Israel is not an etrog. It doesn’t have to be flawless to be legitimate.

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(RNS) — We are now at the very end of the season of Jewish introspection — as if that ever really ends.

On Yom Kippur, we searched our deeds and we lifted them up to God. And then, we went on the annual shopping expedition for the lulav and etrog of Sukkot. Traditional Jews would go to the markets, holding the citrons up to the light, turning them slowly, checking the pitam at the top, and searching for the faintest dark speck that would render them not kosher.

Which brings us to a cartoon that has been floating around social media over the past week — its creator is unknown, at least to me.

In it, a giant etrog sits at a desk. It is examining an Orthodox man intensely, hunting for defects. On the wall hangs a framed portrait of an ancestral etrog in a black hat and a dark suit, presiding over the whole operation like a grandfather who once ran the family business.

So, how does it feel, o pious Jew, when the fruit does the squinting? How well could that Jew hold up to such scrutiny?

Replace the etrog in that cartoon with the world, and replace the little Hasid being scrutinized with…