First, obviously, everyone has to vote. We all know all that. I’m sure everyone has already voted. If you haven’t, you’ve been told 4,000 times to vote. So if you haven’t, it’s obviously a decision for everyone to vote.
The halacha (Jewish law) in the tefillah (prayer)—the wording, as we can tell from our chazan (cantor)’s emphasis—is that there’s a Beracha, a tefillah, of LaMinim veLaMalshinim (For heretics and informers). Right? That Beracha is a prayer that Hashem should get rid of all our enemies.
That Beracha, as the Gemara tells us, was expanded over time to address different issues and different enemies: some within our people, some without. Some are people who give us challenges; some are people who have the wrong beliefs, minim; others have wrong beliefs. So it’s a very powerful tefillah, it’s a very powerful Beracha, and it does relate to a time like this. If we feel that way, that tefillah is praying for all those who are challenging us to either go away or have their powers removed.
Now, just to understand halacha from this tefillah, a couple of points. One is that in the middle we say the words: “The evil kingdom should be completely and immediately eradicated.” The Sefer Ya’arot Devash says that when a person says those words, if they have in mind Amalek, if they’re performing the mitzvah (commandment) of erasing Amalek, then you’re getting a mitzvah in that tefillah. Secondly, at the end of the Beracha, we have a debate about the words: do we say minim, machnia zedim (Subdues the arrogant), or machnia minim (Subdues the heretics)? Many communities write the word minim. Some argue that zedim is more of an encompassing word that includes all types of problematic people, and some say the word minim. A min means a non-believer, or a heretic, and it fits perfectly with the opening of the tefillah, because the opening is—so you open with minim, and you close with minim. That’s probably why most siddurim (prayer books) say minim, and most of us do minim, but it’s a big conversation and a big discussion about which way to go. We go with minim typically, but that’s a discussion. You close the way you open.
So the two halachot to take away are: we’re wiping away Amalek in the middle of the tefillah, if you have that in mind, and we’re saying minim to close, like we’re saying minim to open, to make the Beracha flow. But overall, this is a Beracha that gets rid of all our enemies and all our problems, all those who are giving us difficulty, and inshallah (God willing) that applies today as well. Amen (So be it).