The Etrog: Celebrating Sukkot with a Persian Apple

Dr. Dafna Langgut
The Torah.com, Sept. 23, 2021

“The earliest archaeological evidence for the cultivation of the tree outside Persia is in a garden in Ramat Rahel—nowadays part of west Jerusalem but in that period a Persian administrative center near Jerusalem—in a stratum dated to the 5^th/4^th century B.C.E.”

The Torah mentions four plant species in connection with Sukkot:

^{ויקרא כג:מ} וּלְקַחְתֶּם לָכֶם בַּיּוֹם הָרִאשׁוֹן פְּרִי עֵץ הָדָר כַּפֹּת תְּמָרִים וַעֲנַף עֵץ עָבֹת וְעַרְבֵי נָחַל וּשְׂמַחְתֶּם לִפְנֵי יְ־הוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם שִׁבְעַת יָמִים.
 
^{Lev 23:40} On the first day you shall take the fruit of a splendid tree, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before YHWH your God seven days.

What is the fruit of the splendid tree? The verse doesn’t specify. Jewish tradition has long interpreted the phrase as a reference to the etrog (citron), but how and when did this identification come about?

Ezra and Nehemiah: Olives?

The Persian period book of Nehemiah, the most ancient discussion of this practice, describes Ezra reading some version of this passage to the people on the second day of Tishrei. As the practice is unfamiliar to them, he clarifies:
^{נחמיה ח:טו} …צְאוּ הָהָר וְהָבִיאוּ עֲלֵי זַיִת וַעֲלֵי עֵץ שֶׁמֶן וַעֲלֵי הֲדַס וַעֲלֵי תְמָרִים וַעֲלֵי עֵץ עָבֹת לַעֲשֹׂת סֻכֹּת כַּכָּתוּב. 

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