Every year before the holiday of Sukkot, Jews all around the world purchase an etroga lemon-like fruitto 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 etrogs 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.
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Chapter 2 - Journey from China to Israel
Chapter 3 - The Many Interpretations of Peri ec Hadar (Leviticus 23:40)
Chapter 4 - From Foreign Import to Jewish Symbol
Chapter 5 - Conclusion
Chapter 6 -Addendum: Hala Sultan Tekke and Karnak
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)
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 Degreelăd
![Etrog How A Chinese Fruit Became a Jewish Symbol [Hardcover]](/itemImage/2/7/8/5/2_1288392.jpg "Etrog How A Chinese Fruit Became a Jewish Symbol [Hardcover] xxx")