרשע?? The value of אל תפרוש מן הציבור - separating from all segments of Klal Yisrael is also not enough for them.
A member of this group believes in their ideology b/c they were born into it. Just about nobody joins from the outside because it is not very convincing to anyone but them. So maybe they have the status of תינוקות שנשבו [!!]. It is not my place to judge them and thankfully can leave that up to the True Judge.
But I do want to "make a מחאה".
So I just did:-).
