Kanye Goes West: The People of the Lulav

KANYE WEST, as they say in Yiddish..."Kish in Tuches!"

But more on that in a moment.

One of the more salient spiritual messages of Sukkot is the way the "Arba Minim" (four species used to bless and shake, as in "would you like to shake the Lulav?"... over the course of the holiday excluding Shabbat), the Lulav, (Palm frond) Etrog, (Citron...in France they call them Citroens... no just kidding) the willow and myrtle branches (fastened to the Lulav), have come to celebrate the diversity of personality types within the Jewish community itself. One could take it a step further I suppose and break it down into a plethora of categories, or should I say perspectives, regarding Judaism, G-d, observance of Mitzvot, Jewish literacy, and much, much more.

I find it ironic that much of the hatred of Jews including this week's hateful "death con 13" remarks, courtesy of Kanye West, comes from the persistence with which rational people attend to the irrationality of the "oldest hatred in the world." And when I say irrational, among other things, I refer chiefly to hatred that at its core exists first and foremost as unabashed and pure hatred towards an entire people for no reason at all other than their refusal to do the world a favor and disappear already. But in today's world where one can't just hop on a horse and burn down Kishinev, or sign up for some volunteer work at a local sonderkommando chapter, what is a decent hard-working antisemite to do when the need for a scapegoat becomes too pressing to ignore?

That's where the velvet gloves of stereotyping become indispensable. And it works, for a bit. But the problem in coating hatred with a stale and ugly coat of homogenous personality descriptions is that it backfires once it becomes obvious how utterly boring we aren't! Why is that? Because we are the people of the four kinds, baby! All you need to do is listen to the way we go at each other... starting with "Two Jews, three opinions." Basics, man.

In fact, it's more like four hundred or whatever. So who do you think you're fooling when you label millions of radically different people the same way?

And Kanye, the blood that will be on your hands if even one Jew is harmed as a result of your rant is leaking through your velvet gloves as we talk.

So here's a stereotype that is actually amazingly true. One I can happily live with. When there is a threat to Jewish people, anywhere, anytime, it is felt viscerally by every Jew on the planet. Even the ones that have literally nothing in common with one another suddenly merge into the same lane. Though our diversity might keep us "siloed up," know this: "divide and conquer" ultimately backfires where Jews are concerned. Though our outward personality differences might serve to separate us, the opposite happens under duress. We might be the non-confrontational "People of the Book," but underneath we are also the mighty People of the Lulav. As a result, we have outlasted and outlived our most powerful enemies— who never seem to learn that shaking us only binds us closer together.