Balady citron (etrog) | |
---|---|
Species | C. medicaL. var. Balady |
The balady citron is a variety of citron, or etrog , grown in Israel and the West Bank, mostly for Jewish ritual purposes. Not native to the region, it was imported around 500 or 300 BCE by either Jewish or Greek settlers. Initially not widely grown, it was promoted and popularized in the 1870s by Rabbi Chaim Elozor Wax.
Balady (Arabic : بلدي) is Arabic for "native." Local Arab farmers began using this name in the mid-19th century to distinguish this variety from the Greek citron, which was cultivated along the Jaffa seashore. [1]
The balady citron is an acidic variety, alongside the Florentine and Diamante citron from Italy, and the Greek citron. [2]
Citron varieties |
---|
Acidic-pulp varieties |
Non-acidic varieties |
Pulpless varieties |
Citron hybrids |
Related articles |
Citrus fruits are not native to Palestine. [3] According to Gallesio, Jews from Babylonia introduced the citron into Judea in around 500 BCE, [4] [5] while Tolkowsky believed that Greek settlers brought it from India around 200 years later during the 3rd century BCE. [4] It is thought that the citron is the oldest cultivated fruit in the country. [6] Being of ritual significance for Jews, the citron was exported abroad in small quantities during Roman times. [7] [8] During the 1800s, the Balady was grown on the outskirts of Nablus, Nazareth, Tiberias, Safed and Alma al-Shaib, in Umm al-Fahm and in Lifta village near Jerusalem. [9] It was only in the middle of the 19th-century that Balady citrons began to feature significantly in the European market and a religious Jewish controversy subsequently erupted as to whether the citrons had been grafted and therefore deemed disqualified for ritual use. [10]
Old Yishuv |
---|
Key events |
Key figures |
|
Economy |
Philanthropy |
Communities |
Synagogues |
Related articles |
In the 1870s, Rabbi Chaim Elozor Wax devoted himself to its cultivation and organized shipments to Europe. He felt the Balady citron had the strongest traditional lineage of species pureness, and claimed it was to be found in the wild when Nahmanides (d. 1270) arrived in the country. He wrote many letters to the rabbis hoping to influence the diaspora to use the Balady citron. These letters were published in his responsa Nefesh Haya and the responsa of his correspondents, as well as in pamphlets addressing the Greek citron controversy. [11] Under his influence, many Jews began to purchase the Balady instead of the Greek citron. [12] While the variety was not domesticated, it was used by important scholars and pious Jews who believed in its purity and appropriateness. [13] Rabbi Wax also saw the trade in this citron as an important source of economic income for the Jewish community in Palestine. He invested large sums establishing orchards in Hittin donating the profits to charity. [12] In 1875, Wax planted 600 trees and by 1883 over 40,000 citrons had been exported. [14]
The pro-Zionist newspapers HaMelitz and HaLevanon were instrumental in stirring up interest in etrog cultivation in Palestine, which was seen as important in paving the way for Jewish independence. [15] The Greek citron has been introduced for plantation in the 1840s by Sephardic Jews with the financial backing of Sir Moses Montefiore. The new Greek-Jaffa variety was more commercially successful than Balady. [16] Despite all efforts, the Balady was still unable to compete with the Greek citron and at the beginning of that 20th-century its cultivation was very primitive and limited. [17] The Balady was considered unattractive and some of the new immigrants continued using varieties they were accustomed to in the diaspora. [18]
The supporters of the Balady were strained in a conflict of interest. While the Greek citron grown in Jaffa showed a good economical future, the Halachic intentions were against it. As a partial solution, the Greek-Jaffa citron was occasionally grafted onto Balady rootstock. The progeny achieved the beautiful properties of the scion type, while the possible influence of lemon rootstock was assumed to be flushed, and replaced with that of the most kosher Balady rootstock. [19] At some point, Rabbi Wax was forced to relent and commence topworking to part of his orchard, in order to replace part of the crop with the Greek citron. [20]
The Old Yishuv rabbis Shmuel Salant and Meir Auerbach supported the progeny of Umm el-Fahm, but those declined quickly. Later, some Israeli rabbis did their utmost for the rescue of Balady. Each collected propagation material from a different place and brought it into cultivation under close supervision. This is how a diversity of sub-varieties or selections with different names developed. [21]
The list of rabbis who were instrumental includes (arranged in order of date): Rabbi Zarach Reuven Braverman founder and dean of the Yeshiva Mea Shearim and Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld; [22] which both where close disciples of Rabbi Yehoshua Leib Diskin. [21] Braverman's citron was planted by in the orchard of Yehoshua Stampfer and Zonnenfeld's (today known as 'Kibilewitz')' in the same orchard, but in the time of his son-in-law, Pinhas Globman. [23]
When the Chazon Ish reached the Holy Land, he made his own selection according to his satisfaction. To Yakov Halperin, founder of Zichron Meir in Bnei Brak, he gave plantings of the variety called Halperin-Chazon Ish; and to Rabbi Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz, the variety called Lefkowitz-Chazon Ish. [24]
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook promoted the intraspecific graft from the Greek citron onto Balady citron rootstock, and granted his Hechsher for this, believing that it was a practical solution to grow beautiful etrogs that were also kosher. However, he still acknowledged the halachic promotion of those etrogs cultivated at different Arabic villages, that were never as nice but were praised for not being grafted. [25]
Balady citron varieties are still grown and sold today in diaspora as well as in Israel, and are favored by the followers of the Brisker Rov and the Chazon Ish. [26]
Local cultivars are also used in Israeli cuisine for jams, juice and alcoholic drinks.
Etrog is the yellow citron used by Jews during the weeklong holiday of Sukkot as one of the four species. Together with the lulav, hadass, and aravah, the etrog is taken in hand and held or waved during specific portions of the holiday prayers. Special care is often given to selecting an etrog for the performance of the Sukkot holiday rituals.
The citron, historically cedrate, is a large fragrant citrus fruit with a thick rind. It is said to resemble a 'huge, rough lemon'. It is one of the original citrus fruits from which all other citrus types developed through natural hybrid speciation or artificial hybridization. Though citron cultivars take on a wide variety of physical forms, they are all closely related genetically. It is used in Asian and Mediterranean cuisine, traditional medicines, perfume, and religious rituals and offerings. Hybrids of citrons with other citrus are commercially more prominent, notably lemons and many limes.
Yisrael (Israel) Meir Lau is a Holocaust survivor who served as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1993 to 2003. He was previously Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, Israel. After his tenure as chief rabbi, he was appointed chairman of Yad Vashem.
Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz, also known as the Chazon Ish after his magnum opus, was a Belarusian-born Orthodox rabbi who later became one of the leaders of Haredi Judaism in Israel, where he spent his final 20 years, from 1933 to 1953.
Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz was an Israeli Haredi Torah leader and rosh yeshiva in Bnei Brak for over 70 years. He was a maggid shiur at Yeshivas Tiferes Tzion from 1940 to 2011 and rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Ponovezh L’Tzeirim from 1954 to 2009, raising thousands of students. He was a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Degel HaTorah, a member of Mifal HaShas, and nasi (president) of the Acheinu kiruv organization, and played a leading role in the fight for Torah-true education in yeshivas and Talmud Torahs in Israel. In addition to his own Torah works, he published the teachings of his rebbi, Rabbi Shlomo Heiman, in the two-volume Chiddushei Shlomo.
The Mir Yeshiva, known also as The Mir, is an Orthodox Jewish yeshiva in Beit Yisrael, Jerusalem. With over 9,000 single and married students, it is the largest yeshiva in the world. Most students are from Israel and the United States, with many from other parts of the world such as Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Switzerland, Argentina, Australia, Russia, Canada and Panama.
Yaakov Meir CBE (1856–1939), was an Orthodox rabbi, and the first Sephardic Chief Rabbi appointed under the British Mandate of Palestine. A Talmudic scholar, fluent in Hebrew as well as five other languages, he enjoyed a reputation as one of Jerusalem's most respected rabbis.
The Greek citron variety of Citrus medica was botanically classified by Adolf Engler as the "variety etrog". This refers to its major use for the Jewish ritual etrog during Sukkot.
The Diamante citron (Citrus medica cv. diamante − {{lang-it|cedro di diamante} is a variety of citron named after the town of Diamante, located in the province of Cosenza, Calabria, on the south-western coast of Italy, which is its most known cultivation point. This is why this variety is sometimes called the "Calabria Esrog". "Esrog" is the Ashkenazi Hebrew name for citron.
The Yemenite citron is a variety of citron, usually containing no juice vesicles in its fruit's segments. The bearing tree and the mature fruit's size are somewhat larger than the trees and fruit of other varieties of citron.
The Moroccan citron is a true citron variety native to Assads, Morocco, which is still today its main center of cultivation.
Chaim Elozor Wax was a well-known Hasidic rabbi, posek, and a Jewish leader in Poland. He was a philanthropist and accomplished student of the Talmud.
The Old Yishuv were the Jewish communities of the region of Palestine during the Ottoman period, up to the onset of Zionist aliyah waves, and the consolidation of the new Yishuv by the end of World War I. Unlike the new Yishuv, characterized by secular and Zionist ideologies promoting labor and self-sufficiency, the Old Yishuv primarily consisted of religious Jews who relied on external donations (halukka) for support.
Rabbi Meir Auerbach (1815–1878) was president of the Jewish court at Koło, and author of Imrei Bina. After his immigration to Ottoman Palestine in 1859, he headed the Poland Kollel and became the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem.
Samuel Klein was a Hungarian-born rabbi, historian and historical geographer in Mandatory Palestine.
Henry Kendall (1903–1983) was a British architect, who worked as an urban planner, in British colonies and former colonies.
Moshe "Musa" Chelouche was a Jewish politician and businessman in Mandatory Palestine and Israel who served in 1936 for 10 days as the mayor of Tel Aviv.
Yisrael Bak was a printer, a publisher and public figure in the Old Yishuv in the Land of Israel in the 19th century. He revived Hebrew printing in the Land of Israel after a hiatus of more than two hundred years and established the first Hebrew printing house in Jerusalem.
Uriel Rappaport was an Israeli historian. His area of research focus was the Second Temple period, including Hellenistic Judaism, the Maccabean Revolt, the Hasmonean kingdom, and the First Jewish–Roman War. He became a professor of Jewish History at the University of Haifa and served as a rector of the university from 1983 to 1985. He was a member of the Council for Higher Education in Israel in 1987–1989 and 1998–2001, and served as a chairman of the Humanities Committee at the Israel Science Foundation. Rappaport took emeritus status at Haifa in 2003, and served as president of Kinneret College in 2002–2006.
Citrus plants are no natives of Palestine.
From there it reached Babylonia, where it came to the notice of the exiled Jews, who later brought it back to Israël.
Of the fruits now grown in Palestine, it is believed that the citron (Ethrog in Hebrew) is the oldest known in that country.
Etrogim were, of course grown from ancient times in Palestine and individual citron reached European Jewish dignitaries, but there was no significant trade until the latter part of the nineteenth century.
The fruits were cultivated in Palestine and exported to Jewish communities settled in Europe.