The Poll Is Not the Election

Opening The great pain of falling is not the fall itself. The great pain is the morning after. It is that inner voice that wakes up before you do, before your cup of coffee, before you pray, and says quietly: “You see? This is who you are.” You know that voice. It doesn’t shout. It simply reminds you. “You said the same thing last week. You’ve tried this already. How many times have you started over?” Then it lays the receipts out in front of you: every decision that melted away, every good resolution that broke, every time you got back up and fell again. So what now? What will be different this time? This is the real danger. Not the fall, but the despair that comes after it. The Old and Foolish King Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, author of the Tanya, the classic book of Hasidic thought, saw this clearly. In chapter 26 of the Tanya he writes that heavy sadness is a great obstacle to serving Hashem. This is true even when it seems to come from a wish to return to Hashem and from seriousness. In chapter 27 he goes on to explain that discouraging thoughts, the kind that say “It’s not worth trying,” do not come from honesty. They come from the forces of darkness. This idea is already found in a verse. As King Solomon wrote: “A poor and wise child is better than an old and foolish king who no longer knows how to take care.” On one side stands a poor child. He has no strength, no track record and no years of experience. On the other side stands an old king. He has a history, experience and proof. And still, the child is the wise one. Why? Because this “poor child” can still choose. The chains of the past have not bound him. The old king, who “no longer knows how to take care,” is already sunk in what used to be, and he never gets out of it. Rabbi Schneur Zalman explained that the “old and foolish king” is the evil inclination, the inner voice that pulls us toward wrong. The evil inclination is not really trying to make you sin. That is not where its great power lies. Its great power comes after the fall. It gathers the receipts, builds a case file, and sets out to prove to you that you are someone who will never change. It is a “king” because it rules. It is “old” because it is experienced and has years of seniority inside your soul. And it is “foolish” because all its power rests on one big lie. The Parable: The Poll Is Not the Election Here is a simple parable, and it cuts deep. Before an election, people run polls. A poll gathers data: what people thought yesterday, what they said last week, which way they leaned in the past. Based on that, it makes a prediction: “Candidate A is losing by 100 points.” A poll has real force. It is impressive. It relies on facts. But the poll is not the election. The election is decided at the ballot box, today, right now. The ballot box does not care what the poll said. As the Bible says, no one is pushed away for good. Every living voice, every single vote, can turn the whole picture around. The past has an opinion. It does not have a vote. The Lesson The inner voice that lays out your receipts is the poll. It is completely real. It is based on facts. It knows your data better than you do. But it is not Election Day. Rabbi Schneur Zalman wrote in the Letter on Returning to Hashem, chapter 11, about the idea that “the past is no more.” The past, once it has passed, no longer exists as something real. It happened. It is gone. The present, which lasts only “the blink of an eye,” is the only reality there is. The power of free choice that Hashem gave every person lives in the present, not in the past. Your choice, now, on this morning, is Election Day. And the evil inclination cannot take it away from you. Watchman, What of the Night? The prophet cries out: “Watchman, what is left of the night? Watchman, what is left of the night?” The “night” is the state of a soul chained in the darkness of its falls. The soul cries out: How long? What will happen to me? Is there any way out of this night? And the prophet answers: “Morning has come.” The morning can arrive. It does not depend on first solving every fall of the past. It does not depend on first explaining all those years. The “morning” breaks through with one decision, however small, made right now. This is the victory our Sages spoke of when they said: “Do not trust yourself until the day you die.” It is not only a warning. It is good news. Every day is a new day with a new choice. And the old king has no way in.