Showing posts with label Etrog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Etrog. Show all posts

Saturday, 4 October 2025

Where Does the Word Etrog Come From?

Every year on Sukkot, Jews around the world hold the etrog close to their hearts as part of the mitzvah of the Four Species. But where does this unusual word etrog (or esrog, in Ashkenazi pronunciation) come from? And how did it come to carry such deep layers of symbolic meaning? Rabbi Paul Bloom traces the journey of this emotive word from its linguistic roots to its new life as a source of spiritual acronyms.

The Linguistic Journey of the Etrog

In Biblical Hebrew, the Torah never names the fruit directly. Instead, it commands us (Leviticus 23:40):

וּלְקַחְתֶּם לָכֶם בַּיּוֹם הָרִאשׁוֹן, פְּרִי עֵץ הָדָר 

 “And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of a beautiful tree”.

It was Chazal, through careful interpretation, who identified this mysterious “fruit of a beautiful tree” as the citron. The Targum Onkelos makes this explicit, translating the phrase as:

 פֵּירֵי אִילָנָא אֶתְרוֹגִין

“The fruit of the etrog tree.”

From there, the word etrog appears throughout the Mishnah and Talmud (e.g., Sukkah 3:4, 34b; Bava Metzia 90b), solidifying its status as the rabbinic Hebrew name for the citron. But the word itself is not originally Hebrew. Most scholars trace its roots to Persian and Greek:

      Old Persian had the word turunga or trunga for citron.

      From there it passed into Greek as exōrigos (meaning “foreign/exotic”) or heteroglykos (“different in taste”).

      Greek passed it into Aramaic/Hebrew as ethrog (אֶתְרוֹג).

      Finally, in Ashkenazi Hebrew/Yiddish, the pronunciation shifted to esrog.

So the linguistic chain looks like this:

 Old Persian (turunga) → Greek (exōrigos / kitrion) → Aramaic/Hebrew (etrog) → Yiddish (esrog).

Thus, the word we use in shul during Hallel each Sukkot actually carries echoes of ancient Persia, Greece, Babylonia, and finally the Beit Midrash.

Etrog in the Sources

The gemara (Sukkah 34b) already assumes the etrog as the standard:

 אֵין מַעֲטִין בְּאֶתְרוֹג כְּדֵי שֶׁלֹּא יִפָּסֵל 

The Gemara (Sukkah 35a) derives its identification through several methods:

      A fruit whose wood and fruit share the same taste → the etrog.

      A fruit that “dwells” (hadar) on its tree from year to year → the etrog.

      A fruit requiring constant water (hydor in Greek) → the etrog.

The Midrash (Vayikra Rabbah 30:15) layers on symbolism: the etrog has both taste and fragrance, representing Jews who combine Torah learning (taste) with good deeds (fragrance).

The Homiletical Acronym: אתרוג

Beyond its linguistic roots, Jewish tradition often invests Hebrew words with spiritual layers through acronyms (roshei teivot). One beloved interpretation reads the letters of אתרוג as standing for:

      אEmunah Shelemah (Complete Faith)

      תTeshuvah Shelemah (Complete Repentance)

      רRefuah Shelemah (Complete Healing)

      גGeulah Shelemah (Complete Redemption)

In this reading, holding the etrog on Sukkot is not just about fulfilling a commandment—it becomes a prayer in our hands: for stronger faith, for sincere return to Hashem, for healing of body and soul, and for the ultimate redemption of Am Yisrael.

Other acrostics exist in rabbinic and later literature—for example, אל תבואני רגל גאוה (“Do not let the foot of pride come upon me”)—but the above fourfold acronym has gained wide currency in sermons and teachings. It resonates especially during the High Holiday season, when we seek faith, teshuvah, health, and redemption.

Conclusion

The word etrog carries within it both a linguistic journey across civilizations and a spiritual journey across the Jewish heart. From Persian orchards to Greek language, from Targum Onkelos to the Mishnah, and from the synagogue to the Sukkah, it has been embraced and sanctified.

And when we hold the etrog, we are not only fulfilling the mitzvah of the Four Species, but also reminding
ourselves of what the etrog’s letters whisper:

 אמונה — תשובה — רפואה — גאולה

 A complete faith. A complete return. A complete healing. A complete redemption.

Wednesday, 23 October 2024

Something to do with your etrog

Tomorrow, literally tens of thousands of etrogim will be set free from the bonds of the arba minim. What do you do with yours? Many people like to puncture them with hundreds of cloves and turn them into besomim hedgehogs for havdalah. Others have greater ambitions.

Here's a recipe for etrog liqueur, kindly provided by one of our kitchen-savvy members, Juliette Rothschild. This recipe, she tells us, was handed down to her by a late Hanassi member, Sydney Faber, whom many readers may remember. The recipe goes like this:

 ETROG LIQUEUR

Ingredients 

3 etrogim

3 Cups of good quality Vodka (divided into 2 cups and 1 cup)

1 ½ Cups of superfine or regular sugar

Instructions

1. Peel etrog as thinly as possible (with a peeler)

2. Put peel into a 4-cup jar (e.g. a 32 oz Mayonnaise jar) or a litre soda bottle. Add 2 cups of Vodka.

3. Close jar and store in a cool, dark place for 2 days..

4. Remove and discard peel (strain before funneling into a bottle)

5. Pour the liquid into a glass litre bottle (e.g. a grape juice bottle). Add sugar and gently shake until sugar dissolves.

6. Add 1 cup of Vodka. Shake or stir again until all the sugar is dissolved.

7. Store for a minimum of 4 to 6 weeks (or more) in a cool, dark place.

If any Hanassi member proposes to make some estrog liqueur, can they please make it available to the Women's League so that we can sample it on a Shabbat when we have a kiddush?

Juliette adds that you can check out more etrog recipes on kosher.com. If you enjoy buttered toast for breakfast, here's one here for etrog marmalade to spread on it.

Bereishit and the forbidden fruit -- a misdirection?

Taking a fresh and imaginative look at one of our most familiar parshiyot, Rabbi Steven Ettinger wonders what might have happened if Adam an...