The Etrog in Eden

It’s possible the etrog was the fruit

which God told Adam not to eat while Edened.

He did, and therefore had to make himself a suit,

 by sinful citron-induced pleasures hedoned.

To the Tenth Commandment, “Do not covet,”

in Aramaic etrog is alluding,

Its beauty, that’s the reason that we love it,

produces pleasures that are soul deluding,

As Solomon said, beauty is a lie,

and wisdom is a better thing to choose.

While waving on Sukkot four species high,

remember pleasure can be bad for Jews.

Choose wisdom just like Solomon, although

You must read his Qohelet, book composed

to tell you it’s most vital that you know

that wisdom’s not as great as you supposed,

as, when consuming from the Tree of Knowledge

what had been recommended to them by a snake,

Eve-Adam learned, in Eden’s Ivy college,

committing a pre-sophomore mistake.

I composed this poem on 10/5/22 after Yom Kippur 5783 after learning an interesting theory about the etymology of “etrog,” the citron that Jews use on Sukkot, presented by Reuven Chaim Klein s in “The Anatomy of a Mitzvah:The Beautiful Citron”:

The Torah (Lev. 23:4) commands that on the first day of Sukkot one must take Four Species, including something deemed a pri eitz hadar (translated as “a beautiful fruit of a tree” or “a fruit of a beautiful tree”). As we will explain in this essay, this term refers to the citron fruit, also known more technically as the Citrus medica. Besides hadar, other Hebrew/Aramaic terms that refer to this fruit include etrog, etronga, trunga, and tapuach….

Dr. Zohar Amar (of Bar Ilan University) clarifies that the fact that scholars have not yet found any evidence that citrons grew in the Holy Land before the Persian Period does not prove that it was only imported then, because the sporadic nature of Archaeobotany cannot give us a complete picture of the Holy Land’s entire floral oeuvre.

Moreover, according to one Tannaic opinion, the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge refers to a citron (see Bereishit Rabbah §15:7, Brachot 40a). About that fruit,  the Torah says, “the woman [Eve] saw that the tree is good for eating, and that it is enticing for the eyes…” (Gen. 3:6). Rabbi David Kochavi of Estelle (who in the 1300’s in Provencal France) infers from this passage that the fruit in question only looks like it tastes good, but in practice the fruit has very little flesh to it—an apt description of the citron.

It is customary for a groom to write in a marriage document that his bride may collect her Ketubah from “all the better arag of my property.” Rabbi Eliezer ben Yoel (1140–1225), known as the Raavyah, explains that the word arag is an expression of “desirable,” because Targum Onkelos (to Gen. 2:9, 3:6, Prov. 21:20) translates the word nechmad (and taavah in Deut. 5:18) as ragig, and arag is a cognate of that term.

Based on this, Nachmanides (1194–1270), who was Raavyah’s younger contemporary, adds that the word etrog is also a cognate ragig and arag, which leads him to explain that etrog can rightfully be translated as “the desirable fruit.” In light of this, Nachmanides argues that the term pri eitz hadar must refer to the etrog, because hadar and nechmad mean essentially the same thing.

Nachmanides even goes as far as to say that hadar is simply the Hebrew word for what is called etrog in Aramaic—making the two terms totally synonymous.

Deut. 5:18 states:

יז  וְלֹא תַחְמֹד, אֵשֶׁת רֵעֶךָ;  {ס}  וְלֹא תִתְאַוֶּה בֵּית רֵעֶךָ, שָׂדֵהוּ וְעַבְדּוֹ וַאֲמָתוֹ שׁוֹרוֹ וַחֲמֹרוֹ, וְכֹל, אֲשֶׁר לְרֵעֶךָ.  {ס} 17 Neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour’s wife; {S} neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour’s house, his field, or his man-servant, or his maid-servant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour’s. {S}

Onkelos translates the Deut. 5:18 as follows:

וְלָא תַחְמֵד אִתַּת חַבְרָךְ וְלָא תֵרוֹג בֵּית חַבְרָךְ חַקְלֵיהּ וְעַבְדֵּיהּ וְאַמְתֵיהּ תּוֹרֵיהּ וַחֲמָרֵיהּ וְכֹל דִּי לְחַבְרָךְ:

And do not covet your neighbor’s wife. And do not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male slave or his female slave, his ox or his donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.’’

The fact that וְלֹא תִתְאַוֶּה is translated by Onkelos as  וְלָא תֵרוֹג  supports the suggestion  that the forbidden fruit in the Garden  of Eden was an etrog, the fruit that stimulated desire, as per Gen 3:6, which, by stating וְכִי תַאֲוָה-הוּא לָעֵינַיִם links it to the etrog:

ו  וַתֵּרֶא הָאִשָּׁה כִּי טוֹב הָעֵץ לְמַאֲכָל וְכִי תַאֲוָה-הוּא לָעֵינַיִם, וְנֶחְמָד הָעֵץ לְהַשְׂכִּיל, וַתִּקַּח מִפִּרְיוֹ, וַתֹּאכַל; וַתִּתֵּן גַּם-לְאִישָׁהּ עִמָּהּ, וַיֹּאכַל.           6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat

Onkelos uses a verb that recalls the etrog when using וּמְרַגֵּג  to translate  , וְנֶחְמָד a word that recalls וְלֹא תַחְמֹד in Deut. 5:18:

וַחֲזַת אִתְּתָא אֲרֵי טַב אִילַן לְמֵיכָל וַאֲרֵי אַסֵּי הוּא לְעַיְנִין וּמְרַגֵּג אִילָנָא לְאִסְתַּכָּלָא בֵהּ וּנְסֵיבַת מֵאִבֵּהּ וַאֲכָלַת וִיהָבַת אַף לְבַעְלַהּ עִמַּהּ וַאֲכָל:

The woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was tempting [healing] to the eyes, and that the tree was appealing [to look at] as a means of [obtaining] wisdom. She took of its fruit and she ate, and she also gave it to her husband with her, and he ate.

It is interesting that Ps. 42:2 uses the Hebrew verb ערג which means “ascend” to denote “panting with desire,” twice using the word תַעֲרֹג which resonates with תֵרוֹג, the Aramaic translation used by Onkelos to denote desire that causes illicit coveting:

ב  כְּאַיָּל, תַּעֲרֹג עַל-אֲפִיקֵי-מָיִם–    כֵּן נַפְשִׁי תַעֲרֹג אֵלֶיךָ אֱלֹהִים. 2 As the hart pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul after Thee, O God.

Three verses in which detractive comments about wisdom are attributed to Solomon are Qoh. 2:14-16:

יד  הֶחָכָם עֵינָיו בְּרֹאשׁוֹ, וְהַכְּסִיל בַּחֹשֶׁךְ הוֹלֵךְ; וְיָדַעְתִּי גַם-אָנִי, שֶׁמִּקְרֶה אֶחָד יִקְרֶה אֶת-כֻּלָּם.  14 The wise man, his eyes are in his head; but the fool walks in darkness. And I also perceived that one event happens to them all.

טו  וְאָמַרְתִּי אֲנִי בְּלִבִּי, כְּמִקְרֵה הַכְּסִיל גַּם-אֲנִי יִקְרֵנִי, וְלָמָּה חָכַמְתִּי אֲנִי, אָז יֹתֵר; וְדִבַּרְתִּי בְלִבִּי, שֶׁגַּם-זֶה הָבֶל.      15 Then said I in my heart: ‘As it happens to the fool, so will it happen even to me; and why was I then more wise?’ Then I said in my heart, that this also is vanity.

טז  כִּי אֵין זִכְרוֹן לֶחָכָם עִם-הַכְּסִיל, לְעוֹלָם:  בְּשֶׁכְּבָר הַיָּמִים הַבָּאִים, הַכֹּל נִשְׁכָּח, וְאֵיךְ יָמוּת הֶחָכָם, עִם-הַכְּסִיל.         16 For of the wise man, even as of the fool, there is no remembrance for ever; seeing that in the days to come all will long ago have been forgotten. Alas the fool!