Etrog: How A Chinese Fruit Became a Jewish Symbol

By David Z. Moster

Every year before the holiday of Sukkot, Jews all around the world purchase an etrog—a lemon-like fruit—to participate in the holiday ritual. In this book, David Z. Moster tracks the etrog from its evolutionary home in Yunnan, China, to the lands of India, Iran, and finally Israel, where it became integral to the Jewish celebration of Sukkot during the Second Temple period. Moster explains what Sukkot was like before and after the arrival of the etrog, and why the etrog’s identification as the “choice tree fruit” of Leviticus 23:40 was by no means predetermined. He also demonstrates that once the fruit became associated with the holiday of Sukkot, it began to appear everywhere in Jewish art during the Roman and Byzantine periods, and eventually became a symbol for all the fruits of the land, and perhaps even the Jewish people as a whole.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
• Release date: Apr 25, 2018
• ISBN: 9783319737362

Book preview

© The Author(s) 2018

David Z. MosterEtroghttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73736-2_1

1. Introduction

David Z. Moster¹ 

(1)

The Institute of Biblical Culture, Yonkers, NY, USA

Abstract

Moster introduces the etrog by describing the sights and scents of an etrog market just before the holiday of Sukkot (Tabernacles). After relating his particular interest in the fruit, which is also known as the citron or Citrus medica, Moster explains the etrog’s importance to Jews in both the ancient and modern worlds. He next outlines the contents of the book and situates his writing in the context of the field of citrus studies, which began more than eight centuries ago. Moster ends the introduction with a note regarding the terminology of ancient lands that are contested today, especially the land of Israel/Palestine.

Keywords

Etrog Citrus medica CitronSukkotCitrusBotany

There is nothing quite like the experience of picking out an etrog (אתרוג) for the holiday of Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles). Every year around late September, I find myself in one of the etrog markets that pop up in Jewish neighborhoods around the world (see Fig. 1.1). Some of the markets are expansive and bustling bazaars, while others are small operations run out of the trunk of a seller’s car. Etrogim (the plural of etrog) might be separated by shape, size , color , or country of origin, but they are most usually separated by price . Inexpensive etrogim can be bought for around 12 dollars but the sky is the limit for the choicest ones, which usually start at a few hundred dollars apiece (see Fig. 1.2). The most expensive etrogim in New York City in 2017, for example, cost between one and two thousand dollars.

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Fig. 1.1

An etrog market on the streets of Brooklyn, New York

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Fig. 1.2

A $345 etrog for sale in Brooklyn, New York

For me, choosing an etrog is highly personal; so I never get too impressed by the subjective price tags created by the merchants. I peruse the market until I find a fruit with an enticing shape, an energetic yellow hue, a solid firm grip, and, most importantly, a strong citrusy fragrance . Before entering the market, there is no way of telling which one of the hundreds of fruits will appeal to me—it just happens on its own. While the sights, sounds, feels, and aromas of the markets are always exciting, the most pleasurable moment is bringing my new acquisition home. I walk straight past the kitchen, where my regular fruits are stored, and place the etrog on the living room mantel in a silver box I received for my Bar Mitzvah. A few days later, I wave the etrog in prayer in synagogue, and dwell upon the historic journey the fruit has taken from its evolutionary home in Yunnan , China , to its privileged position in synagogues around the world. When I look around the synagogue I feel as if I had chosen the most beautiful etrog, though I am confident that many of my neighbors feel the same way about their own choices. When not in use, the silver-boxed fruit takes center stage in my home, radiating a splendid sight and fragrant smell appropriate for the holiday.

My particular interest in the etrog, which I grew up calling esrog in Ashkenazi Hebrew, is more than ritualistic. When I was 21, I cut the fruit open for the first time and planted its seeds in a Styrofoam cup (see Fig. 1.3). The seedling that shot up is now 4 ft tall and, despite a number of setbacks due to my many moves, has begun to produce fruit. In recent years, I have been growing other citrus varieties such as Buddha’s hand (fingered) citron, Yemenite citron , kumquat, lemon, lime, orange, pomelo, and tangerine, all inside my home in the winter and outside in the summer. In addition to my agricultural interest in the etrog, in a graduate school class on biblical Hebrew syntax at Yeshiva University in New York, I realized that the scriptural phrase associated with the fruit, peri ‘eṣ hadar (פרי עץ הדר, Leviticus 23:40), is ambiguous; it can mean either the fruit of the beautiful tree (פרי from an עץ הדר) or the beautiful fruit of any tree (פרי הדר from an עץ). The difference is whether the fruit needs to be beautiful or whether the tree needs to be beautiful. This textual problem led to a decade of research on how Jews have been interpreting the biblical text, and my interest in the etrog has continued to grow as time marches on. This book, then, is the culmination of years of ritualistic, agricultural, and grammatical/historical fascination.

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Fig. 1.3

An etrog sliced in two

This book explains how the etrog became integral to the practice of Judaism . It begins (Chap. 2) with a chronicle of the etrog’s step-by-step journey from its home in Yunnan , China , to northern India , Iran, and finally the land of Israel. It then explains (Chap. 3) the many ways interpreters have understood Leviticus 23:40 , the biblical verse associated with the etrog. It ends (Chap. 4) by explaining what Leviticus 23:40 originally meant, and how and why the etrog became a Jewish ritual object during the Second Temple period (530 BCE–70 CE) as well as a symbol of Judaism itself during the post-Temple Roman and Byzantine periods (70–636). By tracing these physical and socioreligious journeys, the etrog’s unique place in Judaism will be brought to light.

The etrog is scientifically known as Citrus medica but is more commonly called the citron . All etrogim are citrons but not all citrons are etrogim. The Buddha’s hand or fingered citron, for example, is a different cultivar of Citrus medica that is not an etrog and is therefore not used for Sukkot. Etrogim are typically yellow or green, ovoid in shape, have very thick peels with very little pulp, and are bumpy. Some have a belt (גרטל) or narrowing around their mid-section; others are spherical, and many have an unusual antenna-like pittam (פיטם) made out of the reproductive parts of the flower known as the style and stigma (see Fig. 1.4). The fruit is usually the size of a large lemon, though some Yemenite varieties can grow as heavy as 11 pounds (5 kilograms, see Fig. 1.5). Although most etrogim are today grown for the holiday of Sukkot , the fruit is also used in fragrances , liqueurs, soft drinks, syrups, rice dishes, and traditional medicines, and its peels are sometimes candied and used in baked goods such as fruit cakes .¹ Today etrogim are grown in countries such as China , India , Morocco, Italy, Greece, Brazil, Israel/Palestine , and the United States.²

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Fig. 1.4

Etrogim of different shapes, with or without a pittam

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Fig. 1.5

Etrogim of different sizes

The etrog is used by Jews during the festival of Sukkot (חג הסכות), which occurs annually in September or October. Together with a palm frond known as the lulav (לולב), myrtle branches known as hadasim (הדסים), and willow branches known as aravot (ערבות), the etrog is considered one of the four species (ארבעת המינים) that are waved during the holiday prayers (see Figs. 1.6 and 1.7). This bundle, which is often simply called the lulav and etrog, is based upon Leviticus 23:40 :

On the first day [of the holiday] you shall take beautiful fruit of trees (peri ‘eṣ hadar, פרי עץ הדר), branches of palm trees , boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall be happy before Yahweh your god for seven days.

The etrog has little to no value once the holiday is over. Although some turn their etrogim into jam or candy, and others keep them as personal mementos (see Fig. 1.8), most etrogim are discarded in one way or another.

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Fig. 1.6

The four species , also known as the lulav and etrog

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Fig. 1.7

A young man shakes the four species in Jerusalem, Israel

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Fig. 1.8

A collection of dried-out etrogim from years past

This book is situated in a lengthy tradition of citrus research. The earliest treatise on the cultivation of citrus was Yen-Chih Han’s Chü lu, written in 1178 CE.³ In 1646, Giovanni (Joannes) Baptista Ferrari (Ferrarius) wrote his influential Hesperides, Sive de Malorum Aureorum Cultura et usu Libri Quatuor, which also described the nature of citrus fruits and how to plant them (see Fig. 1.9).⁴ In 1811, Georges Gallesio published his Traité du Citrus, which was followed by a number of similarly detailed botanical works.⁵ The most important and certainly most quoted study of the history of citrus fruits is Samuel Tolkowsky’s Hesperides: A History of the Culture and Use of Citrus Fruits, published in 1938.⁶ Tolkowsky was a leader of the citrus industry in Palestine/Israel and had a deep interest in the history, botany, and religious significance of the fruit. Since Tolkowsky’s book, there have been dozens of articles and books that have focused on the history of citrus in general and a handful that have been devoted to etrogim in specific, and most rely heavily upon his work. Books devoted to the four species have also been written, such as Zohar Amar’s Four Species Anthology.⁷ In the present book, I hope to sift through and update the research of Tolkowsky and bring recent discoveries as well as the history of Jewish biblical interpretation into the conversation. In this manner, the focus will be on the fruit as well as the people who came to venerate it as the peri ‘eṣ hadar, the tree-fruit of beauty .

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Fig. 1.9

An etrog drawn by Cassiano Dal Pazzo for Ferrari’s Hesperides, 1646 (p. 65)

One final note about terminology. In order to discuss geographical regions and places, I will use modern nomenclature such as China , India , and Iran in a general sense with no reference to the rigid modern borders of today. This is particularly important for the region of ancient Israel. This region today comprises the State of Israel, the increasingly recognized State of Palestine, as well as portions of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Lebanese Republic, and land claimed by the Syrian Arab Republic and other warring factions. Because the focus of this book is the etrog in the hands of the Jews and biblical interpreters of the First Temple, Second Temple, Roman, and Byzantine periods (ca. 980 BCE–636 CE), when the land was known as Canaan, Israel, and/or Palestine, I will make use of these terms in a general sense with no intent regarding modern boundaries or the contemporary political