How to Grow an Etrog Rabbi Ariel Rackovsky The Jewish Center 5771 Last year, shortly before Sukkos, a little boy came to the modest apartment of Rabbi Yechiel Michel Stern, the Rabbi of the Ezrat Torah neighborhood in Jerusalem for the past 40 years, to show him the Esrog he had just purchased. Rabbi Stern has authored 80 books on numerous halachic subjects, but is best known for his expertise in the Arba Minim, the four species we wave over the holiday of Sukkos. Indeed, he literally wrote the book on the subject, an illustrated volume that is the product of countless hours spent researching at the library of Hebrew University, and meetings with numerous prominent botanists, and which is the companion of every Yeshiva student who ventures out in search of the elusive perfect Esrog. Each year hundreds of people who come to Rabbi Stern’s home in the days and weeks leading up to Sukkos, seeking his opinion- a service he provides at no cost. So valuable is Rabbi Stern’s opinion about the kosher status of an Esrog that, according to an article about Rabbi Stern recently published in Haaretz, several Esrog dealers will grant a refund- sometimes of several hundreds of shekels- to any customer who provides a letter signed by Rabbi Stern that it is not Kosher. It is safe to say that Rabbi Stern’s own personal Esrog conforms to the highest standards of beauty and the strictest standards of Kashrus. When this young boy brought his Esrog to Rabbi Stern, he treated him with the same respect and dignity he would any other customer, and took a look at the Esrog that the young boy had purchased. Unfortunately, it was not kosher. Crestfallen, the boy left, returning a few hours later with another one. Rabbi Stern took a look at this one, and delivered the bad news- it, too, was unkosher. Unfazed, the boy returned a third time, but his luck was no better. Rabbi Stern began to suspect that 1 something was amiss, and asked the boy why he was the one who was going to buy them. Perhaps, he asked the boy, it might be a good idea to call his father to help him out? The boy replied that his father had died three months earlier. Rabbi Stern went to a back room and took out his own beautiful new Lulav and Esrog, and gave them to the boy. The Esrog has captured such a central role in our Sukkos psyche; people spend incredible amounts to procure an exquisite one, and there are so many different rules and intricacies concerning the kashrus of an Esrog. It’s why the young boy came back to Rabbi Stern three times, and it’s why Rabbi Stern spends so much of his time inspecting Esrogim- and why he felt that boy’s intense pain, all bound up in one small citrus fruit. If you think about it, it’s somewhat odd, because the Torah never tells us that it wants us to take an Esrog each day of Sukkos; that is found in the Oral tradition. All the Torah tells us is: ‫ויקרא פרק כג‬ ‫)מ( ולקחתם לכם ביום הראשון פרי עץ הדר כפת תמרים וענף עץ עבת וערבי נחל‬ :‫ושמחתם לפני יקוק אלהיכם שבעת ימים‬ Usually, the Torah is not shy about naming fruits; indeed, in the other three species, there is no dispute as to what the Torah means, and in describing the fruits unique to the land of Israel, the Torah states what they are explicitly. So why does the Torah conceal the identity of the Esrog? Perhaps an answer can be found in the Talmud’s descriptions of the Esrog. The Talmud (Sukkah 35a) attempts to derive from the Torah’s text that the fruit we hold in our hands every morning this week is, indeed, the Esrog that we know about, one of the varieties of the Citrus Medica. However, instead of stating outright what it is, the Talmud uses the 2 words ‫ הדר‬in the verse to describe the defining features of the Esrog- as if they, rather than its actual identity, are the most important aspect of it, and are just as symbolic as the fruit itself. ‫תלמוד בבלי מסכת סוכה דף לה עמוד א‬ .‫ הוי אומר זה אתרוג‬,‫ עץ שטעם עצו ופריו שוה‬- ‫ פרי עץ הדר‬+‫ויקרא כג‬+ :‫תנו רבנן‬ The first defining feature mentioned is that the wood and the fruit have the same taste. This is actually an accurate description of the Etrog tree, and actually any citrus tree; if you cut a branch in half, it has the same taste as the albedo, or the white part of the skin of the Esrog. ‫ הכי נמי‬,‫ תמימים ובעלי מומין‬,‫ יש בו גדולים וקטנים‬- ‫ מה דיר זה‬,‫ אל תקרי הדר אלא הדיר‬:‫רבי אומר‬ ‫ אטו שאר פירות לית בהו גדולים וקטנים תמימים‬- .‫ יש בו גדולים וקטנים תמימים ובעלי מומין‬‫ אל תקרי הדר‬:‫ רבי אבהו אמר‬.‫ עד שבאין קטנים עדיין גדולים קיימים‬:‫ אלא הכי קאמר‬- ?‫ובעלי מומין‬ .‫ דבר שדר באילנו משנה לשנה‬- (‫אלא )הדר‬ The Talmud then offers two different, yet related explanations. Rebbi explains that the defining feature of the Esrog is that new fruits will grow on the tree while old ones are still on it, and Rabbi Abahu explains that the defining feature of the Esrog is that it can live on a tree from year to year. Both of these are also accurate descriptions of an Esrog, If you leave it on the tree for longer than one growing season, it will stay there while younger fruits come in the following year, and it will not rot; indeed, an Esrog left to its own devices can grow to a huge size, weighing up to 10 lbs. ‫ שכן בלשון יווני קורין למים‬+[‫ ]הדור‬:‫מסורת הש"ס‬+ ,(‫ אל תקרי הדר אלא )אידור‬:‫בן עזאי אומר‬ .‫ הוי אומר זה אתרוג‬- ‫ ואיזו היא שגדל על כל מים‬+[‫ ]הדור‬:‫מסורת הש"ס‬+ (‫)אידור‬ The final explanation, offered by, is that the Esrog tree requires both irrigation and precipitation to grow. Indeed, the Esrog tree is extremely sensitive, and the prohibition of 3 using an esrog from a grafted tree means that extra care must be taken to ensure its vitality and robustness. Indeed, this year Israel was struck by an unusually severe dry season, and the Esrog crops suffered as a result. If all these three explanations describe the same fruit, what is the common theme? In the literature of Chazal, each one of the four species represents a different kind of Jew, with the Esrog famously representing the kind of Jew who performs positive deeds and studies Torah. ‫ויקרא רבה )וילנא( פרשה ל‬ ‫ד"א פרי עץ הדר אלו ישראל מה אתרוג זה יש בו טעם ויש בו ריח כך ישראל יש בהם בני אדם שיש‬ ‫בהם תורה ויש בהם מעשים טובים‬ These descriptions of the defining features of an esrog certainly teach us how to identify an Esrog, but even more than that, they teach us how to grow the kind of Jew an Esrog represents. The first ingredient into cultivating an Esrog is that the tree and the fruit must taste the same. The only way to produce beautiful fruit is if we model the values and aspirations ourselves that we hold for our “products,” whether that product is our children, or the many people who call our community and the Jewish Center their spiritual home. It is easy to think that the character of our community exists regardless of our involvement, but it simply isn’t true; we can only be part of a full service shul if we go to minyan ourselves, we can only be a community of learning, and where learning is important, if we all attend Torah classes and bring Torah into our homes, and we can only be 4 considered a warm, welcoming community if everyone undertakes to open their homes and hearts to people both from within and without. But that is not all; In order to create an Etrog community, there must be an intergenerational component as well. It is no accident that the same word used to describe the Esrog- ‫הדר‬- is the word found in the passuk ‫והדרת פני זקן‬, and you shall honor the face of an elder. Last year, on a visit to my grandmother in Israel, my mother took her on a tour of Jerusalem. Now, both my grandmother and my mother- and six generations before that- grew up in Jerusalem, and indeed, my grandmother lived there until three years ago, when she moved to live near my Uncle in Rechovot. But this was not just any tour; it was one in which my mother recorded and photographed my grandmother talking about, and visiting, the sites of her childhood: Battei Broydeh, the housing complex where my greatgrandparents lived until they were given a small apartment in the adjacent Knesset Heiser, which was also on the tour. They visited the shul where they davened as children, and saw the home of my great grandfather’s dear friend, Rav Aryeh Levine, who lived adjacent to my great-great grandfather, Rav Chaim Mann. They went through the alleyways where my grandmother and her eight siblings played as children, and the school my grandmother went to as a young girl with her many classmates, with whom she still maintains a close connection. Most people never get to these neighborhoods, many of which have not changed much in seven to eight decades, and if they do, they pass right through them, not knowing the history they contain- particularly considering the ever-dwindling number of people who grew up in Jerusalem during the British Mandate. And that is just our family’s experience, in the holiest city in the world. There 5 is so much our young people can learn about history and tradition from people who grew up here in The Jewish Center, and beyond that, in the ever evolving Jewish neighborhoods of New York, like right here on the West Side, or Boro Park or Crown Heights or in any other city, for that matter. But as much as our younger members need to learn from older members who transmit the tradition, we also need our younger members, who may have educational opportunities and background that was not available to our older members, to create the Esrog community- a community in which the younger is learning from, and teaching the older one. Finally, in order to create an Esrog community, we have to make sure it is ‫דר על כל מים‬heavily watered, with water representing Torah throughout Tanach and the literature of Chazal. Growing an actual Esrog takes time, effort and constant vigilance and watering in order to bear beautiful fruit and sturdy trees; how much more so growing an Esrog community. In order to create beautiful fruit, we must constantly monitor it carefully and lovingly, to make sure it is always watered with the timeless yet timely values of the Torah, and that there is never a dry season, in which our passion and love of Judaism evaporates, causing severe damage to our product. As we hold and admire our Esrog proudly this year, let us reflect on its symbolism, so we can feel the same pride and admiration about our Esrog community as well. 6