Sukkah, Daf Lamed Heh, Part 1

 

Introduction

The Torah calls the etrog the "fruit of the goodly tree." Our sugya deals with how we know that this is the etrog.

 

גמרא. תנו רבנן: +ויקרא כג+ פרי עץ הדר – עץ שטעם עצו ופריו שוה, הוי אומר זה אתרוג.

 

Gemara. Our Rabbis have taught: "The fruit of a goodly tree" (Leviticus 23:40) a tree the taste of whose fruit and wood is the same. Say then that it is the etrog.

 

The Torah uses the word "tree/wood" and "fruit" in describing the etrog. According to the midrash, this means that the Torah refers to a fruit whose taste is like the wood of the tree on which it grows. The Talmud seems to think that the wood of the etrog tree tastes just like the etrog itself (never tried this). That’s how we know that the Torah refers to the etrog.

 

ואימא פלפלין? כדתניא, היה רבי מאיר אומר: ממשמע שנאמר +ויקרא יט+ ונטעתם כל עץ איני יודע שהוא עץ מאכל? מה תלמוד לומר עץ מאכל – עץ שטעם עצו ופריו שוה, הוי אומר זה פלפלין. ללמדך שהפלפלין חייבין בערלה. ואין ארץ ישראל חסרה כלום, שנאמר +דברים ח+ לא תחסר כל בה!

 

Say that it is pepper, as it has been taught: R. Meir used to say, From that which it says, "And you have planted all manner of trees," (Leviticus 19:23) do I not know that the reference is to a tree for food? What then does Scripture teach by "for food"? A tree whose fruit and wood taste the same. Say then that it is pepper. This is to teach you that the pepper tree is subject to the law of orlah and that the Land of Israel lacks nothing, as it is said, "You shall not lack anything in it"?

 

If we are looking for a fruit that tastes like the wood of the tree, then why not use the pepper (what we call black pepper)? The Talmud cites another baraita in which R. Meir midrashically demonstrates that the Torah refers to the pepper tree when phrasing the laws of orlah (the prohibition of eating fruit in its first three years of growth). Here the Torah uses "food" and "tree" in juxtaposition to teach that if the fruit tastes like the tree, it is liable for orlah.

 

התם משום דלא אפשר. היכי נעביד? ננקוט חדא – לא מינכרא לקיחתה, ננקוט תרי או תלתא – פרי אחד אמר רחמנא, ולא שנים ושלשה פירות, הלכך לא אפשר.

 

There [one cannot use peppers] since it is impossible. For what should he do? If he takes one [peppercorn], it is unrecognizable; if he takes two or three, the Torah said, one "fruit" and not two or three fruits. Therefore it is impossible.

 

The reason we don’t use peppers as one of the four species is that this is just impossible. One peppercorn would not even be noticed. And since the Torah refers to one fruit, a handful of peppercorns is not allowed.

Of course, it is hard to imagine that we were this close to using pepper as one of the species of the lulav!

 

רבי אומר: אל תקרי הדר אלא הדיר, מה דיר זה – יש בו גדולים וקטנים, תמימים ובעלי מומין, הכי נמי – יש בו גדולים וקטנים תמימים ובעלי מומין.

אטו שאר פירות לית בהו גדולים וקטנים תמימים ובעלי מומין?

אלא הכי קאמר: עד שבאין קטנים עדיין גדולים קיימים.

 

Rabbi said: Read not hadar but ha-dir; just as the stable contains large and small [animals], perfect and blemished ones, so also [the fruit spoken of must have] large and small, perfect and blemished.

But don’t other fruits have large and small, perfect and blemished?

Rather this is what you should say: Before the small ones come, the large are still existent [on the tree].

 

The Torah calls the etrog the "fruit of the hadar tree." Rabbi plays on the word "hadar," reading it as "ha-dir." A "dir" is an animal pen. Just as an animal pen contains various sizes of animals, as well as blemished and unblemished ones, so too the etrog is part of a tree with various sizes and qualities of etrogs still on it.

But, the Talmud asks, couldn’t we say the same thing of any tree don’t most trees have large and small fruits, blemished and unblemished.

To answer, the Talmud offers a small emendation on an etrog tree the old, large fruits remain even once the new ones have begun to bud.

רבי אבהו אמר: אל תקרי הדר אלא (הדר) – דבר שדר באילנו משנה לשנה. בן עזאי אומר: אל תקרי הדר אלא הדור שכן בלשון יווני קורין למים הדור ואיזו היא שגדל על כל מים – הוי אומר זה אתרוג.

 

R. Abbahu said: Read not hadar, but ha-dar, a fruit which lives upon its tree from year to year.

Ben Azzai said: Read not hadar, but hudor for in Greek water is called hudor. Now what fruit is it that grows by every water? Say it is the etrog.

 

The baraita concludes with two more puns on the word "hadar." The first is to split the word into a prefix "heh" the and the word "dar" which means to live. The etrog lives on the tree from year to year.

The second pun is based on Greek. As you know, in Greek water is "hydra." Ben Azzai says that the Hebrew "hadar" refers to the Greek "hydra" and thus means the etrog, a tree that grows on any type of water (stream, rain or irrigated). I think it’s interesting to see the rabbis reading Greek into the Torah. Creative!