rodent – Dave's Gone By

Subject: Rabbi Sol reflects on what we can learn from a viral raccoon.

This Rabbinical Reflection first aired July 25, 2026 on the “Dave’s Gone By” video podcast program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.

Rabbi Sol’s Rabbinical Reflections air on the long-running Dave’s Gone By program (davesgoneby.com) and are also archived on the Rebbe’s blog, Shalomdammit.com.

Rabbi Sol is also the creator of the stage shows, “Shalom Dammit! An Evening with Rabbi Sol Solomon” and “Hate Speech…With Love: Another Evening with Rabbi Sol Solomon.”

RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #212 (7/25/2026): Jimothy

Shalom, Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon, with a Rabbinical Reflection for late July 2026.

What happy things occurred this year to take our minds off the miserable state of the world? The New York Knicks? America doing okeedoke in FIFA? Travis Kelce making an honest woman of Taylor Swift? Democrats magically realizing that a lech with a Nazi tattoo might not be the best Senatorial candidate – even for progressives? I mean, they wanted a socialist, but a National Socialist?

All of those were bright spots in a brown year. The latest distraction from doomsday may not be the most dramatic, but it is the cutest. Last week on social media, a raccoon lumbering across backyards in Seattle, went viral. In fact, people thought the animal was viral because he was a mess. A hunchback with a foreshortened spine, the beast – lovingly nicknamed “Jimothy” – looked like a cross between a squirrel and a midget gorilla. And yet, although goofy looking, this rodent with a pudgy body and a stubby tail was doing everything raccoons normally do – sneaking around, foraging, forcing suburbanites to double bag their garbage.

And here lies the conundrum of Jimothy. Raccoons are viewed as a nuisance. They’re beautiful creatures, but in your backyard or your garage or, God forbid, your chimney, that’s a call to pest control. And don’t let children go near them `cause they could be rabid. Your garden-variety raccoon is the last thing you want to see in your garden.

Except when you have an abnormal, deformed, genetically fucked-up raccoon – then it’s love. Everywhere, Jimothy t-shirts, tattoos, murals, glass figurines! The University of Washington already has a mascot so they couldn’t adopt him, so they just gave him an honorary doctorate. (Not really, but check their Instagram.)

So, yes, people are besotted with this trash panda because he’s beating the odds. He’s living his best raccoon life despite being shaped like Danny DeVito. Jimothy’s deformity, his homeliness – which would ordinarily set off a Darwinian “ugh” – instead prompts a desire to mother and protect him.

So this got me thinking (which with me is always dangerous). What can Jews learn from Jimothy? I realize our problem is we’ve become too normal. We’re so assimilated, so taken for granted for blending in, people feel no guilt for hating us. Jews hold major positions in law, entertainment, medicine, technology. We have physically gorgeous actors and actresses on TV and in movies. And we may not own all the banks, but we probably own the buildings the banks are in.

Despite our tiny population, Jews are major players in every aspect of the world stage, which gives everyone from good-ol’-boy bigots to social-justice sophomores carte blanche to harangue us with insults, falsehoods, and blame. When Israel hit back after October 7th, the world went, “What??? The underdog isn’t supposed to take brutal revenge! If you’re not cowering in the corner, you must be the bad guys. Not to mention Christ killers.”

So, how do we Jews counteract this latest wave of anti-us-ism? Why not go the Jimothy route? Instead of being attractive, educated, erudite, cultural, influential, and basically normal, maybe it’s time for Jews to lean into the old stereotypes. Lose the attributes that have helped us pass – and surpass.

We all want to be Paul Newman, but it’s safer to be Arnold Stang. Why? People who fear commonplace raccoons adore Jimothy because he’s a harmless freak. Maybe we Jews should grow our noses out, run around with scraggly beards and smelly old coats, cough and limp and crap ourselves, and get partial lobotomies to make us retarded. And then we approach our enemies, with Sarah McLachlan music playing behind us, and say (retarded voice), “Shalom! Look how helpless and wretched we are. Won’t you let us live in peace in our own widdle country? Think of us as the Moo Deng of the Middle East.”

Now, granted. That approach might backfire. Zohran Mamdani might round up all the New York Hebes and throw `em in zoos. But just maybe, if we can convince our foes to view us as pathetic Jimothies instead of powerful Jews, perhaps we’ll dodge the next pogrom.

This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches, in Great Neck, New York. Jim-jimothy, Jim-jimothy, jim-jim-jeroo.

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Tag: rodent

Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection #212 (7/25/2026): JIMOTHY