Etrog - by David Z Moster (Hardcover)

From the Back Cover

Every year before the holiday of Sukkot, Jews all around the world purchase an etrog--a lemon-like fruit--to participate in the holiday ritual. In this book, David Z. Moster tracks the etrog from its evolutionary home in Yunnan, China, to the lands of India, Iran, and finally Israel, where it became integral to the Jewish celebration of Sukkot during the Second Temple period. Moster explains what Sukkot was like before and after the arrival of the etrog, and why the etrog's identification as the "choice tree fruit" of Leviticus 23:40 was by no means predetermined. He also demonstrates that once the fruit became associated with the holiday of Sukkot, it began to appear everywhere in Jewish art during the Roman and Byzantine periods, and eventually became a symbol for all the fruits of the land, and perhaps even the Jewish people as a whole.

Review Quotes

"This highly documented, fascinating book is "the culmination of years of ritualistic, agricultural, and grammatical/historical information explaining how the etrog became integral to the practice of Judaism. ... It's therefore an example par excellence of what plants-and-people scholarship is all about. ... Not only is this a wonderful, detailed journey through the history of the etrog, but readers will enjoy the 80 pictures. This would make a wonderful gift book to anyone who purchases an etrog each year." (Sybil Kaplan, thej.ca, September 15, 2021)

"An exemplary piece of biblical exegesis as well as of historical botany." (Barry Dov Walfish, RBL, Review of Biblical Literature, Issue 11, 2020)

"The volume comes as well with a variety of photos, drawings, and maps, along with an addendum ... a bibliography, and indexes of primary sources and subjects." (Old Testament Abstracts, Vol. 42 (1), February, 2019)

About the Author

David Z. Moster is the Director of the Institute of Biblical Culture (BiblicalCulture.org), a live online community with classes taught by professors from both Jewish and Christian backgrounds. He is also a fellow in the department of Jewish Studies at Brooklyn College. David received his PhD in Hebrew Bible from Bar-Ilan University in Israel. Before attending Bar-Ilan, David spent two years studying in Israel and holds M.S. and Rabbinical Degrees (semikah) from Yeshiva University, as well as an M.A. in Hebrew Bible from New York University.