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On Tuesday, there are municipal elecions here in Israel, and some of the candidates are accusing their competitors of corruption. I am not in a position to check these accusations — I am neither a detective nor a journalist, and additionally I have no time to do research on this.

My question is: Is one allowed / required to believe these accusations, when one decides whom to vote for?

On one hand, if a voter believes the accusations, and votes for the other candidate, the accusations might turn out to have been false, and thus the voter actually will have supported liars.

On the other hand, if the voter ignore the accusations and votes for the blamed candidate, the accusations might turn out to have been true, and thus the voter actually will have supported a corrupt official.

What should the voter do?

Isaac Moses
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Erel Segal-Halevi
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    Similar: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/17617 – msh210 Oct 20 '13 at 14:11
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    Welcome to Mi Yodeya, and thanks for bringing your question here! Please note that this site makes no guarantee of validity, and does not offer professional (particularly rabbinic) advice. Treat information from this site like it came from a crowd of your friends, and consult your rabbi with practical questions. – msh210 Oct 20 '13 at 14:43

1 Answers1

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Believing 'evil tongue' during elections

While elections accentuate the problem of having to base our actions on information that could be false, the problem is a broader one of how do we know what is true.

Proverbs 2:1-11 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;
Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.
Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path. When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:

We are given some interesting "if / then" promises.

If we are missing wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, we may wish to take advantage of the promise of God to supply this.

timf
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