Rabbi Ysoscher Katz’s wrote…
“Rabbi, can you help me pick out an esrog? I know that aesthetics is an essential part of the considerations, but what determines supremacy in the citrus beauty pageant?
———-Sure! Here is, broadly speaking, what you need to consider.
When buying an Esrog you look for three things:
1) size;
2) cleanliness;
3) and, personality (is the surface bland, or does it have depth, crevices and curves).
Almost no esrog will have all three. You therefore have to prioritize and look for the characteristics that most naturally correspond with your sense of halakhic aesthetics.
Historically, communities have developed their own aesthetic hierarchy.
Chassidim (for the most part) prefer size and personality and care less about cleanliness, while for Litvaks it is the reverse. They care more about size and cleanliness and less about personality.
There is also a political component to the process. Israeli esrogim often tend to be less clean than non-Israeli ones.
Therefore, if geographical affiliation factors into your religious sensibility, you will be willing to compromise physical beauty for geographical pedigree.
Ultimately, the choice is highly subjective; what is beautiful to you might be garish to me.
Either way, come Monday morning we will all go to shul, clutching a citrus fruit whose primary attraction to us is its religiously dictated aesthetic qualities. It will be the most beautiful esrog to YOU.
When our culture offers such a crass and superficial understanding of beauty, it’s only appropriate that we observe a holiday which celebrates the complexity of the aesthetic experience.”
In my ethno-religious sensibility, geographical pedigree is preferred but, even if it is a non-Israeli etrog, I prefer my etrogim have size and personality and a bit of dirt from the ground!
What is your favorite pattern for waving the Four Species (lulav, hadass, aravah, v’etrog) in the Six Directions, and how seriously do you take this plant waving ritual? Do you understand the mystical, historical, and environmental meanings at the heart of this yearly seasonal ritual of Judea-Samaria? Do you want to learn, to ask questions, and participate without interpretative cultural appropriation?
Waving the LULAV in the Six Directions – it’s a REALLY BIG DEAL! A VERY IMPORTANT yearly ritual act!
חג סוכות שמח!
Chag Sukkot sameach!
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Many people think that Jews are everywhere in this nation, even in this world, courtesy of Colonial Arab-European *obsessive* social interest in the Jewish people. It’s not an interest in understanding who and what we are – the Arab-European Colonial supremacists have decided for the world their decided versions of who and what Jews are (whitesplaining, Christiansplaining, Muslimsplaining, Arabsplaining), because who knows more about *the* historically oppressed other than the historic appropriaters of our Indigenous Judean literatures, culture, and land(!). No, the Colonial supremacist interest is in *telling* the Jewish people who and what we are, in telling all their Arab-European colonized who and what “Jews” are, and in reemphasizing to them Arab-European Colonial -selves their absolute righteousness in their determined understanding of and purpose for the Jewish people.
What does this delusion of Jewishness look like to the Arab-European-Marxist and their indoctrinated-colonized human subjects? Have you heard these tropes about “the Jews”? That we Jews are all rich white Europeans trying to take over the Colonial world with some sinister “cabal” (False!)? That we Jews are just a religion (False!)? That Jews can’t be an Indigenous People, because only the Colonial Arabs-Europeans for Allah-Christ-Marx dominionism upon all Indigenous Peoples’ lands decide who are Indigenous Peoples – to include, when desired, declaring them Colonial -selves to be the “indigenous/natives” now for having successfully conquested lands that are not indigenously theirs (False!)?
Or, maybe this one. That, because the Jewish people successfully forcibly decolonized and restored our Judean-Samarian nation of Israel upon the land of Israel in 1948 (against the desires of the British-Arab occupiers of Judea-Samaria, who called us “terrorists” for doing it!), that – for doing so – we can no longer be classified as an Indigenous People/nation (in the legal framework of the United Arab-European Colonial Nations, the UN)? Why? For, in the Colonial Arab-European mindset, being decolonized means being equal in every way to the historic Arab-European Colonizers of Indigenous Peoples’ lands (a *false equivalency* on disparate physical bodily numbers, on effectual political influence, and on our devoutly anti-Colonial decolonized behavior!).
And, because the Jewish people have been colonized, victimized, segregated, demonized, and repeatedly indoctrinated by Colonial Arabs-Europeans (their favorite dhimmi/ghetto sub-class to target!), even we Jews make the post-1948 mistake of treating ourselves of having some kind of real influence within the Colonial Arab-European nations for Allah-Christ-Marx dominionism over the human beings of this planet. Hence, why we Jews are overly represented in these Colonial governments on both sides of the political spectrum (except, now, in the 22 Arab occupier nations that *ethnically cleansed* all Jews from their occupied lands after 1948!). Why? Because the ruling Arab-European Colonizer for Allah-Christ-Marx dominionism upon all human beings living upon this planet like it best when they: (1) have us Jews in the public’s eye, to blame as the problem on both political sides, by pointing to the other side, and (2) they like watching our willing Jew’canos get frustrated as they, the Colonial Arab-European rulers, prevent our politically-minded citizen Jews from ever achieving *any* real democracy for all victimized minority folks.
“The first white man I ever saw was the Jewish manager who arrived to collect the rent, and he collected the rent because he did not own the building. I never, in fact, saw any of the people who owned any of the buildings in which we scrubbed and suffered for so long, until I was a grown man and famous. None of them were Jews. And I was not stupid: the grocer and the druggist were Jews, for example, and they were very very nice to me, and to us [Negros]… I knew a murderer when I saw one, and the people who were trying to kill me were not Jews.” – African American novelist James Baldwin, September 29, 1979, “Open Letter to the Born Again”, The Nation.
“The Negro ends up paying a color tax, and this has happened in instances where Negroes actually confronted Jews as the landlord or the storekeeper. The irrational statements that have been made are the result of these confrontations. The limited degree of Negro anti-Semitism is substantially a Northern ghetto phenomenon; it virtually does not exist in the South. The urban Negro has a special and unique relationship to Jews. He meets them in two dissimilar roles. On the one hand, he is associated with Jews as some of his most committed and generous partners in the civil rights struggle. On the other hand, he meets them daily as some of his most direct exploiters in the ghetto as slum landlords and gouging shopkeepers.
Jews have identified with Negroes voluntarily in the freedom movement, motivated by their religious and cultural commitment to justice. The other Jews who are engaged in commerce in the ghettos are remnants of older communities. A great number of Negro ghettos were formerly Jewish neighborhoods; some storekeepers and landlords remained as population changes occurred. They operate with the ethics of marginal business entrepreneurs, not Jewish ethics,”… [not white privileged as entrepreneurs, and used for the exploitation] …”but the distinction is lost on some Negroes who are maltreated by them. Such Negroes, caught in frustration and irrational anger, parrot racial epithets. They foolishly add to the social poison that injures themselves and their own [African American] people.
It would be a tragic and immoral mistake to identify the mass of Negroes with the very small number that succumb to cheap and dishonest slogans, just as it would be a serious error to identify all Jews with the few who exploit Negroes under their economic sway. Negroes cannot irrationally expect honorable Jews to curb the few who are rapacious; they have no means of disciplining or suppressing them. We can only expect them to share our disgust and disdain.”… [Yes yes! And we Jews do!] …”Negroes cannot be expected to curb and eliminate the few who are anti-Semitic, because they are subject to no controls we can exercise. We can, however, oppose them, and we have in concrete ways.
There has never been a instance of articulated Negro anti-Semitism that was not swiftly condemned by virtually all Negro leaders with the support of the overwhelming majority. I have myself directly attacked it within the Negro community, because it is wrong. I will continue to oppose it, because it is immoral and self destructive.” – Martin Luther King, Jr, “A Special and Unique Relationship to Jews”, The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., Stanford University, edited by Clayborne Carson
Folks, please, do not help or, even, feed the online Arab-European trolls for Allah-Christ-Marx dominionism upon this planet! They serve the Colonial Arabs-Europeans’ supremacy over all other peoples. To the point that they wilfully distort history to make Colonial Arabs and “white” Europeans look like innocent victimized “indigenous/natives” upon the lands that *they* settler-occupied for Allah-Christ (-now-) Marx and caliphates-kings (-now-) capitalism-communism (See Flags snapshot at bottom of this post!).
Trolls only seek to belittle Indigenous peoples, erase our historic presence upon our lands, incite racism towards we minorities in this world, and – most importantly, for them – long for meaningless arguments. This is why they troll, folks.
So, instead, help the Kurdish and Jewish peoples to end Arab-European Colonial racism, supremacy, and occupation of Indigenous Peoples’ lands in the Middle East, *especially* (the first lands to be colonized for Allah-Christ and caliphates-kings!), and everywhere else that these Colonials have made their land claims. Help us to Defund Racism online! It’s time to decolonize this world from Allah-Christ-Marx Colonial dominionism. Thank you!
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This was the final example from a series of examples that I’ve given on how Jews need to be addressing antisemites in this post-1948 social media world. Seriously, my Jewish people, we need to fully decolonize to end the 1600 years of European-Arab antisemitism towards the Jewish people. Every single time that we have a social/online chance, we need to remind them who *they* are, so that those reading this racist anti-Jewish demonization and history revisionism (and are not yet racist!) get this!
Folks, watch the racist fool follow the indoctrination of Colonial Christianity and *their* 3rd century CE invented categorization of human beings based on geography/skin-color. This Ghassan Qutifan has now determined for this Jew Indigenous to Judea-Samaria that he can’t possibly be so, based on Christian racism! LOL! I and every father before me is of the Levant, regardless the Colonial Arab-European admixtures added to our Indigenous Judean looks, courtesy of Arab-European settler-occupations (raping and pillaging) in the names of Colonial Allah and Colonial Christ.
Go home, Colonizer for Allah-Christ-Marx and caliphates-kings-communism! You’ll never be the “indigenous” of a land repeatedly conquered for Allah and caliphates! LOL! Do you speak, read, and write as a first language Canaanite Hebrew? Do you observe any of the 613 mitzvot, indigenous Judean laws, of the Levant land? Do you preserve in your sacred Quran the Canaanite god-names and the Canaanite mythic legends? … What? No?! … You do not chant daily your obligations to the land of Israel and the Jewish people obligated to this land?!!
Go home, Colonial Arabic speaking settler-occupier upon our Jewish land! No amount of Colonial Arab-European history revisionism will *ever* erase our Indigenous Jewish presence upon our Levant land. We Jews are the last remaining surviving descendants of the people/tribes of Canaan. And we are decolonized now, since 1948, our fourth attempt to decolonize from Arab-European Colonial racist settler-occupations of our Indigenous Judean land.
Learn something factual in life, then I might take you seriously, Arab Colonizer! Until then, bye troll for Allah-Christ-Marx dominionism upon all Indigenous Peoples’ lands. … Seriously? “600 years” in what you foreigners call “Palestine.” LOL! That’s like European settler-occupiers claiming “400 years” on the continent that they named “America.” … The Jewish people have had a daily presence upon our ancestral land of Israel for over 3,300 years.
I think that we Jews Indigenous to Judea-Samaria will survive all your Arab-European attempts to steal our land, culture, and identity! What do you think, Colonizer? (Hence, why we Jews don’t need to curse you all, Colonial Arabs-Europeans. We just need to stay militarized, until you all stop trying to land thieve. Isn’t theft a sin against Allah?!)
Only racist Colonizers for Allah-Christ-Marx dominionism upon all Indigenous Peoples’ lands repeatedly curse at the Indigenous Peoples of the land for surviving their colonization. Just saying.
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Archived records in the USA show clearly that after the settler-occupying European “Americans” lost their Civil War to continue violently oppressing minorities upon Indigenous Peoples’ lands, being the supremacist majority, they rewrote their history to glorify their benevolence and to erase the real reason that they lost control of their colonized world – the rebellious enslaved blacks and their few northern white allies.
Likewise, archived records in the Middle East show clearly that after the settler-occupying Arab “Palestinians” lost their “Civil War” to continue violently oppressing the minority of the Levant land, the indigenous Jewish families of the Levant and Southwest Asia, being formerly the supremacist majority, they rewrote their history to glorify their Arab benevolence and to erase the real reason that they lost control of their colonized world – the rebellious anti-Colonial Jewish dhimmi (sub-class “infidels”), who spent decades restoring our land and waters sovereignty upon Judea-Samaria, our ancestral land, in preparation for Zionism (restored self-sovereignty).
The lesson in both of these historical accounts is this: After losing control of their world, in fear of retribution for their sins against minority/indigenous humanity and in hatred for history’s decision that they must change, the leaders of both the European “American” and the Arab “Palestinian” peoples decided to outright lie to themselves as to what this regional history actually is. This is why *both* white “Americans” and Arab “Palestinians” are raised generation after generation, since their failed supremacy, to believe in a fictional history about themselves. And no amount of factual contrary evidence is enough for most of them, for they cannot be wrong!
To this day, both celebrate publicly their fictitious accounts of history and wave their supremacist flags proudly. But, thankfully, there is hope for the minority/Indigenous in these European-Arab colonized worlds! There are “American” land-squatters who do understand their tragic racist history upon the land, and try to teach it to other “Americans.” And, likewise, there are “Palestinian” land-squatters who do understand their tragic racist history upon the land, and try to teach it to other “Palestinians.” Sadly, because of cultural differences between these two Colonizers of Indigenous Peoples’ lands for Christ-Allah and kings-caliphates, the threat of violent danger to openly and publicly teaching the historical truth is far more deadlier for the “Palestinian,” than for the “American.”
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