27 Sep ESROG: THE SYMBOL OF JEWISH BEAUTY

A woman in her
seventies had a heart
attack and was taken to
the hospital. While on
the operating table she
had a near death
experience. She had the
opportunity to ask Hashem, “Is my time up?”
Hashem answered directly, “No, you have
another 23 years, 2 months and 8 days to
live.”
Given that, the woman decided to stay in the
hospital after her recovery so that she could
obtain a face-lift and liposuction. To complete
her makeover, she even had someone come
in and change her hair color and brighten her
teeth. After all, she thought, since she had so
much more time to live, she might as well
make the most of it.
After the operation, she was released from
the hospital. While crossing the street on her
way home, she was struck by a car. Arriving
at Hashem’s door, she demanded, “I thought
you said I had another 23 years? Why didn’t
you pull me from out of the path of the
speeding car?” Hashem answered: “I would
have, but I didn’t recognize you.”
This week, Jews around the world will

universally take the exact same four species.
Whether of Ashkenazic or Sephardic descent,
or from North America, South America, the
Eastern Hemisphere or Western Hemisphere,
all Jews understand the biblical command to
take a pri eitz ha’dar to mean that they are
obligated to take an esrog. There are
hundreds, if not thousands, of varieties of
citrus fruit – oranges, grapefruits, lemons,
tangerines, and the list goes on. How do we
know that a pri etz hadar, a beautiful citrus
fruit, is specifically an esrog?
The Talmud (Sukka 25a) draws the
conclusion that a pri eitz ha’dar is an esrog by
analyzing the Hebrew word for beautiful,
ha’dar. The Gemara concludes it is the esrog
tree, because the word “hadar” in truth has
two meanings, beautiful and to dwell. They
therefore interpret the pasuk to be referring to
a fruit that is dar ba’ilan, “dwells continuously
all year on the tree.” The esrog, alone fulfills
the requirement of constant dwelling. Rabbi
Joshua Shmidman explains that while most
other fruits are seasonal, the esrog grows,
blossoms, and produces fruit throughout all
the seasons. It braves the cold, withstands the
heat, remains firm and upright in the wind,
and stubbornly persists in surviving the
storm. The esrog is truly dar, it dwells

consistently and
constantly. In fact,
the Hebrew word
dar is very similar
to the English word
endure.
In other words, by
having the same
word, hadar, mean
both beautiful and
endure, the Torah is
communicating the
Jewish definition of
beauty. Beauty is
not about the
superficial and
purely aesthetic.
Beauty is not that which is temporary and
fleeting. Many other trees and their fruits fit
that narrow definition. Rather, true beauty,
says the Torah, is the esrog, the ability to
endure and withstand the winds around us.
Beauty is having an indomitable spirit, to live
with determination, to not veer from the path,
abandon the mission, or stray from our
convictions.
Beauty is not skin deep. It is found in the
spirit of endurance, the tenacity and resolve
to continue with our convictions intact.
The Torah mandate of V’hadarta pnei
zakein is usually translated as “honor
and stand up for the elderly.” The root of
v’hadarta is dar. We respect the elderly
for their beauty. Their skin may show the
test of time, their joints may have the
wear and tear of decades, they may be
slow or infirm, but their strength to
endure demonstrates an unsurpassed
beauty, worthy of respect and admiration.
Shai Agnon, the great Israeli Nobel
laureate whose image adorns the
50-shekel note, lived in the Jerusalem
neighborhood of Talpiot and was a
neighbor of a famous elderly rabbi from
Russia. One year, prior to Sukkos, Agnon
met his rabbinic neighbor at the
neighborhood store selling esrogim.
There Agnon noticed how meticulous
his neighbor was in choosing an esrog.
Even though he was a person of limited
means, the rabbi insisted on purchasing
the finest, and by extension most
expensive, esrog available. After
examining many specimens, the rabbi
finally chose the one he wished and paid
for it.
Walking home with Agnon, the rabbi
emphasized to him how important it was
to have a beautiful, flawless esrog on
Sukkos, and how the beauty of the esrog
was part of the fulfillment of the Divine
commandment for the holiday. On
Sukkos morning Agnon noticed that the

rabbi was without an esrog at the synagogue
services. Perplexed, Agnon asked the rabbi
where his beautiful esrog was.
The rabbi answered by relating the
following incident:
“I awoke early, as is my wont, and prepared
to recite the blessing over the esrog in my
sukkah located on my balcony. As you know,
we have a neighbor with a large family, and
our balconies adjoin. As you also know, our
neighbor, the father of all these children next
door, is a man of short temper. Many times he
shouts at them or even hits them for violating
his rules and wishes. I have spoken to him
many times about his harshness but to little
avail.
“As I stood in the sukkah on my balcony,
about to recite the blessing for the esrog, I
heard a child’s weeping coming from the
next balcony. It was a little girl crying, one of
the children of our neighbor. I walked over to
find out what was wrong. She told me that
she too had awakened early and had gone out
on her balcony to examine her father’s esrog,
whose delightful appearance and fragrance
fascinated her. Against her father’s
instructions, she removed the esrog from its
protective box to examine it. She
unfortunately dropped the esrog on the stone
floor, irreparably damaging it and rendering
it unacceptable for ritual use. She knew that
her father would be enraged and would
punish her severely, perhaps even violently.
Hence the frightened tears and wails of
apprehension.
“I comforted her, and I then took my esrog
and placed it in her father’s box, taking the
damaged esrog to my premises. I told her to
tell her father that his neighbor insisted that
he accept the gift of the beautiful esrog, and
that he would be honoring me and the holiday
by so doing.”
Agnon concludes the story by saying: “My
rabbinic neighbor’s damaged, bruised,
ritually unusable esrog was the most beautiful
esrog I have ever seen in my lifetime.”