A Sukkah adorned with olive, myrtle, and palm branches, with a table laden with fruit.
Five Alternatives to the Etrog
The etrog has been identified as the Torah’s פְּרִי עֵץ הָדָר, “fruit of trees of beauty” (Leviticus 23:40), since the Second Temple period. Here are five other interpretations of this verse.
Published September 29, 2023
Editor’s note: For a brief history of the etrog tradition, see also Dafna Langgut, “The Etrog: Celebrating Sukkot With a Persian Apple,” TheTorah (2021).
Samuel Tolkowsky, Hesperides: A History of the Culture and Use of Citrus Fruits (London: J. Bale, Sons & Curnow, Ltd., 1938), 52–53.
Shemer Arieli, “‘Pri Etz Hadar’—Fruit of the ‘Tree of Life,’” Beit Mikra 59.2 (2014): 14, 25: “I support the view of Tolkowsky that the cedar ‘fruit’ is the real-life פרי עץ הדר object mentioned in the Bible.” Translation my own.
According to this theory, the Jews of the exile used cedar cones but the Jews of Israel re-identified פְּרִי עֵץ הָדָר as the etrog.
Arnold B. Ehrlich, Randglossen Zur Hebräischen Bibel, vol. 2 (Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1909), 84. Translation my own.
On the Karaite interpretation that the foliage of Leviticus 23:40 is for building the sukkah, see Shawn Lichaa, “Sukkot’s Unshaken Four Species,” TheTorah (2016).
See, e.g., Ps 21:6, 45:4; Job 40:10.
Irving Kollar, “‘The Fruit of a Goodly Tree’ (Lev. 23:40)—What is it?” Beit Mikra 49 (1972): 146–50. Quote from the English abstract on page 260.
Avishur reads הָדָר as a construct form, which I have indicated here by adjusting the vocalization to הֲדַר.
Yitzchak Avishur, “Peri ‘Etz Hadar (Leviticus 23:40)—Regarding a ‘Peri’ that is not a fruit and ‘Hadar’ that is not the Etrog,” Beit Mikra 34 (1989): 139. The verse should be read as follows:
ולקחתם לכם ביום הראשׁון פרי [= פארי] עץ:
On the first day [of Sukkot] you shall take “fruit” [= branches] of trees:
הדר כפת תמרים
וענף עץ עבת
וערבי נחל1. the beauty of palm fronds
2. and boughs of leafy trees
3. and willows of the brookושׂמחתם לפני י־הוה אלהיכם שׁבעת ימים׃
and you shall be happy before the Lord your God for seven days.
David Z. Moster, Etrog: How a Chinese Fruit Became a Jewish Symbol (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), 80.
Editor’s note: See Zev Farber, “The Origins of Sukkot,” TheTorah (2017).
For more on the Samaritan practice, including a photo of such a sukkah, see Benyamin Tsedaka, “A Fruity Sukkah Made from the Four Species,” TheTorah (2014).
