You may
be surprised to find that if you were to eat an etrog, one of the four species
we take on Sukot, it would taste oddly similar to the very tree the etrog came
from. While I’ve never tasted a tree, I know this because, while discussing the
commandments of Sukot, the Torah says that we need to take a fruit of a tree.
The Talmud elaborates on this and says that the intention of the Torah is that
the taste of the tree is like the taste of the fruit that we need to take. Our
tradition from Moshe is that this fruit is an etrog. Generally, when something
is a tradition from Moshe, the torah doesn’t address or explain what our
tradition is supposed to. When the Torah says totafot, there’s no explanation that it was referring to black
boxes with different scrolls inside that we know today as tfiliin. That we only
know because of a tradition from Moshe. The Torah doesn’t write words for no
reason, which is why I want to explore an additional reason why we’re told in
the Torah that the fruit we’re looking for has the same taste as the tree it
comes from. Perhaps licking the tree would be exactly like licking an etrog, or
you maybe have to do something to it first like grind it or grate it. I can’t
personally verify the truth of that. However, I can try to prove the truth in
what I believe to be the deeper hidden meaning of the etrog’s description. I
can try to prove why it’s crucial that the Torah tell us that the taste of the
tree is the taste of the fruit and why this fruit is such a fundamental part of
sukkot.
It’s
fascinating to hear the thought process of the sorting hat. He really boils
people down to their essence and makes well though-out and logical placements.
We even see him spend a full minute on certain people’s placement. In short,
it’s no simple decision. Harry noticed that it took a while for the hat to
decide that Seamus belonged in Gryffindor (I believe we find out in the fifth
why he was questionable as well as why he was placed in Gryffindor in the end).
It seems that even the object bewitched for sorting still has difficulty. Yet,
at a certain point you’d expect someone to pick up on the fact that ninety nine
out of a hundred times he just puts the person where his parents were. In the
entire series Siruis may be the only definite exception to that rule. On the
one hand we see that the decision is based on very complex considerations, and
on the other hand, any teacher who knew their parents could call what house
they would be in with exceptional accuracy before even meeting the person. That
being said, I don’t believe it’s a contradiction.
Our
first impression of Draco Malfoy reveals that already from a young age he has a
biased against muggle-borns. By the second book he’s willing to call Hermione a
mud-blood to her face, and it’s just surprising to see someone as young as
twelve who can be so foul. He, along with Crabbe and Goyle, display such
hideousness very early on, and the reason is simple. They spit out what they’ve
absorbed from their Death-Eater parents. Luna Lovegood may be among the only
people to find her father’s work to be logical. Even though it wasn’t always
his most prominent attribute, Neville displayed the pure bravery that his
parents became famous for as early as the first book. Ron becomes the sixth out
of seven Weasleys to end up in the same house as his parents, and, along with
Bill and Ginny, break the stream of pureblood in their family that their
parents preached wasn’t important. Then there’s obviously Harry who’s constantly
reminded just how similar he is to his father in every respect. He had never
even met his father! Simply by spending time with his friends and hearing
stories he was automatically inclined to do as his father did. It’s innate, and
we see from a dream he had in the third book just how much a year with a friend
of his father’s impacted him. Harry was walking through the forrest chasing wisps
of his patronus with a firebolt on his back. The excellence in quiditch that he
already had was displayed by the broomstick he was holding, and the other
elements of his father that he so aspired to attain were symbolized by the
wisps of light, which would soon take the form of a stag. He was chasing both
his and his father’s patronus. He was chasing after what would link him to his
father. All of this in the book where he meets all of his father’s friends.
It’s clear both based on their
sorting and on their most dominant qualities that throughout the series Rowling
writes the characters with a striking similarity to their parents. Even the characters
who didn’t turn out like their parents still had a lot in common. There’s no
question the Sirius was much closer to Slytherin than James. Sirius essentially
sent Snape off to his death in school, while James risked his life to save
Snape. Sirius was ready to kill Pettigrew in the third book, and we’re told by
Dumbledore that James would have saved him. As much as Sirius hated his family's
mentality and beliefs, he grew up in their house, and he was more similar to
them than he wanted to admit. To understand the seeming contradiction, a crucial
distinction needs to be drawn. Malfoy wasn’t in Slytherin because his father
was in Slytherin. He was in Slytherin because he was so much like his father…
who was in Slytherin. That hat does look at exactly who the person is, but for
good reason, that’s almost always who their parents are as well. In short, one
of the most commonly seen phenomena in Harry Potter is as the expression goes-
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
In that
age old expression, the tree of course represents the parents, and the fruit
that was detached from it represents children. I think that’s the same exact
metaphor that the Torah utilizes. The taste of the tree is like the taste of
the fruit is the original the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. However the
tree tastes, that’s how the fruit will taste. Essentially, the way a parent
acts or relates to something will almost inevitably be how the children act and
relate to it as well. Parents who don’t try to connect to the meaning and the
beauty of Torah and mitzvot and then wonder why their children don’t keep them
at all are over-looking the fact that the taste of the tree is the taste of the
fruit. If you treat Judaism like a burden, your children will almost inevitably
do the same. The Torah is trying to stress here the power that parents have in
impacting their children. A child’s personality is a reflection of what they
saw and learned from their parents. That’s a tremendous responsibility as well
as opportunity. The nation of Israel started from Yaakov’s children, as opposed
to Avraham’s and Yitzchak’s, not just because he had more, but because he had
twelve righteous children who built a special connection with Hashem, and the
nation needed to be built on the importance of proper education and proper
influence from parent to child.
This
message is especially important on Sukot. The Jews left Egypt on Pesach and
started a fifty day journey until they were ready to receive the Torah. Shortly
after they made a grave mistake by making the golden calf and were camped by
Har Sinai until they received the second set of tablets on Yom Kipur. At that
point they really began the traveling that we commemorate by dwelling in sukot.
But not only did they begin traveling, they began what would continue for generations-
inculcating mitzvot into their everyday lives. For the generation who was at
Har Sinai and heard Hashem speak, it wasn’t crazy to imagine having a personal
connection with Hashem; it wasn’t hard to find significance and meaning in what
they were doing. But for every generation afterward the difficulty would
increase. That’s when it becomes most important that the taste of the tree is
like the taste of the fruit. When the magic is bound to diminish through the
generations, the clarity with which parents display their connection to Hashem
becomes indispensable.
The Ten Commandments were divided
among two tablets. The first one being mitzvot between man and God and the
second one between man and man. It’s commonly asked why honor your father and
mother is placed on the first tablet given that it’s a mitzvah between two
people. Rav Hirsch explains that anything on the second tablet can be figured
out logically or even be instinctive. However, the first tablet wouldn’t be.
From parents, or great teachers who are often compared to parents, we derive
the knowledge and ability to follow Hashem properly. It was so exceptional that
Avraham realized on his own to follow Hashem because things like recognizing
that He is all-powerful or sanctifying His holy days are something we can’t
figure out on our own nor are they easy. They need to be taught; they need to
be inspired and lit like a flame within someone, and the earlier the better.
That’s why this massive responsibility falls on the parents. Says Rav Hirsch,
without the commandment of a proper connection between children and parents,
there is no first tablet. The prejudice that Draco shows at such a young age, which
is so scarily similar to his father’s, and the increasing bravery that Neville
displays as the books go on, which is so amazingly reflecting of his parents is
the perfect glimpse at the impacts parents have. Sukot is the time to stress the impact that
parents have on their children as well as the importance of conveying the Torah
to the next generation with the same enthusiasm and passion that it was conveyed
initially. The only way to do that is to build the same love and attachment
that we want to pass on because the next generation will express with their
actions what may have never left our minds. That’s what the etrog symbolizes;
the taste of the fruit will almost inevitably be the taste of the tree.
