[Avodah] Responsibilities to our host country - maharatz chiyut

[Rich, Joel]

I had originally posted the following:

> From darkei horaah -chapter 7
> 
> "vhinei bgaluteinu, anu machzikim btorah umitzvot, mitzad ki anacnu
> baalei daat myuchad, ochzim bemunat avoteinu, vchen mtzad hasheini af
> ki anachnu hayom bagolah, vtamnu lhiyot am myuchad, vnitztaveenu mpi
> chazal shebod  sheanu nichnaim tachat eizeh umah shetihiyeh, anu
> muchrachim laamos hasevel al shichmeinu, laset bol hamutal aleinu
> ulhaazin ulhakshiv bchol eit el hamoshel bchol asher yitzaveh, vgoral
> hauma vhamamlachah asher anu garim shamah, tzarich shetihiyeh minat
> chevleinu gam kein, im ltovah im lraah, lsmach bsimchatam, vlakachat
> chevel bygonam.....
> 
> 
I noticed the following:
**Kol Koreh Text**
A Public Alert to Our Fellow Jews in Our Country,
The United States of America
Gedolei Torah of previous generations have already proclaimed that every
Jewish person should participate and vote in elections held in our
benevolent country, the United States of America. This is for several
reasons.
First, it is incumbent on us to be concerned about the interests of our
fellow Jews, and we have indeed merited to see great accomplishments
that American Jewry has attained with the help of Heaven through
participation in the electoral process. Second, Divine providence has
placed the United States today in the position of being the single
greatest ally of the Jewish nation that lives in the Holy Land,
concerned with protecting it from the "70 wolves" that surround it to
destroy it, G-d forbid.
There is also the mandate of hakoras hatov (recognition of goodness),
one of the bases of our belief, which makes it incumbent on us to
express our gratitude to the benevolent country in which we dwell by
participating in its elections.


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	I wonder where within the definition of hakarat hatov is the
chiyuv to vote (which is a voluntary act) found?  There does not seem to
be in this list  any chiyuv to participate in the public welfare.
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