Etrog

The Etrog (Hebrew אתרוג, Yiddish Essrig ) is a yellow-green citrus fruit. There is a variety of citron (Citrus medica cedra ).

Biology

The fruit is native to China ( some sources speak of India). It resembles the outside of an oversized lemon is yellow to greenish-yellow color and has a thick, textured shell. A crown -like statements can be located at the top. Flesh and Skin are bitter, the wood of the plant contains a strongly scented oil.

Trees of the cultivar ' Etrog ' stay smaller and are slow-growing than most other citrons. The leaves terminate in a rounded tip and the leaf margin is often bent downwards. As with other citrons the young shoots, leaves and flower buds are reddish in color.

The fruit is small for a citron. At maturity it is colored yellow. It is oval, narrowing at both ends at the top with a small protuberance. Often at the top is still time to maturity of the stylus and the scar present. The surface is rough and sometimes easily provided with longitudinal ribs. Under the thick, fleshy shell there is only little pulp. This is sour and slightly juicy, it contains the seeds.

Significance in Judaism

The Etrog plays an important role during the Jewish Sukkotfestes. He is one of the requirements specified in the third book of Genesis 23, 40 hard bunch, the palm branch ( lulav ), myrtle ( Hadassim ), willow ( Arawot ) and Paradise apple ( etrog ) is formed. Literally, the latter as " fruit of the tree Hadar " is referred to, according to the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sukkah, 34 referred to as the etrog and traditionally identified with the apple of paradise from which Adam has taken (according to Midrash Bereshit Rabbah 16 ). Therefore, the etrog is also called Adam's apple or apple of paradise.

The cars at Sukkotfest fruit must be intact, pure and spotless. The Pitum ​​called tip must not be broken; Species that do not have such a crown in nature, but are also accepted. The etrog is not from a grafted tree. Particular value gives a copy sometimes occurring a groove-like indentation, which is referred to as Adam bite.

During the prayer the etrog is held in the left hand while the other three plants tied together are held in the right hand. In the literature Haggadic hard ostrich is often interpreted symbolically, for example, as a symbol of Israel and its subdivisions, as a symbol of the patriarchs and mothers and their virtues, or as a glorification of God and his properties ( Vayikra Rabba 30). In popular belief, pregnant women bite off the Pitum ​​the fruit, to reduce pain in childbirth. In addition, the etrog infertile women to help.

In the handicrafts of the etrog is often shown. Specific expression was the Etrogbehälter in which the fruit is kept. Likewise, there Etrogschalen that may be elaborately decorated. In ancient synagogue mosaics etrog and lulav were shown often.