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<TITLE> Responsibilities to our host country - maharatz chiyut</TITLE>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial">I had originally posted the following:</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">From darkei horaah -chapter 7</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">"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…..</FONT></P>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial">I noticed the following:</FONT><B></B><B></B>
<BR><B><FONT COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Times New Roman">**Kol Koreh Text**</FONT></B>
<BR><B><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">A Public Alert to Our Fellow Jews in Our Country,<BR>
The United States of America</FONT></B>
<BR><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">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.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">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.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">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.</FONT></P>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">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.</FONT></P>
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