הצבעה בבחירות

00:04 This is Igris, and, uh, early voting has already begun, at least for the US presidential elections this cycle. So in honor of that, we're going to do an Igris share that's a special episode just on the Rebbe's perspective on voting in elections. Most of what we're gonna talk about today is whether the Rebbe says we have to vote or not, just the idea of, uh, the obligation to vote in elections. But near the end, I have some sikkhas and some ideas that the Rebbe gives on how to vote, and I think that'll also shed some light maybe on what decisions to make in the ballot box. But first of all, our main goal today is just to see whether we have to vote. I know there are some people who are not happy about the election and would like to vote for nobody or would like to sit this one out. I will, um, I will make it very clear. I voted. Look, I even have the sticker. I have the "I Voted" sticker. I put it on the back of my phone. I'm very proud. I voted early, voting on Sunday. It was fantastic. I didn't have to wait in line. Uh, vote early, vote often. Okay, let's see if the Rebbe agrees with me. So today, we're going to do the Rebbe's perspective on voting. And a lot of this is about, uh, Israel, but we're gonna see that it also applies to American elections, at least to some extent. The first letter

01:00 we're looking at is zayin tufshin chaf daled. It's from Yud Beis Menachem Av of Tuftshin Chaf Alef, and we're looking at the very bottom of the letter. The Rebbe says down here, "Umeninyan yam eilim beyuchad be'eretz hakodesh ti-beneves yikened." In the upcoming days in Eretz Yisrael, the following will apply specifically, neise velanal, in addition to everything else I told you already, bekeshet, lekhalachat, vetalumot, vebechiras. Here, the Rebbe says there's all sorts of messes that go on when it comes to elections. So elections are messy, elections are unpleasant, and they cause problems. Shidavka az maвия mechitas hakayamos. When you have elections, you usually you raise up barriers between people. People tend to disagree over elections. They get into arguments. This letter was written in what year? This letter was written in Tuftshin Chaf Alef. That's nineteen sixty-one. Things have not changed very much. People really get into arguments over elections. V'lo eida leshidbeinim bechitas chadashas. Not only do they renew their old dividers, you know, there's these old wounds and old divisions and old parties and, uh, coalitions and differences of opinion in communities. Every election cycle, they get reinvigorated, and also you build new ones. You can-- you make new problems. Now we have new parties, new dividing lines. V'lo eida leshidbeinim bechitas chadashas. They also make new issues. Miflaga miflagot s-s- I think there's-- I think that letter is cut off a little bit, but in any event, you make new coalitions, you make new parties. Vaknira hatzad hashavash-- hashadashav-- hasad-- Excuse me, hatzad

02:11 hashavash bechulam. I don't know why my mouth is not saying those words. Hatzad hashavash bechulam. The common thread between all of these, miflagam v'lashon pilag upitzel, that when it comes to coalitions and comes to parties, that the word used for a party or for a, uh, or for a, um, yeah, political party in Hebrew is the same as the word that's used for a division. Harem izet tzad echad bekatum et herut hamachleket, and it's one short step away from arguments and from separation of hearts. So this letter I wanted to show you as we start off just to say that the Rebbe does not necessarily love elections. Uh, the Rebbe recognizes that an election season is a time of contentious, uh, behaviors, a time where people disagree with each other over things that they normally don't disagree with each other about. So just for starters, uh, th-there might be a-- maybe there's a theory out there that the Rebbe loves elections or loves democracy. I don't know what the Rebbe loves or doesn't love besides Torah, and mitzvahs, and Hashem, and stuff, and me. But, uh, besides those things, I'm not sure what the Rebbe loves. But I can tell you this, that the Rebbe is cautious of elections. He's not deeply enthusiastic about politics, and he recognizes in this letter that, uh, even though politics might be necessary and elections might be necessary, that they cause problems, and it's not great that they cause problems between people. Now, to the topic of based on

03:13 that whether we should be voting or not, the Rebbe is very clear over and over again that we should, that we have to vote. Uh, I have a bunch of these letters, gonna show you a smattering of them. This one is labeled tuf tuf yud gimel, and that's from Erev Rosh Chodesh Kislev of Tuftshin Yud Alef. This is from nineteen fifty-one. It's about an Israeli election. And the Rebbe writes, "Bemaad ha'leshe lo'saravim," I'm responding to the request of many people who keep on asking me, uh, "Na lefarsem daati hatsasi vetachasi." Please, uh, publicize my opinion and my, and my, uh, and my request. "Lishtotet veha'amen bechiras le'adas ha'atzmiam ba'dereshima charedis-- char-char-charedius." Says, I would like to tell everybody in Eretz Yisrael to please participate in the municipal elections, the elections for city government and such, and to make sure to vote for the most Charedi one on the ticket. That is to find the, uh, the most religious Jews there and vote for them. "Reven shuftach mitzvot archiy gadol shecharedim ba'areitz," so that you'll make sure that in the municipality, you will have the most religious people running the city, "ve'tedav uviracha." Now, this does not directly apply to American elections at all. That's not really how we vote for the religious party, um, because there isn't a religious party, at least not a Jewish religious party. But in Eretz Yisrael, obviously, there are more religious parties and less religious parties. The Rebbe repeatedly in elections when it comes to Eretz Yisrael tells everybody that

04:18 he wants everybody to vote, and he wants it publicized that he wants everybody to vote, and he wants it publicized that he wants everybody to vote for the most religious parties. We have another letter similar to this. It's labeled Alef Kuf Yud, also from Tuftshin Yud Alef, but this is from Tammuz, except, uh, there's a typo in the letter. That's fine. Anyway, if you go down here, the Rebbe says, "Mikvar-- ze mikvar p'nis limin hala anash, be'eretz hakodesh ti-beneves yikened lefarsem daati." I've already turned to all of the people who are in charge of Anash, in charge of Chabad Hasidim in the land of Israel, that I want them to publicize my point of view. "Bemaad ha'leshe lo'saravim," excuse me, in response to the request of many, "kimichuyavim kole echad ve'echad lishtotet bechiras" that every single person, every male and female, based on the lotion and the grammar, every single person who's allowed to vote is obligated, michuyavim, they must vote in Israeli elections. "Latvia ba'dereshima charedis ve'asen." They also must vote for the most Charedi column, most the-- the most Charedi group that is available, the most religious party available to vote for. "Lashpia beze gam al hazul asam" and lest you sh-- lest you should think you can keep your vote to yourself on this matter, you should also have this impact on people around you. So find people around you who aren't voting and make them register to vote, and then convince them to vote for the most religious parties. Once again,

05:24 this would only apply directly to Israel. And the Rebbe says, "Petach pirsum hazeh be'efen maatim." I trust that you will publicize this in an appropriate manner. Continue. This is a letter that we've looked at before. This letter is Gimel Tuf Kuf Nun Tes. It's from Tes Zayin Sivan of Tuftshin Tes Vav. We've seen it before for a different thing. We used a different part of the letter since it's a long letter, and it's a famous letter. Uh, Rabbi Greenglass, uh, who some of you were the-- some of you on our, uh, on our live, on our live show, on our live share, uh, were stud-- were his students. Uh, Rabbi Greenglass was, I don't know, uh, in touch with, I don't wanna say close with, in touch with at least a Rabbi Margolius in Eretz Yisrael, who he tried to bring closer to Chabad. Uh, he was a little bit opposed to us, a little bit opposed to, uh, our involvement with Eretz Yisrael. And he sort of shuttled, uh, Rabbi Margolius's problems with Chabad back and forth between the Rebbe and him. So this letter is to Rabbi Greenglass, but it's meant to be passed along to Rabbi Margolius to answer some of his questions. And if you scroll down to the bottom of this letter, Rabbi Margolius, one of his major issues with Chabad, uh, with the Rebbe Was just how much we were involved in Israeli elections, the fact that we voted in them at all, because he was one of these,

06:28 uh, very strong anti-Zionists who was of the opinion that although he lived in Eretz Israel, you should not be involved with the government at all and not voting in elections. The Rebbe comes down pretty hard on this perspective in this letter, encouraging people who, uh, do not like the government to vote anyway. And I think this does apply to American elections because what I'm hearing a lot, not so much from our community, uh, in Pomona, but I hear this from my friends in other places, is that a lot of people are thinking of not voting in the current American elections or in other American elections, prior ones, future ones, because they're upset at America, upset at how a government's being run, upset at their options. And the Rebbe really pushes back very hard on this idea that a protest, uh, a n-- a protest, a non-vote makes sense when you're frustrated with the government. You know, if we, if we look down here at entry base, the Rebbe says, "Ma Shakas Van Al Be'ini Hishtas With The Chiras." You write to me about how you're concerned that we're involved in elections in the land of Israel. "Ina Ano En Mano El Divrei Nehsia." First of all, says the Rebbe, I'm bottle to my rebbe. I, I have to listen to what the rebbe-- to what the prior rebbe have said. "Hanu Kav Kidush Medech Amar." When you look at what the Frieda Rebbe said, "Esher Gam Ata Even Marum Mishamish." Right now, the Frieda Rebbe

07:26 says the Rebbe is still standing on high and serving. "Vagam Kan" and also here. So the-- not just up there, but also here. So the Rebbe is saying, first of all, the Frieda Rebbe is still completely, uh, around and doing his job, both in the, in the heavens and down here on earth. And he told me something about this that I have to stick with, and that is, "Levechires Lechneses Shenatsiv Lehishtarlishtarfubehem." The Frieda Rebbe said that when they were voting-- that when there was voting for the first Knesset in Eretz Israel, the Frieda Rebbe said that everybody had to get involved. He said that everybody had to vote in those elections. This means that it's not just that you're allowed to vote in Israeli elections, you must vote in Israeli elections because the Frieda Rebbe ordered us to vote in the first Israeli election. I'm gonna jump down to the next paragraph. The Rebbe says, "Look, i-if you're going to be a real hardcore anti-Zionist, and you're not gonna vote in Israeli elections, and you're also not going to be involved in Israel at all, and you don't even wanna travel to the land of Israel because you're opposed to what they're doing there," the Rebbe says, "Fine, don't vote in elections." But those who do live in Israel, and they are involved at all in the land of Israel. And then the Rebbe gives some examples. If you look below the lines, he says, "You should ask him, You should ask him whether he

08:38 uses the water service or whether he, like, digs wells in his backyard." So the Rebbe hits him pretty hard. It says, "If you're using any of the utilities in Israel, any of the electricity in Israel, if you're using any of the government and any-anything the government's in charge of, if you live there and you're using it, but you've decided that the one way that you are going to show that you really don't like this country is that you're not gonna vote, that doesn't make any sense at all. So what are you doing? You're benefiting from the country. You're part of the entire process. You give into it constantly. But where you draw the line is I'm not going to help make decisions that are good for the-- that will make the country better. So that makes no sense at all, says the Rebbe. Furthermore, you damage the general public, the Kanav, as it explained earlier. And in Israel, we've seen over the past couple of years, that's like a minister, that if, uh, the, the decision, the vote of one minister in the government, one minister, these can cause all sorts of problems. They can, uh, prevent-- they can prevent or prevent good things from happening to the masses or make the masses stumble. This can cause rabbinic violations. This can cause Torah violations, the Dao. So what the Rebbe is saying in this middle paragraph is, it's a strange hill to die on. You know, if you're going to be involved in the government

09:48 or at least benefiting from the government, and suddenly you decide that you're not going to be involved in shaping the government, your big protest is that you're not going to vote in an election, all you're doing is, uh, misplacing your zealotry, and also you're damaging the general public. Because the people who will be elected when you decide not to vote because you didn't contribute to making sure good people were elected, they can end up damaging people, they can end up causing problems, and they can end up creating a situation where more sins are done, whether those are rabbinic or Torah sins. So the reason why I think this particular paragraph is also very much applicable to, uh, American elections, especially current American elections, is that in response to those who say that they out of protest for what's going on in America or the options they have in front of them, they don't wanna vote, uh, it's, it's a-- it-- the Rebbe would say, that of all times, that's the time to vote, right? Specifically vote when you're unhappy with the system, because then you can shift the system in the right direction to make your act of protest not participating in the only thing that can make the thing that you don't like better doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I have one more to show you about Israeli elections, then I'll show you some American election stuff. This is Gimel Tuv Shin, Tuv Shin Samech Zayin, the letters from Yugimel Elul of

10:52 Tuv Shin Tes Vav, and the Rebbe says. Now, I believe based on the footnote to this letter, that Rabbi Margolis wrote back and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't vote in the last election. I feel like I should," and he asked the Rebbe for forgiveness. The, the reason why I think this is because in the footnote down here, it says, "Look at the previous letter that we just read," uh, and it doesn't say who the letter is to. But in any event, the Rebbe says, "I'm responding to your letter, uh, where you didn't tell me when you wrote." He wrote to me that you would like to apologize that I should forgive you for, uh, for not participating in the prior elections. So the Rebbe says, The Rebbe says this, uh, this isn't my private matter, and it certainly is not private-- my private kvedel. I'm not angry at you. I've written, I've made it very public what I think. in public. That's very clear. That anybody who has permission to take part in elections, I know that would mean specifically they have a passport, um, and they pay taxes. And they help sometimes with the country. Because they're afraid that if they don't do what they're supposed to do, they'll get thrown in jail. Or they're afraid that their lifestyle will be impacted. They won't be able to get water. And rather than people who, like, specifically dig wells, like, So the Rebbe is saying here, I'm saying that anybody who can participate in elections

12:09 because they take part in the state, This such a person is obligated to take part in elections. And also they should take-- they should keep in mind that if you don't wanna support a government, uh, voting in an election does not support any particular office of government. And regarding Israeli elections, even one missing voice when it comes to counting the votes for the most religious parties, strengthens the other party. When you decide not to vote, you are essentially casting a vote for the party that you don't want to vote for, and that's another reason not to stand, uh, not to step out of elections and not participate. Okay, that's Israeli elections. There are some things in there that are definitely for us. The idea that we don't, uh, we don't refuse to participate in elections. We don't, uh, we, we take the opportunity to vote. We see the Rebbe's very excited about the idea of voting. We also see that the Rebbe is, uh, hesitant about the idea of politics and the voting season, where he says those can create arguments, but so far a lot of this has been very Israel-centric. You could come to the conclusion, and I was worried that might be the conclusion, that the Rebbe says this about Israeli elections but doesn't have anything to say about American elections. I did find one sicha, sort of a hesapa to the sichas. It's printed, though, in-- it's printed in, um, in Sichas Kodesh. Where is it? I have the bottom. It's

13:22 in Sichas Kodesh, Taf Shin Mem Alef, volume, uh, Alef, and it's on page eight forty-eight. They have in the back, uh, like little one-liners from people who were in seven-seventy at the time, things they saw or things they heard. So this is a journal entry that says, on Yom Alef Chaf Gimel Chesvan, that was, um, right around the American voting season. I looked it up. This was on November second, I believe, November first or November second of nineteen eighty, and it was the Reagan-Carter election. Uh, Reagan won this election by a landslide. I looked at the electoral map on Wikipedia for that election, and it doesn't-- I mean, y-we have an entirely different country now. I think, I think, uh, I think Carter won three states. So, uh, Reagan just completely dominated the map. And this was two or three days before that election. So, the Rebbe ordered everybody who is permitted to participate in voting for the United States American-- United States American, United States presidential elections that they had to participate in the elections. There would be a, uh, voting for the president the following day. in order to emphasize, in order to bring to the front the power of the Jewish people and the Jewish vote. So people have to go out to vote to show that the Jewish interests do matter. regarding the question of who to vote for, so the Rebbe said everybody has to go vote. They have to choose Reagan or Carter. Who should they vote for? They

14:37 asked the Rebbe, "Who do we vote for?" And the Rebbe said, the Rebbe responded, that he does not mix into things like that. So the Rebbe does not mix into who you should vote for, but the idea is you should vote. Now we know that's not exactly true. When it comes to Israeli elections, the Rebbe also doesn't, as far as I know, tell people ever to vote for individuals, but he certainly tells them to vote for the ro-- the most religious party. When it comes to American elections, he simply said, at least when it came to the year nineteen eighty. We do have a sicha, though, where the Rebbe tells you how to vote. And, uh, this is from Chaf Marchesvan of Taf Shin Lamed He. And I'm always suspicious when I see sichas in the month of Chesvan about elections that the Rebbe might be hinting to American elections because Chesvan is always the American election season. Uh, we have elections in November. That's usually where Chesvan falls. So if you look in the sicha, uh, this is from Chaf Marchesvan Taf Shin Lamed He in from volume-- This would be Taf Shin Lamed He Alef. Uh, so it's volume Ayin Ches, and it's on page two sixty-two. The Rebbe explains how a Jew votes. Regarding our opinion. When we hear about elections in the world, that a person needs to, a person needs to remember, first of all, that they should live like the Midrash. There's a very famous Midrash. I don't know

15:54 how famous Midrash is, actually. It's famous to Chabad Hasidim because the Rebbe talks about it so often, that there is a Midrash that says that somebody goes to visit the king, and there's all sorts of ministers, and they're all at each different levels, and there are-- different people go to visit the different ministers. They wanna talk about transportation. They go to the minister of transportation, and as they're going through all the ministers, they're, they, they, they're working in the government. And then there's one smart guy, one smart guy who says, "I don't really wanna talk to any of the lower-level ministers. I wanna go straight to the king." So the Rebbe says that when it comes to elections, we have to remember this Midrash because it has an important lesson for us. And it's not that you should only vote for the president and not in municipal elections. It's something else. What is the point? The Rebbe says you walk into the voting booth, and you look, and you see that they forgot to write God on the election ballot. You can't-- I guess you can always write him in if you like. Write in Aibishter in the elections, but I don't know how many votes he's going to get. So the notice here, you notice as you're looking at the election card that they didn't write the king of the entire world into the election, so you can't vote for God. This is at, like, what it says, like we, we said earlier in

16:58 Simchas Torah that same year that regarding the that we ask God that all of our words should be pleasing before the master of all things. That even when we talk to people, even when we talk to Gentiles, that God is watching us and that God is help-- that God is looking to see whether we're serving him properly in all of our conversations and in all of our interactions. So we have to make sure that everything we say is something that God would approve of. Regard-- Now, now getting back to elections. When we have an election and we need to decide who to vote for, the only way to decide the-- we should be single-issue voters. Be a single-issue voter, says the Rebbe. Vote for God. I don't know how that looks on your lawn, but vote for God. So when you're trying to figure out who to vote for, you should look at who is better according to-- who is going to be better for Shulchan Aruch. Which candidate is going to be best for keeping Jewish law? Who's going to be-- Who's, who is going to be best for Judaism? For Yiddishkeit? It doesn't matter if some individual has promised you a higher office or a better position. Or if that particular campaign is promising that you'll have more or less money or more or less honor. Because you're not voting for that particular candidate. That's the blush of the Midrash. You're not voting for ministers or for people in charge of things. You're

18:25 voting for the king. Therefore, immediately, automatically. If the king would say to vote for a certain individual because that individual represents Torah, represents mitzvahs, will enable the practice of Shulchan Aruch, of Jewish law, even though when it comes to your personal life, you don't see how he's going to pay you back or how he's going to help you succeed. That would be a smart person. A smart person votes for the candidate who is best for Shulchan Aruch, not the candidate that makes the most pragmatic sense for their quality of life. Since we are a smart and wise nation, we're a wise and understanding nation, we know who we're voting for all the time. We know better than to vote for an individual candidate. We know to vote for God. So the Rebbe's saying in the sicha Is that there are all sorts of considerations that go into who you vote for, but that a Jew should be a single-issue voter. And that single-issue vote should be, I should look at the two candidates and ask, "Who's better for Torah and Mitzvahs? Who's better for Yiddishkeit? Who's better for Shulchan Aruch?" And choose that one, even if their economic plan is no good, even if their, uh, even if what they're going to do for my quality of life is not necessarily the direction I want to go in, even if they're not saying things that are going to help with my personal successes, because I'm not really voting for that person. I'm deciding right now

19:35 at the ballot box whether I'm voting for God or voting for some minister who claims that they're going to help me more than God will. And the answer is obviously God's gonna help me more than that minister. So in response to what a lot of people are concerned about going into elections is that on one hand, they wanna vote like a Jew, but on the other hand, they wanna vote for someone whose plan makes economic sense or who has ideas that might make sense in Washington or in local elections for people who, um, who might be able to be successful in particular areas. You know, all, all the, all these, all these kashbenis. There's kashbenis about how to vote. But then at the end of the day, there's the question, who is the one who's going to do a better job representing the interests of the Jewish people, representing Shulchan Aruch, representing Hashem? And that's the place where my vote goes, not because I'm blind to the fact that there's such a thing as politics, but because when I go to the voting box, I really just wanna vote for Ana Nasid Malcha. I'm voting for God. And as far as the ministers, I couldn't care less. Well, this minister says this one, this minister says that one, this, this, this candidate says this, this candidate says that. Who cares? At the end of the day, you vote for God, and everything gets taken care of. The last thing that I wanna show you has

20:29 very little to do with this, but I thought of it going into it, so I had to find it to show it to you personally. Um, this is a very famous sicha. This sicha really is famous. This is from Purim of Taf Shin Yud Gimel. This is the sicha that they claim, that they claim, that we claim killed Stalin. If you talk to Chassidim, they'll tell you this is the Stalin-killing sicha. In this sicha, the Rebbe has a sudden digression in the middle of Purim, which is a day of miracles, uh, regardless, and a day of ending Hamans all over the world. So the Rebbe has a digression into a story that l'chaim has nothing to do with the rest of the sicha. During this digression, he ends up chanting the words, "Hurrah," and, uh, around this time, Stalin dropped dead, and there's, uh, there's an idea out there that, uh, that the two are connected, and I think, why not, right? Why wouldn't they be connected? In any event, in the middle of this sicha, there's something I always think about when I go to vote, and I thought about it when I went to vote yesterday, uh, that the Rebbe tells a story. He says, "B'tkubah machiz b'Russia l'achnei m'chaleles shel keisar." In the period right after the fall of the Tsar, "Hareh kavod HaRashab Nish Matzeidun," excuse me, "hurrah. Kavod-- hurrah. Kavod HaRashab Nish Matzeidun l'chassidim l'shadam b'chiras shnechem lemdin." The Rebbe Rashab told the Chassidim that they needed to take part

21:29 in the elections for the country. There was, like, a very momentary-- There was a very small moment of democracy between the Tsar and, and, and, like, communism. And during that very small flicker of real democracy, you were allowed to vote. The Rebbe Rashab told everybody to vote, which believing the rest of the story, uh, that's really interesting. We have that the Rebbe told people to vote in Israeli elections and in American elections. We have the Yefrei HaRebbe saying to vote in the first Knesset. If you want more precedent, you have the Rebbe Rashab telling the Chassidim in Russia to vote during the only period of time where there was a possibility to vote. But listen to this. "Ve'achrim l'kach higia lamachshvei zkanim b'chiras gam echad ha'chassidim sheha'im mufshad legam b'havei selem." The Rebbe Rashab had a couple of Chassidim that were entirely separate from worldly matters. They had nothing to do with politics. They certainly were not-- They weren't, weren't really aware of who to vote for or how to vote. But the Rebbe Rashab told all the Chassidim to vote, so this Chassid who's mufshad from the entire world, he has to vote, too. "V'lo yada klal ma nisarach b'medinah." He doesn't know what's going on in the country. "She'etzadu chul ha'kaim s'radah s'radah s'rebbe." But he knows that he needs to fulfill the hirah of the Rebbe. The Rebbe told him to do something, v'kamubah. "L'achrich damis tfila v'mikveh v'chagirah savneit karail l'kiyam harash shel haRebbe." So what did he do before he

22:29 went to vote? He went to mikveh, and he put on a gartel, and he dressed like somebody who's about to go fulfill the will of his Rebbe, and then he went to vote and did what he was supposed to do. I, I think this is a really interesting, really good story to end on because what we're, what we're ill-- what we're illustrating here is that the Rebbe keeps telling people to vote in elections, and he's not telling them to vote because it is their civic duty or because the Rebbe believes in democracy. I don't know if he does or doesn't, or, or because the Rebbe particularly likes the electoral process and elections. I know for sure that he doesn't. We have this letter where he talks about how elections and politics just get in the way and make people angry at each other. But the Rebbe's telling us to vote, uh, for God. The Rebbe's telling us, Ana Nasid Malcha, that we're supposed to vote for Shulchan Aruch, that we're supposed to vote for Yiddishkeit, and that we're supposed to listen to him when he says. He says, "Tell everybody that I said it, that they're supposed to be involved in the process of making the world around us better through voting with, uh, through voting in elections." And when a person does that, they have every right to go to mikveh beforehand, put on a gartel, and do their divine service. I think that the perspective that we should take away from this is

23:23 that choosing to vote in the upcoming election and in any election is an act of Avodas Hashem. It's an act of divine service, one that is matim for a gartel and for mikveh. Okay, thank you all very much.