All it took was one picture and one word, summed up in one tweet, for the internet to explode.
The modern Three-Headed Cerberus was on its way to America's very own West Virginian chasm to the underworld, where a beanie-clad Hermes would serve as their protector and guide to mainstream audiences (if palms were greased with a few super chats, of course). They would be guests on episode #665 of the Timcast IRL podcast, their biggest to date. The numbered episode certainly seemed to promise that it would live up to its gematria of גהנום עלי אדמות (Hell on Earth).
It would be very tempting to say the show went off the rails early on, but that would imply it was on rails at some point. Within two minutes, segueing from a completely unrelated topic, Ye launched into a tired tirade about how Jews are in control of the banks and entertainment, hinted that Africans are the real Israelites, that Jews changed the history books in America, and that American Presidents all have Jewish handlers to control them. And things only got worse from there.
His comments that he's "the only American that we know who deserves to run the country" and a "vessel for G-d" brings to mind Bill Burr's quip that if you put Kanye's ego into a white man, he'd soon be talking about invading Austria to retake Vienna for Deutschland.
One thing differentiated this diatribe from the average rant against Jews by edgy internet streamers, and it was not the much larger audience or that it was not broadcasted from a basement or garage. It became very clear early on that Kanye is also genuinely in the grip of a mental health crisis. His earlier claims might have been hateful, but plenty of sane individuals will parrot, spout or even conceive of evil lies that they may or may not fully believe.
Alongside the old hateful tropes, he exhibited classic signs of delusion/paranoia, fragmented speech patterns, and scattered thoughts. A few choice quotes & allegations:
The Jews & 'the banks' tried to have him arrested that morning over unpaid taxes.
The Zionists had put "a plant named Gabby that was obviously CIA" to tank and/or control his fashion career, as they do with other celebrities.
He discovered she was CIA because she "worked in fashion but didn't know how to dress."
His gym trainer is an MK Ultra Canadian military spy.
He claims that he was wrongly diagnosed and refuses to take his medication.
He claims that the reason why he won’t take his medication is because his doctors would “Michael Jackson” him (meaning: murdered under cover of an accident).
Is often thinking “seven thoughts at the same time” and has trouble getting them all out.
He compared himself to MLK and Malcom X, and compared what Jews went through during the Holocaust with his own suffering.
After receiving the lightest of pushbacks against his delusions, he huffed, puffed, and walked off the set.
West of Eden
If the man truly is in the midst of a mental health crisis, he needs help and some measure of compassion. If the man is sane, on the other hand, his self-created exile from society and economic destruction is entirely upon his head and thoroughly deserved. His latest antics certainly seems to point towards the former.
That's not to say that everything he said is entirely wrong. It’s wholly possible that his bank accounts have been frozen by the IRS if he truly owes over $50m of unpaid taxes. His personal trainer was in the Canadian military at some point. Doctors certainly did not treat Michael Jackson properly, criminally so. As far as Gabby, maybe she doesn't know how to dress, but as anyone who has seen the clothes designed by Ye can attest, his definition of dressing well seems to be homeless chic, so we will have to reserve judgment on this one.
Still, for every kernel of truth stated by Kanye, there are layers upon layers of delusions, conspiracies, and lies surrounding them. If you relied only on his tweets, TMZ clips, and this podcast appearance, you might very well believe that this man is having a full-blown manic episode and needs to be 5150'ed as soon as possible. After all, the only line separating his rantings from those of a homeless man screaming at train passengers seems to be those frozen bank accounts. And based on his clothes, it’d be very easy to confuse him with the latter.
So we have to ask ourselves: Is this so?
The beginning of an answer can be found in the very same podcast, soon after the trio stormed off. Looking back on what had just happened, Tim Pool and his co-host lamented that they should have taped the pre-show. They went on about how they had talked for a full hour about religion, philosophy, politics, and so on, and it had been a perfectly cordial and regular discussion. It was only when the conversation went live and touched on Jews that things took an erratic turn. Otherwise, Kanye seemed completely “chill” and normal.
The plot thickens. It seems we are not dealing with a man who is in the midst of a full blown manic or psychotic break. Yet we are not dealing with someone who is entirely sane or healthy either. How do we deal with a man who is seemingly of sound mind in day-to-day interactions, yet in one area of his life proves to be quite mentally ill? How do we deal with the intersection of both bigotry and insanity?
For the beginning of an answer, let us take a trip back to 1766.
The Wedding of the (18th) Century
Germany, August 1766. A young man named Isaac Neiberg and a young woman named Leah Gunzhausen are about to get married. Following their engagement a few months earlier, the scene has been set for a perfect wedding. The groom-to-be has made the trek from Mannheim to Bonn to visit his fiancée, and all appears well. On Friday the 8th, Leah and her parents arrive in Mannheim to join the Neiberg family and prepare for the wedding on the following Tuesday. Amongst the traveling entourage is Rabbi Aron Shimon Copenhagen, the bride-to-be's cousin.
While the previous night had passed without incident, Isaac created quite a scene on Shabbat morning. Muttering to himself, agitated, he was pacing up and down the room while unwilling to calm down or listen to anyone. Eventually, Isaac explained that he was upset over a new apartment that his father had promised him as a gift after the wedding but had given to his sister and new husband instead. Even though another apartment had been promised to them as a replacement, it would simply be too small for a budding new family and their future children.
Negotiations between both families were launched, the original deal was honored, and Isaac calmed down. The wedding proceeded as planned. Isaac gave a speech, participated in multiple meals as the guest of honor, and seemed perfectly normal. That is, until the next Shabbat when Isaac was nowhere to be found, and neither was a large sum of money. The families panicked and hired a search party as they themselves went to look for Isaac. Eventually, the missing newlywed was found hiding in the farmhouse of a non-Jew 4 hours away from Mannheim, tucked away under hay. He was forcibly brought back, complaining the whole way about how government agents were intent on killing him.
A mediator was called, a decision was made, and soon the new couple would move to Bonn to stay with Leah's family. It seemed that everything was finally back on track… until it wasn't. Leah's family and the married couple arrived just before Friday evening; by all accounts, it was a very uneventful Shabbat. Yet, as soon as it ended, Isaac sent for Rabbi Copenhagen to arrange a divorce for him and Leah. The Rabbi, understandably confounded at the request, asked Isaac to explain why he would request such a thing. The soon-to-be-divorced newlywed explained that he had to leave Germany as his life was in grave danger. His enemies were closing in on him, and if he didn’t leave the country, they would kill him and disposed of his body, thus Leah would be left an agunah. Either way, better to divorce and make sure she could remarry than to take a chance. Rabbi Copenhagen told him to sleep on it as he discussed with the bride's family what their options were. Isaac agreed.
The next day, the consensus was that it was best to go ahead with the divorce. Isaac, in the meantime, had decided he must leave for London as quickly as possible, and the divorce could not be officiated in Bonn; it would have to be completed on the way. They agreed that they would stop in the small border town of Cleves on the way to Hamburg’s port. The Rabbi in charge was a respected scholar, and he would be the one to deal with the highly unusual circumstances. Everyone agreed he was more than qualified to produce a legally valid divorce document for them.
The next day, the family arrived in Cleves and immediately proceeded to the home of Rabbi Lipschuetz. The unexpected delegation and highly irregular request shocked the Rabbi, but Isaac was adamant that this was what he wanted. According to the Rabbi, he was lucid and explained himself coherently and cogently; nothing in his behavior suggested any insanity whatsoever. The documents were written, witnesses summoned, the get exchanged, and Leah and Isaac were pronounced newly divorced. The next day they each left on their separate ways.
Upon hearing the news, Isaac's family was livid. They felt that Leah's family had taken advantage of Isaac's vulnerable mental state to benefit financially as much as possible from the divorce arrangements. They contacted a Rabbi to annul the divorce, who himself reached out to the famed Frankfurt Rabbinical court. Multiple reasons to cancel the divorce were raised: Was he in the midst of a mental breakdown? Was it a chronic condition? Was his life genuinely in danger? The central claim was that Rabbi Lipschuetz must have been utterly unaware of the sequence of events when he agreed to give the get, and as a result, should be considered invalid.
What should have been a simple divorce procedure then exploded into an international affair whose ramifications spanned almost a century of controversy, with Rabbis from all over the Continent (and beyond) getting involved, all responding with their various opinions as to whether the get was valid in the first place or whether the Rabbis of Frankfurt had any right to declare it invalid after the fact.
The denouement and further legal ramifications of the Get of Cleves are far outside of this piece’s scope. The case, however, raised a very salient question: How do we deal with a man possibly alternating between sanity and insanity? Or, in our case: How do you differentiate between what is the result of bigotry and what is the result of mental illness?
A Triad of Folly
The Gemara (Chagiga 3b) gives four categories of behavior that determine who is a shoteh, a mentally incapable person. They are 1) one who goes out alone at night, 2) one who spends the night at a cemetery, 3) one who tears his clothes, and 4) one who destroys all that is given to him.
The Talmud, first and foremost, is interested in diagnosing someone based on symptoms and observable behavior rather than what causes the behavior to happen, whether pathos or abnormal cognition.
In modern terms, we would classify the shoteh as a psychotic individual, or at the very least, a person amid a psychotic crisis and, therefore, unable to distinguish fiction from reality. When a psychotic individual ([ed: from now on will refer to either a permanently psychotic individual or someone suffering from a temporarily psychotic episode) is facing a tangible reality, his distorted perception and thoughts will lead him to incorrect conclusions about this objective external reality even in the face of clear evidence to the contrary. They will be unable to function appropriately within a realm of normalcy as a result.
A few key principles listed by the Talmud include that 1) Non-normative behavior is not necessarily sufficient evidence to qualify one as a shoteh by itself if there's a rational basis for behaving this way, and 2) Irrational behavior limited in scope to one area is, on the other hand, enough to qualify one as a shoteh.
The Rambam, in Hilchot Edut 9:9, writes that a person is categorized as such not only when he walks around without clothes, breaks utensils, or throws stones, but anyone who is seen as mentally deranged as a result of his mind being constantly confused concerning some matter, even though he is not confused about other issues, is classified amongst the shotim. From this, we see that the criteria listed by the Talmud are not restricted to those four categories of behavior but rather include any erratic or irrational behavior unsupported by a rational basis or mental disorientation that prevents him from perceiving between contradictory matters or does not comprehend reality as others do, even when restricted to a single domain.
Legally, the concept of shoteh is divided into three subcategories: They are:
Shoteh Gamur - Completely psychotic at all times. (e.g., paranoid schizophrenia, advanced Alzheimer's)
Itim chalim itim shoteh - Sometimes insane, sometimes sane. (e.g., bipolar disorder)
Shoteh le-davar echad - Psychotic regarding a single issue. (e.g., Delusional Disorder)
The interest here is not in a clinical definition of who is mentally impaired. Here, it is a legal question centred on when is he to be held accountable for his actions, when is he not held accountable, and so forth. The classification of shoteh in itself is a matter of Jewish law, as it is not a doctor who imposes the label. Rather, the Beit Din, a Jewish court composed of three Judges apt to make decisions on the matter, proclaims the final verdict.
Broadly speaking, a complete shoteh is considered utterly devoid of personal responsibilities. He is not judged responsible for his actions and, as a result, is not even punished for murder in certain situations. There are also questions about whether a person in a sane state of mind committed murder and subsequently became a shoteh and whether they would be put to death while in this psychotic state. He, therefore, is also exempt from any responsibilities and religious duties.
For example, Rav Moshe Feinstein zt" l passed a Rabbinical judgment that if a man in a state of shoteh had already eaten matzah on Passover and his mental state returned to normalcy, he would be considered obligated to eat matzah so to fulfill the mitzvah, even though he had previously partaken of it in his prior condition. Then, he was not obligated and did not fulfill the commandment; now, he is obligated and must fulfill it. This is based on the Talmud in Rosh HaShana (28a).
Am I My Brother’s Keeper?
It is clear that the shoteh is devoid of obligations or responsibilities, but what are our obligations and responsibilities towards him?
The Talmud in Eruvin (41b) mentions that three things cause a person to act against his own will and the will of His maker, one of which is mental illness. The Sages then asks: what are the practical legal ramifications of this? Not only is the person not considered responsible for his prior actions, but it also teaches us that one is to pray and beseech mercy from the Creator for people who suffer from those problems.
Berachot 5b states, "A prisoner cannot free himself from prison." A shoteh will not be able to help himself, and therefore they must be given help. Sometimes, assistance must be forced on them by the courts.
The Rambam in his Mishneh Torah (Hilchot Mechirah 29:4) states that no sale or purchase that involves a mentally incapable or emotionally unstable individual is binding, and neither are the gifts that he gives. Instead, the court must appoint a guardian for such a person, just as it appoints guardians for minors.
The Tzitz Eliezer (R'Eliezer Waldenberg zt" l) ruled in his Sheilot u'Teshuvot (12:18:8) that a mentally ill person who fully heals from his illness has to say the benediction of HaGomel, which is recited when someone was saved from a life-threatening situation. Though mental illness does not necessarily lead to a life-threatening situation, it is still such a life-impairing situation that a man with a mental illness who was fully healed is put in the same category as a man who was in a life-threatening situation who was fully healed.
The Aruch HaShulchan rules (156:11) that if you've been slighted by a friend and you do not want him to know he hurt you because he's either a "foolish sinner" or his mind is confused, it is pious to forgive him in your heart, and neither hate him nor rebuke him. It continues on saying that the Torah is only strict except when the foolish friend acts out of hatred.
The quantity of legal literature on this subject is staggering, but three points come up over and over:
We must have compassion for them.
We must insure that they have handlers to make sure they do not enhance in self-destructive behavior.
Mental illness does not excuse hatred.
Two very different hosts
Tim Pool has guests and Kanye parasites.
I will be the first to admit that I initially wrongfully dismissed the infamous "Deathcon 3" tweet. My somewhat cynical thinking was that this would turn into the same old dance that happens every time a celebrity or politician makes an antisemitic statement.
Step 1: Radio silence as the PR firm hired to clean the mess up assesses the situation.
Step 2: A carefully crafted statement about how none of it was meant with ill will is published.
Step 3a: If benign enough, jump to Step 5.
Step 3b: If the incident is too bad to sidestep, blame stress, substance abuse, divorce, or mental illness.
Step 4: Time off the limelight (length determined based on how egregious the statements were).
Step 5: Meeting(s) with activists/Rabbis/visiting a Holocaust museum, depending on what was said.
Step 6: Possible donation to a Jewish foundation
Step 7: Antisemitism absolved! Nothing happened! We're all good!
Whether it's Mel Gibson, Whoopi Goldberg, or the Squad, this is the scripted waltz that everyone dances to; it allows everyone to save face and safeguards the illusionary equilibrium that leaves America thinking that it is not plagued with antisemitism. This is something especially important for those who live in the Upper East Side or Beverly Hills. It's not like the unprecedented levels of hate crimes, ranging from vandalism to daily assaults and downright murders of Orthodox Jews, are ever cause for national concern. No #StopOrthodoxHate campaigns for that lot.
In a surprising twist, Kanye decided to start flailing about and do the running man instead of sticking to the well-worn script. Things began to spiral out of control, and after a few more outbursts, brands and businesses realized there was no putting the genie back in the bottle; it was time to cut loose. It would be false to say that antisemitism lost him all of those contracts and according to him up to 2 billion in net worth; it was the unpredictability and lack of reining his antics in that did it. If he had decided to act more like Nick Cannon and less like his dimwit brother Loose, Adidas would still be selling Yeezys, and he'd still be part of the Nine Zeros club. So, what happened?
It turns out that the underlying reason to all that's been happening over the last month was inadvertently given over by Ye during his very brief Timcast appearance. About 13:00 minutes in, he mentioned that from the age of 24, he had been surrounded by handlers including his mother, and that today he was finally freed from all of them and now learning how to run his business on his own. In other words, there is no one left to say no, he’s surrounded by a bunch of ye men who indulge his every whim as they cash his pay checks. As if this wasn't bad enough, due to his association with Trump he was subsequent blacklisting by almost all celebrities or others he could consider as peers (or at the very least operating in the same waters as he does). It robbed him of most genuine social outlets. Now rid of both genuine friends and handlers, Kanye is almost entirely isolated, with nary a soul willing to spend time with him that doesn’t also want something from him. This is the perfect environment for parasites to attach themselves to him.
5150s & Heartbreaks
A man in the grips of a psychotic episode who believes that THEY are after him is nothing new. THEY can be anything. The government, the alphabet agencies, the reptilians, aliens, Catholics, the next door neighbors, pigeons or robot squirrels, and, yes, even the Jews. However, it is not a symptom of a psychotic episode to spend hours upon hours reading antisemitic material, for years on end. It is not part of normative mental illness to hang out with Farrakhan (though I don’t doubt he attracts more than his share of disturbed individuals). It is not due to a chemical imbalance in one’s brain that you absorbs so much Nation of Islam and Black Hebrew Israelites material that you can rattle most of their greatest hits off of the top of your head.
With Kanye, we have the worst of both worlds: A man who is truly hateful, but also a man who is also deeply sick. Any doubts of simply how far gone he is will evaporate after watching a few minutes of his December 1st Alex Jones Show appearance.
This is a man whose brain does not process information the way normal people do. A man who destroys everything that he’s being given. A man who acts in a way where there is no rational basis for his actions. This is someone who, without a doubt, would qualify as a shoteh. If there’s such a thing as the proverbial line between genius and madness, it has long been crossed by Kanye. He is a sick man on a desperate self-destructive path, and it would not be surprising if he was a danger to either himself or others in the very near future.
Jewish law dictates that a man like this must be appointed a guardian. It is clear that this is exactly what Kanye needs. Antisemitism is not the reason why; psychotic behavior is. No amount of lithium will rid his heart of the hate raging inside. Even if the proper balance of medication manages to stop his delusions and persecution complex, they won’t get rid of his antisemitism.
It doesn’t matter. In face of his illness, his hatred is irrelevant. Before he further wrecks his career and personal life, he must be sat down preferably by people who genuinely care, and given the help that he needs. We’ve gone from him making mild and barely coherent antisemitic statements to wearing a full-on face mask, using a butterfly net as a puppet and telling the world that he walks around his neighborhood singsonging about the potential different ways the Clintons will soon use to kill him.
This does not excuse his antisemitism one bit, but before any further reckoning, the man needs to possibly be hospitalized, even against his will. When he is better and in possession of at least most of his faculties, then it might be appropriate to rehash the subject. Right now is not time for Spotify to ban his music, Apple to remove his albums or YouTube to delete his music videos. A mentally ill man who feels he has nothing to lose is very dangerous; how much more so when he has Kanye’s resources. It’s time for a series of doctor to figure out what is the best medication to deal with his condition, and for people handling his career to get rid of the disgusting parasites who have leeched onto him.
And for goodness’s sake, can we please hire doctors and handlers with names like Ramesh, Hu Jintao or Seamus Finnegan this time around?
Excellent as always.