For the source text click/tap here: Sukkah 35
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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.
The Rishonim write that the word esrog is derived from the Aramaic word merogeg, which means desirable.
The Ritva points out that the discussion in the Gemara about how to define the passage commanding us to take a pri etz hadar cannot possibly be searching for the true identification of the fruit. By the time of the Gemara it is obvious that there were already long-standing oral traditions that the fruit that had to be taken was an etrog. Our Gemara is simply an attempt to investigate whether the well-known tradition could be shown to have a source in the written Torah, as well.
We explore the mediterranean islands of Corsica and Corfu through the eyes of Rabbi Kaganoff and review the Chazon Ish' issue with esrogim murkavim.