Several people recently asked me about the theological challenge of the esrog - the citron.

The Torah does not use the word esrog. It tells us to take a pri etz hadar, which literally means a beautiful fruit of a tree. The Talmud asks how we know that this refers to the esrog. The Sages respond by presenting various exegeses of how the phrase pri etz hadar refers to the esrog.

It may come as a surprise to some (though it is becoming increasingly well-known) that the esrog is not native to the Lan...