by David Zakalik
“Are you Jewish?”
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve come across (in good nature) these words on a city street or college quad. The speaker usually wears a black suit, a white button down, a black hat with a wide brim, and a beard.
It is possible that the man will have a traditional item in hand, depending on which Jewish holiday it is. In mid-autumn, she will be holding a bunch of leaves in one hand and something that looks like a lemon in the other.
These are, respectively, the lulav and the etrog. During the holiday of Sukkot, Jews around the world will take the ilulav and etrog in their hands, say a blessing, and wave them in the four directions of the compass.
Etrog, better known as citron (Citrus medica), a fruit of one of the four types used during Sukkot. The lulav (bundle of leaves) consists of a closed palm leaf (Phoenix dactylifera)and pink branches (Myrtus communis) and willow (Salix alba).
Part harvest festival, part commemoration of Israel’s forty years in the wilderness, Sukkot takes its name from the Hebrew word for “booth” (singular Sukkah). Observant Jews will build a sukkah in their backyard or on the porch of their homes and, for eight days and eight nights, eat in it. For those of us who don’t live in warm climates, mulled wine and hot soup is a necessary antidote to fall weather. The most observant (or strict outdoor types) will take all their meals in the sukkah, and stay in it for the duration of the holiday, but most of us are satisfied with dinner. Inviting friends and family to your sukkah, and being invited to others, is an important part of Jewish community life.
Rather like the fruit that got Adam and Eve into all that trouble, the Torah (Hebrew Bible) does not specifically mention the etrog by name. The biblical command is as follows:
… on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you gather the fruits of the land, you can celebrate the festival of Jehovah. […] take them on the first day the fruit of a good treepalm leaves, woven tree branch, and river willows. (Leviticus 23:39-40)
Knowledge is the fruit in question Citrus medica came down to us from ancient times with Torah sh’bal peh (oral tradition) (Posner, n.d.). Unlike the palm, myrtle, and willow, the citron is not found in modern Israel. From southeast Asia, probably in the western foothills of the Himalayas, it probably reached the Levant through Media (now in northwestern Iran) (Langgutt, 2017). A kind of epithet medicines it is believed to refer to the ancient Median empire, rather than to the medicinal use of the fruit.
This interloper from the subcontinent is beautiful, fragrant, and unusual, but it is not the most productive plant: its albedo (rind) is thick, its flesh is thin, and it is not the most juicy citrus fruit on the market. Why then was it one of the signs of the harvest—not to mention the return home of the Israelites from Egypt? I don’t know…but it’s a tradition!
Since at least the first century CE, Jews have grown or imported the etrog for use in this one ritual. The etrog is not usually eaten on Sukkot, it is simply held and shaken for fulfillment mitzvah (commandment) in Leviticus. Although the citron may have been sold in western Asia and the Levant in biblical times, the earliest evidence of it being cultivated in ancient Israel dates back to the 5th century.th or 4th century BCE, although not by Jews (Langgut, 2015). Archaeologists in Israel recently discovered citron pollen in the ruins of a Persian empire outside Jerusalem, along with the name etrog it is thought to be derived from the Persian language.
The first cultivation of citron in the Mediterranean preceded the arrival of other types of citrus by centuries.
Similar to the symbolic nature of its use in Judaism, it has been thought that because of its sweet smell and its availability (especially in those days), the citron was initially sold throughout the Near East not as a food or edible vegetable, but as a symbol of elite status.
However, C. medica it has some practical uses. Theophrastus, Democritus, and Pliny all note that, when placed between clothes, it repels moths. It is also used to freshen the breath. Oils from flowers and stems were—according to the Andalusian botanist Abu Marwan—used as a stomach tonic (Arias, 2005).
According to Jewish tradition, an etrog cannot be considered suitable for use on Sukkot if it comes from a grafted tree. Although the law of the Jewish religion (halakhah) allows the grafting of fruit trees on rootstocks of the same species, rabies are at the end of 16 yearsth century engaged in a long discussion about the permissibility of using etrog fruit on a grafted tree. Can the etrog be considered “the fruit of the good tree” if it is planted in a chimera of two different trees? The Rabbis were very careful about serious cases in the religious law, they wanted to be strengthened instead of relaxed. Only the fruit of grafted trees cannot be used, but the fruit of a seedling grown on the fruit of a grafted tree cannot (Nicolosi, 2005).
This argument came too late—at least 15 centuries! —perhaps because there were no other types of oranges grown in the Mediterranean, where the rabbis in question lived, until the time of the Arabs. There are no other types of citrus, no need to worry about interspecies grafting.
So important is the lumpy yellow monoid in Jewish ritual, that many observant families even have a specially made etrog case, often made of silver, to honor and protect it. My family never had a fancy one—we made do with the Styrofoam-lined cardboard box that the etrog came in each year. But the fact that many Jewish families have a special case of fruit that they do not eat, which is used only one week a year, speaks Kavanahthe spiritual purpose, with which the Jewish people observe the holiday of Sukkot, and the spiritual significance of the etrog.
This past October, I visited my friend’s sukkah a few blocks away, and I took my niece with me. Although he fell asleep and had to go to bed before we could complete the order, I received a photo from his parents a few days later, showing a young member of the Zakalik family holding an etrog bigger than his two hands put together.
The tradition continues.
Medical disclaimer: It is the policy of The Herb Society of America, Inc. not advising or recommending medical or health remedies. This information is intended for educational purposes only and should not be considered a recommendation or endorsement of any particular treatment or health care. Please consult a health care provider before pursuing any herbal treatment.
Photo credits: 1) Orthodox Jewish boys carrying a lulav and an etrog around the streets of Warsaw, Poland, presumably for others to fulfill the commandment (YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York); 2) Sukkah in the Great Synagogue of Herzliya, Israel (Ron Almog); 3) Fruits of Etrog (Erin Holden); 4) Two men examining etrogs for stains in Warsaw, Poland (N. Kuszer, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York); 5) Etrog Flowers (Erin Holden)
References
Arias BA, L. Ramón-Laca. 2005. Pharmacological properties of citrus and their ancient and medieval uses in the Mediterranean region. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 97(1):89-95.
Langgut, D. 2017. History of Citrus medica (citron) in the Near East: Plant fossils and ancient art and literature. Agrumed. pp. 84-94, in: Archeology and history of citrus fruits in the Mediterranean: acclimatization, diversifications, use. Publications du Center Jean Berard, Naples.
Langgut, D. 2015. Prestigious fruit trees in ancient Israel: The first palynological evidence for growth Juglans regia again Citrus medica. Israel Journal of Plant Sciences. 62(1-2):98-110.
Nicolosi, E., S. La Malfa, M. El-Otmani, M. Negbi, EE Goldschmidt. 2005. The search for the true citron (Citrus medica L.): Historical and genetic analysis. Hort Science. 40(7):1963-1968.
Posner, M. nd What is etrog? Accessed October 20, 2024. Available from
