citron

Distinctions

Hadar (הדר)

Root ה-ד-ר. In Tanach the word is glory or beauty, so pri eitz hadar on its face is either a beautiful fruit or the fruit of a beautiful tree, and tells you nothing about which fruit. Malbim, for whom hadar is outward beauty as against hod, inner beauty, explains that the citron tree is called an eitz hadar because its fruits are outwardly beautiful. In Modern Hebrew hadar was reassigned to the whole citrus genus (oranges, grapefruits, lemons, limes, tangerines, pomelos, kumquats, mandarins, clementines and the rest; the fruit closest to the citron is the one called Buddha's Hand, for its finger-like shape); the Chazon Ish discusses whether halachah treats all of these as related to one another for the prohibition of intermixing species.

Rabbi Klein calls archaeology the best outside confirmation of the citron identification: at the Royal Garden in Ramat Rachel, in southern Yerushalayim, analysis of fossilized pollen proved that citron trees already grew in Eretz Yisrael under Persian rule, that is, during the Babylonian exile and the early decades of the second Beis HaMikdash. Dr. Zohar Amar of Bar Ilan clarifies that the want of evidence for citrons before the Persian period does not prove that they were only imported then, since archaeobotany is too sporadic to give a full picture of the land's flora. By one Tannaic opinion the forbidden fruit of the Eitz HaDaas was a citron (Bereishis Rabbah 15:7, Berachos 40a), and Rabbi David Kochavi of Estelle (Provence, 1300s) infers from "the woman saw that the tree was good for eating, and that it was enticing to the eyes" (Bereishis 3:6) that the fruit only looks as though it tastes good while in fact it has very little flesh, which fits the citron.

Esrog (אתרוג) and its Aramaic forms

Esrog runs through the Mishnah (Maasros 1:4, Bikkurim 2:6, Sukkah 3:4-7, 4:7, 4:9, Meilah 6:4), and Targum Onkelos (to Vayikra 23:40) renders pri eitz hadar with it; other sources have trunga (Yerushalmi Sukkah 3:10, Gittin 2:3) or trugin (Targum Yonasan and Targum Neofiti there). Kiddushin 70a records the register question: Rav Nachman offered Rav Yehudah an etronga, and Rav Yehudah cited Shmuel that whoever says etronga is suspected of haughtiness; one says esrog as the chachamim do or esroga as ordinary people do.

All of those sources spell the word with a tav, whence the Ashkenazi esrog, but the Peshitta (to Vayikra 23:40), the Syriac translation of Tanach, spells it with a tes. Rabbi Klein suggests that this variant may indicate that esrog and its relatives are not native Hebrew words, or else that the Peshitta's authors did not know how to spell it. On the origins, the linguist Dr. Michael Sokoloff of Bar Ilan takes all these variants to be related to the Modern Persian turunj/toranj and the Middle Persian wadrang, which in turn seem related to the Sanskrit narangam, orange, though the actual Sanskrit for citron is matulunga; narangam begat the Persian and Arabic naranj, the etymon of the Spanish naranja, the Portuguese laranja and the English and French orange, and seemingly of the Spanish toronja, grapefruit. As to how naranj became orange in English, there are three main theories: confusion with the place-name Orange, a town in Provence; a misdivision, whereby the opening n of norange was taken for part of the article ("an orange") and dropped; and influence from the French or, gold, from the Latin aurum, for the fruit's golden color. The color-word followed the fruit, and the House of Orange then took that color for its coat of arms. Rabbi Klein adds that he had once thought tangerine a metathesis of orange, since the consonants mostly match, but found on looking into it that the name comes from the Moroccan port of Tangier, from which that variety was often imported. Josephus (Antiquities XVII 10:7; The War of the Jews II 4:3) mentions one Athronges/Athrongeus, a leader of the revolt against Rome, and Dr. Alexander Kohut sees that personal name as related to the Hebrew and Aramaic name of the citron.

Tapuach (תפוח)

Shir HaShirim 2:3 likens Klal Yisrael among the nations to a lone tapuach in a forest, and Rabbeinu Tam reads tapuach there as the citron (Tosafos to Shabbos 88a and Taanis 29b). Rabbi Klein offers a guess of his own, that Rabbeinu Tam may somehow have connected this to the Old French of his time and place, in which the word for an orange was pomme d'orenge, the apple of the orange. Whether he means every tapuach in Tanach or only that pasuk is not clear. Besides that verse, tapuach is a fruit three more times in Shir HaShirim (2:5, 7:9, 8:5) and twice more in Tanach (Yoel 1:12, Mishlei 25:11), and it is also the name of a Canaanite city the Jews conquered (Yehoshua 12:17, 15:34, 16:8, 17:8) and, once, of a descendant of Kalev (Divrei HaYamim I 2:43).

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "The Beautiful Citron," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 24 September 2022.

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "The Beauty of Adar," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 17 February 2018.

Cited in the essay: Vayikra 23:40 with Ibn Ezra, Targum Onkelos, Targum Yonasan, Targum Neofiti, the Peshitta and the Baal HaTurim; Bereishis 2:9, 3:6; Devarim 5:18; Mishlei 21:20, 25:11; Yoel 1:12; Shir HaShirim 2:3, 2:5, 7:9, 8:5; Yehoshua 12:17, 15:34, 16:8, 17:8; Divrei HaYamim I 2:43; Sukkah 35a; Berachos 40a; Kiddushin 70a; Tosafos to Shabbos 88a and Taanis 29b; Yerushalmi Sukkah 3:5 and 3:10, Gittin 2:3; Mishnah Maasros 1:4, Bikkurim 2:6, Sukkah 3:4-7, 4:7, 4:9, Meilah 6:4; Sifra to Vayikra 23:40; Bereishis Rabbah 15:7; Vayikra Rabbah 30:15; Tanchuma Emor 20; Rambam, Commentary on the Mishnah introduction and Moreh Nevuchim 3:43; the Raavyah; the Ramban; Malbim, Sefer HaCarmel (ח"א ערך הוד הדר הוד והדר); Rabbi Meir Mazuz; the Chazon Ish; Rabbi David Kochavi of Estelle; Dr. Zohar Amar; Dr. Michael Sokoloff; Josephus, Antiquities XVII 10:7 and The War of the Jews II 4:3; Dr. Alexander Kohut, Aruch HaShalem (תוספות הערוך השלם עמ' 437).