Parashat Breishit, Gen. 1:1-6:8

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Apples and Etrogs

Study with Baruch Sienna

 

Ask the average person on the street what fruit Adam and Eve ate in the garden, and nine times out of ten the answer will be, 'apple.' (Very few people I know will guess etrog!) Contrary to popular belief however, the infamous 'forbidden fruit' from the ‘tree of knowledge of good and evil’ in the Garden of Eden is not identified in the biblical text. There are, in fact, two fruit mentioned in the Torah that are not identified: the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden, and the fruit of a 'goodly tree' that is to be shaken as part of the four species.

The Rabbis discuss the possible identities of both these 'mystery fruits.' Since we just finished with the festivities of Sukkot, let us ask what exactly is the 'fruit of a goodly tree'. The Rabbis suggest that both the tree and the fruit must be 'good'. So, the pomegranate is rejected, since although the fruit is juicy and majestic, the tree loses its leaves in winter and is rather anemic looking. The carob too is rejected, for although it is a handsome tree, the fruit was considered inferior. Many readers probably remember almost breaking a tooth on the dessicated pods of the carob often eaten on Tu B'shevat. Only the etrog tree is lovely, with its fragrant citrus leaves that remain on the tree all year long, and its fruit, fragrant and pleasing.

But the etrog (also called the Apple of Paradise) is further connected with the (biblically unidentified) forbidden fruit Adam and Eve ate in the Garden of Eden. This is supported by the verse, ‘and the woman saw that the tree was good for eating,’ (i.e., the wood itself, not just the fruit!) since the Rabbis interpreted the phrase ‘the fruit of a goodly tree,’ to mean that ‘fruit’ and ‘tree’ (i.e, its wood); were both good! In addition, the etrog is associated with childbirth, since pain in childbirth was the punishment (for Eve) for eating the forbidden fruit. Nahmanides (on Lev. 23:40) also understands etrog as the Aramaic for desire, based on the verse, “God caused to spring up from the soil every type of tree, desirable to look at and good to eat...” (Gen 2:9). The Aramaic word for desire (ragag) bears a distant resemblance to the Hebrew etrog. The verse, “Toward your husband will be your desire...” (Gen 3:16) further connects the etrog with sexuality, pregnancy and childbirth.

Because of these associations, there are many customs surrounding childbirth that involve the etrog. In popular folklore, for example, eating an etrog eases the pain of childbirth. It was a custom for women to bite off the pittom and put it under the pillow to ease difficult labour. There is an old Yiddish custom for the woman to bite off the tip of the etrog at the end of Sukkot, and then say to God: “Eve couldn’t wait to eat the etrog, but I’ve waited all through the holiday! So I don’t deserve curses — bless me!” The Talmud records that a pregnant woman who eats an etrog would have ‘fragrant children.’ (Ketubot 61a)

These customs may have developed because the etrog is also a symbol of fertility and reproduction. The tree is unusual as it produces fruit all year long, and in a unique botanical phenomenon, the pistil (pittom), its female organ, does not drop off the ripened fruit. The etrog’s shape is commonly associated with the woman’s body (breast/ uterus), as opposed to the phallic lulav. The etrog symbolizes hope for fertility and abundance at the beginning of Israel’s rainy season as a new agricultural year is ushered in by the Festival of Sukkot.

So, not only is the etrog the mystery fruit of Sukkot (Leviticus 23:40), but imaginatively (midrashically) the fruit of the Garden of Eden as well. The Rabbis suggest many other possibilities (see below), however, the apple is not one of them. For Jews, apples are associated with Rosh Hashanah, or on flags for Simchat Torah. Although not a Jewish association, in modern, western culture the fruit eaten by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is almost universally portrayed as an apple. The apple, in fact, has become the symbol, par excellence, of tempation and sex, and appears everywhere from Renaissance paintings (for example, this famous image by Titian) to cartoons in the New Yorker. (Many sex shops and "adult entertainment" establishments use the apple in their logo). Why did Western (read Christian) art and literature choose the apple? In the Vulgate (the first Latin translation of the Bible), the Latin word for apple, ‘malus,’ is similar to the Latin word for evil (as in the words, malice, and malevolent), so the phrase of 'good and evil' would have been easily associated with the fruit that sounds like 'evil.' (Apples are also a more common fruit than etrogim in Europe!).

Although the apple is not mentioned in the Garden of Eden (or even in the Torah), the modern Hebrew word for apple, (tapu'ach) does appear in the Tanach (Hebrew Bible). Since the apple has become a symbol of sexuality, it seems appropriate that the tapu'ach  appears in the erotic Song of Songs. The apple has long been regarded as a symbol of desire. Besides the biblical book of love poetry that describes the shady apple tree and the fruit’s sweetness and pleasant fragrance and refreshing (the Rabbis add: therapeutic) quality (Song of Songs 2:3, 7:9, 8:5), the Greeks, too, linked the apple to the ancient goddess of love, Aphrodite, (later identified by the Romans as Venus). When an apple is cut through its equator, a near-perfect five pointed star containing seeds is revealed. Symbolically, this pentagram corresponds to the human being—with five fingers, five senses, and five extremities (arms, legs and head)—explaining perhaps the apple’s ancient connection with human sensuality.

However, the meaning of tapu'ach is disputed. Some suggest that it refers to the hawthorn tree (Crataegus aronia), the quince, or the fruit of the reddish barked Strawberry tree (Arbutus andrachne, or katlav), or even the apricot.

The Rabbis offer many other guesses as to our Garden of Eden fruit: carob (the Hebrew also means destruction), grapes (its abuse leads to sin) and wheat. Wheat of course is not a tree, but was associated with wisdom, since children were thought to 'show intelligence' around the time they began solid food (ie. bread). Also, the Hebrew chitah recalls the word cheit for sin. In Islamic tradition, the tree is identified as a banana. The most surprising identification is found in a 13th century cathedral in Indres, France, which contains a fresco which shows Eve encountering a female serpent entwined around a giant slightly poisonous (and hallucinogenic) mushroom (Amanita muscaria) common in Europe.

The most logical identification is the fig, whose leaves Adam and Eve use immediately after to 'cover themselves up' (Gen. 3:7). The rabbis support this identification through this story:

R. Yose said: They were figs, as may be inferred from the context.

A parable of a king's son who disgraced himself with one of the maidservants. When the king heard of it, he deprived his son of high rank and expelled him from the palace. The son then went about to the doorways of the other maidservants, and none would take him in. But she who disgraced herself with him opened the door of her house and received him.

So, too, when Adam ate of that tree, the Holy One deprived him of lofty status and expelled him from the Garden of Eden. Adam then went about among all the trees, but none would receive him [ie. take even one leaf ].

But the fig tree whose fruit Adam had eaten opened its doors [so to speak] and received him, as is said, "They sewed fig leaves together." (Bereishit 3:7) Gen. Rabbah 15:7

But the question is, if it is true, that it was indeed the fig, why does the Torah in fact not identify the fruit. I believe Rabbi Joshua ben Levi was correct when he taught: “Heaven forbid that we should deduce what the tree was! The Holy Blessed One did not, and will not, reveal what it was [so that it might not be said, ‘Through this tree death came into the world.’]

If the Torah is so careful to avoid embarrassing the tree, how much more so should we be careful of how we speak of others!

Shabbat Shalom.

BDS