Bechorot 7a ~ Pig x Sheep

This post is for the page of Talmud we will study on Friday.

(There’s a lot going on this week.)

On this page of Talmud there is a debate regarding the crossbreeding of different species, and the possibility that a non-kosher animal (say, a pig) could fertilize a kosher animal (like a sheep):

בכורות ז, א

והאמר ר' יהושע בן לוי לעולם אין מתעברת לא טמאה מן הטהור ולא טהורה מן הטמא ולא גסה מן הדקה ולא דקה מן הגסה ולא בהמה מן חיה ולא חיה מן בהמה חוץ מר' אליעזר ומחלוקתו שהיו אומרים חיה מתעברת מבהמה

...R. Yehoshua ben Levi said: A non-kosher female can never conceive from a kosher male, nor a kosher female from a non-kosher male, nor a large animal from a small animal, nor a small animal from a large animal, nor a domesticated animal from a non-domesticated animal, nor a non-domesticated animal from a domesticated animal, except for R. Eliezer and his disputant [in Chulin 79b], who claimed that a non-domesticated animal can conceive from a domesticated animal...(Bechorot 7a)

Here is the Talmud in Bava Kama that records that view of “R. Eliezer and his disputant.”

בבא קמא עז, ב – עח, א

ואמר רבא זה בנה אב כל מקום שנאמר שה אינו אלא להוציא את הכלאים ...אמר לך ר"א כי איתמר דרבא לטמא שנולד מן הטהור ועיבורו מן הטמא...וטהורה מטמאה מי מיעברא אין דקיי"ל דאיעבר מקלוט 

Rava said this establishes a model and teaches that wherever the term שה [seh] is stated in the Bible, it is meant to exclude a hybrid... R. Eliezer would say to you  - when did Rava state his model?  With respect to a non-kosher animal that was born from a kosher mother and a non-kosher father...But can a kosher animal conceive from a non-kosher animal? Yes, for it has been established that this case refers to a kosher animal that was conceived from a [kosher mutant animal that was] born with uncloven hooves. (Bava Kamma 77b-78a)

A pig in sheep's clothing? Nope. Just a pig.

Here the Talmud claims that a non-kosher animal (say, a pig) could not fertilize a kosher animal (like a sheep). If an animal appears to have the features of a sheep-pig cross-breed, it is, in fact, the offspring of a kosher animal that is breed with another kosher animal but which looks non-kosher because of a mutation that causes it to have non-cloven hooves. Here is that case:

k= kosher; m= mutant, born with non-cloven hooves

Which leads to the question of the day: Can a kosher animal indeed successfully breed with a non-kosher animal? Let's take a look.

When a pig loves a sheep

Pigs have been known to act, well, like pigs, and copulate with sheep. But could this lead to a baby peep, or ship, or whatever you'd like to call it? There are pictures that suggest this may be so, but in actual fact this pig with wool is the rare Hungarian Mangalitza pig, and has no sheep ancestry.  

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Foster Dwight Coburn, a farmer who also served as the secretary of the Kansas Department of Agriculture published Swine in America; a text-book for Breeder, Feeder and Student, and on page 63 he made the following observation: 

There exists in some sections of Old Mexico a type of “hog” represented as the product of crossing a ram with a sow, and the term “Cuino” has been applied to this rather violent combination. The ram used as a sire to produce the Cuino is kept with the hogs from the time he is weaned. A resident of Mexico has given the following description of the Cuino: “The sow used to produce the Cuino belongs to any race, but as a rule to the Razor-Back family, which is the more numerous. There is never any difficulty with her accepting the ram when breeding time comes. The progeny is a pig—unmistakably a pig—with the form and all the characteristics of the pig, but he is entirely different from his dam if she is a Razor-Back. He is round-ribbed and blocky, his short legs cannot take him far from his sty, and his snout is too short to root with. His head is not unlike that of the Berkshire. His body is covered with long, thick, curly hair, not soft enough to be called wool, but which nevertheless he takes from his sire. His color is black, white-black, and white-brown and white. He is a good grazer and is mostly fed on grass with one or two ears of corn a day, and on these he fattens quickly. The Cuino reproduces itself, and is often crossed a second and third time with a ram. Be it what it may, the Cuino is the most popular breed of hogs in the state of Oaxaca, and became so on account of their propensity to fatten on little food.”

It may have been the most popular pig breed in Oxaca, but it was still rather an oddity in the US; newspapers found them interesting, as evidenced by two reports, from 1902 and 1908 about sheep-pig hybrids.  

The Minneapolis Journal, September 24, 1902, from here.

Los Angeles Herald. October 3, 1908, from here.

Species and interbreeding

Despite these reports, it would seem that the rule suggested by R. Yehoshua ben Levi is correct. Different species cannot successfully interbreed, because, well, because that's the definition of a species, as the Oxford English Dictionary makes clear:

A group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding. The species is the principal natural taxonomic unit, ranking below a genus and denoted by a Latin binomial, e.g., Homo sapiens.

So although it is a tautology, you get the idea: a species by definition can only breed with other members of its own species. If a pig and a sheep could breed and have offspring, they'd be members of the same species. But they are not. Pigs belong to genus Sus, and the species Scrofa, whereas sheep belong to the genus Ovis and the species Aries. Pigs have 38 chromosomes, and sheep have 54.  So they cannot cross-breed.  (Lions and tigers both have 38 chromosomes, so they can cross breed, and produce a liger.)

But it's not as simple as that.  Even if you don't have the same number of chromosomes, you can still sometimes breed outside your species. Horses have 64 chromosomes and donkeys have 62. Yet they can cross breed, resulting in a mule (if mom was a horse) or a hinny (if mum was a donkey), although both are nearly always sterile. Horses belong to the genus Equus and the species ferus, and donkeys belong to the same genus but to a different species, africanus.  Yet they can interbreed.  Which raises the question: should a horse and a donkey be re-classified as belonging to the same species? But that would be odd, because they look so different and act in very different ways.

These kinds of questions  are perplexing, and have challenged the world of biology since the time of Carl Linnaeus (d. 1778) who gave the world a way of categorizing and naming all living things called binomial nomenclature. Briefly it goes like this: the grey wolf belongs to the genus Canis and the species lupus.  Dogs belong to the same genus, Canis, and are a subspecies of wolves, so their scientific name is Canis lupus familiaris (which I suppose makes it a trinomial nomenclature).  We belong to the genus Homo and the species sapiens, whereas chimpanzees belong to a different genus and species, Pan troglodytes. Anyway just what gets a creature into one species class or another is a really challenging question, one that is still being played out in the scientific literature. There's even a 320 page book from the University of California Press in which the author "provides a new perspective on the relationship between philosophical and biological approaches" to the concept of a species. For now, though, R. Yehoshua ben Levi's generalization found in Bechorot is pretty close to the Linnaean taxonomy we use today.  We can also conclude that the general rule of the Talmud from today's daf, that a kosher animal could not successfully breed with a non-kosher one, is a pretty good rule of thumb.

“Every living thing loves its like,
and every person his own sort.
All creatures flock together with their kind.”

— Ecclesiasticus, 13:15.

[Repost from Bava Kama 77.]

Talmudology on the Parsha, Vezot Haberacha: Where Does Dew Come From?

דברים 32:13

וּלְיוֹסֵף אָמַר מְבֹרֶכֶת יְהֹוָה אַרְצוֹ מִמֶּגֶד שָׁמַיִם מִטָּל וּמִתְּהוֹם רֹבֶצֶת תָּחַת׃

And of Joseph he said:
Blessed of God be his land
With the bounty of dew from heaven,
And of the deep that couches below

In this penultimate chapter of the Torah, Moshe blesses each of the Tribes of Israel. On reaching the Tribe of Joseph, Moshe asks that they be blessed with “the bounty of the dew from heaven” - “מְבֹרֶכֶת ה׳ אַרְצוֹ מִמֶּגֶד שָׁמַיִם מִטָּל” Dew is not something we think about very often, and its appearance was long considered a mystery, until a British physician named William Charles Wells spent thirty years solving it.

Dew In the Talmud

The Talmud takes dew very seriously, and in tractate Taanit Rabbi Hanina makes a curious claim: dew never ceases to appear, and the winds never cease to blow - אָמַר רַבִּי חֲנִינָא: לְפִי שֶׁאֵין נֶעֱצָרִין. It is for this reason that there is no requirement to ask them of God in the silent prayer known as the Amidah, (although they may mentioned, for good measure).

But in the Book of Kings, Elijah tells the wicked King Ahab that God will withhold the rain and the dew:

מלאכים א, 17:1

וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלִיָּהוּ הַתִּשְׁבִּי מִתֹּשָׁבֵי גִלְעָד אֶל אַחְאָב חַי ה׳ אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֲשֶׁר עָמַדְתִּי לְפָנָיו אִם יִהְיֶה הַשָּׁנִים הָאֵלֶּה טַל וּמָטָר כִּי אִם לְפִי דְבָרִי

And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab: As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be no dew or rain in these years but according to my word.

The Talmud explains that there are two kinds of dew: regular dew that appears every day, and a second dew that only appears as a blessing. It was this second kind of dew, which helps the crops to grow, that was being witheld as a punishment. But, rather sneakily, the two dews are indistinguishable, so when God ended the drought of rain, he did not re-introduce the second type of dew, since its presence is imperceptible. In other words, a blessing that you cannot tell from the background is a blessing that does not need announcing. Or something like that.

תענית ג ב

אֲפִילּוּ טַל בְּרָכָה נָמֵי לָא אָתֵי ... מִשּׁוּם דְּלָא מִינַּכְרָא מִילְּתָא

Elijah told Ahab that even the dew of blessing would not come... [and God did not restore it afterward] because the matter is not recognizable. (Taanit 3b)

So Where does the dew come from?

For many centuries, the origin of dew was completely mysterious. The answer took a long time to arrive. Aristotle believed that there was a kind of dew equivalent of the rain cycle. As outlined in his Meteorolgy (Book I, 9-11), the sun's heat lifts moisture from the earth as vapor. Some of the vapor does not rise high during the day, because the heat lifting it is weak relative to the amount of moisture. When it cools and descends at night, it is called dew.

For all his fame, Aristotle’s claims were usually wrong. This one was no different, although it stayed around for a couple of millennia; until 1814 to be precise. The man who finally settled the question was not a meteorologist. He was a physician named William Charles Wells, who practiced St. Thomas's Hospital in London, and in 1812 he began, in his own words, to study dew “with great patience.” In 1814 he published An Essay on Dew, and Several Appearances Connected with It, which won him the Royal Society's Rumford Medal. The physicist John Tyndall later called it "a model of wise enquiry and lucid exposition," and it has been described as the “first foundational paper in modern climate science.”

“If, in the course of the night, the weather, from being calm and serene, should become windy and cloudy, not only will dew cease to form, but that which had previously formed, will either disappear, or diminish considerably.”

— William Charles Wells. An Essay on Dew. London 1815, 5-6.

Wells' Experiments

Armed with thermometers, wool, paper, string, wood shavings and a friend's suburban lawn, Wells set out to discover how dew forms. He concluded that it is neither invisible rain falling from heaven nor sweat from plants. Rather, it is condensation from air in contact with objects that have cooled by radiating their heat into a cloudless night sky. It forms best on calm, clear nights. Clouds interrupt the radiation, and cloud cover reduces or stops dew. Dark materials and poor conductors of heat collect more dew than pale ones and good conductors. Fine shavings of wood collected more dew than a thick piece of the same wood. Metals, which cool slowly, attract much less.

So rain and dew are intimately connected. Rain needs clouds; dew needs their absence. The Talmud noticed that dew behaves differently from rain, even if it lacked a mechanism to explain why. Strictly speaking, dew is not "never withheld." It depends on clear, still nights, and it will not form under cloud cover or in wind. But look at what the Gemara actually does. It places dew in the same category as wind and groups both with things that are not withheld. And it distinguishes dew from clouds, which it says can be withheld in the later part of the rainy season.

And what of the verse's claim that dew comes "from heaven"? Wells showed that dew does not fall. Rather, it forms in place, from the moisture in the air at ground level. But that is a physicist's quibble. The sky is what cools the ground, so perhaps, after all, the dew does come from heaven.

A Note on Gideon's Fleece

Readers of the ספר שופטים (The Book of Judges) will recall Gideon's famous test. While rallying the Tribes of Israel to join his fight against Ba’al, Gideon asks God for a sign he will be victorious: that a fleece left outside be wet with dew while the ground stays dry. And that’s what happens. Wells's finding that different materials collect very different amounts of dew makes that outcome easy to imagine for a woolly object. Not satisfied, Gideon asks for a different (harder?) miracle: that the fleece now remain dry while the ground became wet with dew. Now that’s much harder to explain, and so, I suppose, it was a really convincing sign.

שופטים 6:36-40

וַיֹּאמֶר גִּדְעוֹן אֶל־הָאֱלֹהִים אִם־יֶשְׁךָ מוֹשִׁיעַ בְּיָדִי אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבַּרְתָּ׃

הִנֵּה אָנֹכִי מַצִּיג אֶת־גִּזַּת הַצֶּמֶר בַּגֹּרֶן אִם טַל יִהְיֶה עַל־הַגִּזָּה לְבַדָּהּ וְעַל־כל־הָאָרֶץ חֹרֶב וְיָדַעְתִּי כִּי־תוֹשִׁיעַ בְּיָדִי אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבַּרְתָּ׃

וַיֹּאמֶר גִּדְעוֹן אֶל־הָאֱלֹהִים אַל־יִחַר אַפְּךָ בִּי וַאֲדַבְּרָה אַךְ הַפָּעַם אֲנַסֶּה נָּא־רַק־הַפַּעַם בַּגִּזָּה יְהִי־נָא חֹרֶב אֶל־הַגִּזָּה לְבַדָּהּ וְעַל־כל־הָאָרֶץ יִהְיֶה־טָּל׃

וַיַּעַשׂ אֱלֹהִים כֵּן בַּלַּיְלָה הַהוּא וַיְהִי־חֹרֶב אֶל־הַגִּזָּה לְבַדָּהּ וְעַל־כל־הָאָרֶץ הָיָה טָל׃

וַיְהִי־כֵן וַיַּשְׁכֵּם מִמחֳרָת וַיָּזַר אֶת־הַגִּזָּה וַיִּמֶץ טַל מִן־הַגִּזָּה מְלוֹא הַסֵּפֶל מָיִם׃

And Gideon said to God, “If You really intend to deliver Israel through me as You have said, here I place a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If dew falls only on the fleece and all the ground remains dry, I shall know that You will deliver Israel through me, as You have said.” And that is what happened. Early the next day, he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew from the fleece, a bowlful of water. Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me if I speak just once more. Let me make just one more test with the fleece: let the fleece alone be dry, while there is dew all over the ground.” God did so that night: only the fleece was dry, while there was dew all over the ground.

William Charles Wells. An Essay on Dew. London 1815, 149.

חג שמח from Talmudology

עד הנצחון

Want more on Wells and dew? Have a read here and here.

From the Talmudology Archives: The Vilna Gaon’s Sleepless Nights over Sukkot

In honor of Sukkot, here is a Talmudology encore presentation about the Vilna Gaon’s refusal to sleep in prison over Sukkot.

Let’s start with the Talmud in Nedarim, the tractate that deals with vows.

נדרים טו א

והא"ר יוחנן שבועה שלא אישן שלשה ימים מלקין אותו וישן לאלתר

...Rabbi Yochanan said "An oath that I will not sleep for three days" - we lash him [since he took an oath in vain] and he may sleep immediately...(Nedarim 15a)

How long can you go without sleep? If you are like me, staying awake for just one night can be very challenging.  I worked my share of night shifts in the emergency department for over fifteen years (amounting to hundreds of overnight shifts) but it never got any easier with time. We all push ourselves when we need to, but is there a physiological limit to the amount of time that you can stay awake?

The World Record for Staying Awake

The world record for staying awake is an amazing eleven days. Eleven days – that’s 264 hours (and 24 minutes to be precise) without sleep. It was set in 1965 by Randy Gardner, who was then seventeen years old. Gardner seems to have suffered little if any harm by his marathon period of sleep deprivation. But don’t try and beat the record. The Guinness Book of Records no longer has an entry for staying awake – because it is considered too dangerous an ordeal to undertake. (You can hear a review of sleep deprivation stunts in general and a wonderful interview with Gardner himself here.)

The Health Risks of Sleep Deprivation

A 1970 study of four volunteers who stayed awake for 205 hours (that’s eight and a half days!) noted some differences in how the subjects slept once they were allowed to do so, but follow-up testing of the group conducted 6-9 months after the sleep deprivation showed that their sleep patterns were similar to the pre-deprivation recordings.

Although Randy Gardner and these four volunteers seem to have suffered no long-term health consequences of staying awake for over a week, scientists have long noted that sleep deprivation is rather bad for the body. Or to be more precise, the bodies of unfortunate laboratory rats who are not allowed to sleep. In these animals, prolonged sleep deprivation causes the immune system to malfunction. This results in infection and eventual lethal septicemia. The physiologist who kept these rats awake noted that there are “far-reaching physical implications resulting from alterations in immune status [which] may explain why sleep deprivation effects are risk factors for disease and yet are not well defined or specifically localized.” In other words, sleep deprivation makes rats really sick, but we don’t know how, or why…

One possible explanation was suggested in a 2013 by a group from the University of Rochester Medical Center. They demonstrated that during sleep, the space between the cells of the brain (the interstitial space) increased by up to 60%, allowing toxic metabolites to be cleared. This raises the question of whether the brain sleeps in order to expel these toxic chemicals, or rather it is the chemicals themselves that drive the brain to switch into a sleep state.

The extracellular (interstitial) space in the cortex of the mouse brain, through which cerebral spinal fluid moves, increases from 14% in the awake animal to 23% in the sleeping animal, an increase that allows the faster clearance of metabolic waste products and toxins. From Suzana Herculano-Houzel. Sleep it out. Science 2013: 342; 316

Not having any sleep is bad for your health - but so too is going without enough sleep. Chronic restriction of sleep to six hours or less per night can produce cognitive performance deficits equivalent to up to two nights of total sleep deprivation. So be sure to get a full night's rest.

How long did the Vilna Gaon stay awake?

And now, with this background, we can turn to Sukkot. In his book on the Vilna Gaon, Eli Stern reviewed an episode in which the Gaon (d. 1797) was jailed on charges of kidnapping. (It’s a long story, but the Vilna Gaon was involved in the kidnapping of a young Jewish man who had converted to Christianity.) This episode occurred in January 1788, after which the Gaon was arrested and held for over a month.  The case was later tried, and on September 15, 1789 (sic) the Gaon of Vilna (together with others involved in the kidnapping) was sentenced to twelve weeks in jail.  Although it is unclear how long he was imprisoned, he was there over Sukkot, and the Lithuanian authorities were hardly in the practice of providing imprisoned Jews with a sukkah.  But since one is not permitted to sleep outside of the sukkah, what was the Gaon to do?  Simple.  He’d stay awake, and by doing so he would not transgress the prohibition of sleeping outside the sukkah.  Here’s how the episode is described in the work Tosefet Ma’aseh Rav published in 1892. 

Our Leader, teacher and Rabbi may he rest in peace, when he was imprisoned on Sukkot, tried with all his strength, and walked from one place to another, and held his eyelids open, and made an extraordinary effort not to sleep outside the sukkah – not even a brief nap – until the authorities released him to a sukkah.

We don’t know for how long the sixty-nine year-old Elijah stayed awake, but any suggestion that he was awake for the entire holiday of Sukkot seems to be far fetched (though as we have seen, not entirely impossible).

Hard, But Not Impossible

As we read in the Talmud, Rabbi Yochanan ruled that since it impossible to stay awake for more than three days, any vow to do so is considered to have been a vow made in vain – and punishment follows swiftly.  Here is how the ArtScroll Talmud explains this ruling, (based on the explanation of the Ran).

Since it is impossible for a person to go without sleep for three days, the man has uttered a vain oath. Hence, he receives lashes for violating the prohibition (Exodus 20:7): לא תשא את שם ה׳ אלוקיך לשוא, You shall not take the Name of Hashem, your God, in vain. And since the oath -being impossible to fulfill -has no validity, he is not bound by it at all and may sleep immediately.

We have seen however, that while it’s not a good idea to do so on any kind of regular basis, it is certainly possible to stay up for longer than three days. (Back in the 1970s, some volunteers would even do so for as little as $100). Maimonides codified this law and also assume that it is impossible to stay awake for three consecutive days. 

רמב"ם הלכות שבועות פרק ה הלכה כ

נשבע שלא יישן שלשת ימים, או שלא יאכל כלום שבעת ימים וכיוצא בזה שהיא שבועת שוא, אין אומרין יעור זה עד שיצטער ויצום עד שיצטער ולא יהיה בו כח לסבול ואח"כ יאכל או יישן אלא מלקין אותו מיד משום שבועת שוא ויישן ויאכל בכל עת שירצה

Based on what we've reviewed, Rabbi Yochanan was incorrect when he stated that it was impossible to stay awake for three days. It's certainly not impossible, but that hardly means it's a good idea to try. 

“Sleep deprivation reduces learning, impairs performance in cognitive tests, prolongs reaction time, and is a common cause of seizures. In the most extreme case, continuous sleep deprivation kills rodents and flies within a period of days to weeks. In humans, fatal familial or sporadic insomnia is a progressively worsening state of sleeplessness that leads to dementia and death within months or years. ”

— Lulu Xie et al. Sleep Drives Metabolite Clearance from the Adult Brain. Science 2013. 342.317

This may explain the teaching of Rabbi Chaninah ben Chachina'i in Masechet Avot  (3:4) who taught that one who stays awake at night "will forfeit with his life."  Now that's a warning to heed.

רבי חנינא בן חכינאי אומר הנעור בלילה ... הרי זה מתחייב בנפשו

Happy Sukkot from Talmudology 

Talmudology for Sukkot~ Take Two Etrogim, and Call Me in the Morning: The Citron as Medicine.

In honor of Sukkot, which begins on Friday night, here is a treat from the Talmudology archives.

שבת שלום וחג שמח

The Midrash tells a story of a man who was so generous with his charitable donations that he had no money left to feed his own family. Out of ideas, he did what I suppose anyone in his position would have done. He went to gather up discarded etrogim [the citron taken as part of the four species on the Festival of Sukkot] and went to see a king.

ויקרא רבה לו:ה

, וְנִתְבַּיֵּישׁ לֵילֵךְ לְבֵיתוֹ הָלַךְ לוֹ לְבֵית הַכְּנֶסֶת, חָמָא תַּמָּן מִן אִלֵּין אֶתְרוֹגַיָא דְּמֵינוּקַיָא מְקַלְקְלֵי בְּיוֹם הוֹשַׁעְנָא, וּתְנִינַן תַּמָּן מִיָּד הַתִּינוֹקוֹת שׁוֹמְטִין לוּלָבֵיהֶן וְאוֹכְלִים אֶתְרוֹגֵיהֶם, נְסַב מִנְּהוֹן וּמְלָא יָת סַקָּא וְהָלַךְ לִפְרשׁ בַּיָּם הַגָּדוֹל, עַד שֶׁהִגִּיעַ לִמְדִינַת הַמֶּלֶךְ, כֵּיוָן שֶׁהִגִּיעַ שָׁם אַרָעַת שַׁעְתָּא וְאִשְׁתְּכַח מַלְכָּא חָשֵׁשׁ מֵעוֹי, אָמְרִין לֵיהּ בְּחֶלְמָא אַסְוָתָךְ אֱכֹל מִן אִלֵּין אֶתְרוֹגִין דִּיהוּדָאי מַצְלִין עִמְּהוֹן בְּיוֹם הוֹשַׁעְנָא וְאַתְּ מִתְּסֵי, פִּשְׁפְּשִׁין בְּהַהוּא שַׁעְתָּא לְכָל אִלְפַיָא וּלְכָל מְדִינְתָּא וְלָא אַשְׁכְּחוּן, אָזְלִין וְאַשְׁכְּחוּן לְהַהוּא גַבְרָא יָתֵיב עַל סַקָּא, אָמְרִין לֵיהּ אִית גַּבָּךְ כְּלוּם, אֲמַר לָהֶם גְּבַר מִסְכֵּן אֲנָא וְלֵית גַּבִּי כְּלוּם לִמְזַבְּנָא, פִּשְׁפְּשׁוּ בְּסַקָּא וְאַשְׁכְּחוּן מִן אִלֵּין אֶתְרוֹגִין, וַאֲמָרִין לֵיהּ אִלֵּין מָה הֵן, אֲמַר לוֹן מִן אִלֵּין דִּיהוּדָאי מַצְלֵי בְּיוֹם הוֹשַׁעְנָא, אַטְעָנוּן סַקָּא וְאַעֲלוּהָ קֳדָם מַלְכָּא, אָכַל מַלְכָּא אִלֵּין אֶתְרוֹגַיָיא וְאִתְּסֵי. פַּנּוּן שַׂקָּא וּמְלָאוּהָ דִינָרִין…

…He was ashamed to go to his home. He went to the synagogue and saw there some of the citrons that the children away... He took some of them and filled a sack, and embarked on a voyage in the Mediterranean Sea until he reached the province of the king. When he arrived there, it happened to be that the king had an intestinal illness. They said to him in a dream: ‘Your cure is to eat from those citrons with which the Jews pray on the day of the hoshana, and you will be cured.’ At that time, they searched all the ships and all the provinces, but could not find any. They went and found that man sitting on the sack. They said to him: ‘Do you have anything?’ He said to them: ‘I am a poor man and I have nothing to sell.’ They searched the sack and found those citrons. They said to him: ‘What are they?’ He said to them: ‘From those with which the Jews pray on the day of the hoshana.’ They loaded the sack and took it in before the king. The king ate those citrons and he was cured. They emptied the sack and filled it with dinars..

The etrog as medicine? Yes. People once believed, and many still believe today, that the etrog has medicinal uses. So in honor of Sukkot, let’s talk about some of them.

The Etrog in Ma’aseh Tuviah

The etrog as a medicine appears in one of the first Jewish encyclopedias, written by Tuviah Hacohen. He studied in a yeshivah in Cracow, and at the age of twenty-six, entered the University of Frankfurt, where he began to study medicine. Despite being taken under the wing of Fredrick William, the elector of Brandenburg, and receiving a stipend from him, anti-Jewish sentiment prevented Tuviah from graduating. As a result, he left for the University of Padua, where he graduated with a degree in medicine in 1683 and soon found employment as a physician in Turkey. He published his only work, Ma’aseh Tuviah (The Work of Tuviah), in Venice in 1708 and moved in 1715 to Jerusalem, where he died in 1729.

Tuviah Cohen has long been a favorite of historians of science and Judaism. Perhaps this is because he was a reformer of sorts, ready to sweep away old superstitions and replace them with scientific knowledge. Perhaps it is because his book, Ma’aseh Tuviah, was “... the best-illustrated Hebrew medical work of the pre-modern era,” full of wonderful drawings about astronomy and anatomy. Perhaps it is because his book is so clearly printed and a pleasure to read in the original. Or perhaps it is because Cohen was so adamantly opposed to Copernicus that he called him the “Firstborn of Satan”– which made his the first Hebrew work to attack Copernicus and his heliocentric system.

In any event, Tuviah wrote about the wonderful healing properties of the etrog.

Ma'aseh Tuviah, Venice 1708, 146a.

Because in homes that have abundant medicines they also have the five special fruits through with the Land of Israel was blessed, I will write in praise of the of etrog [פרי עץ הדר] which is more beautiful than any other fruit…. both the peel and the fruit itself are delicious to eat, and it also has many wonderful properties [סגולות נפלאות]. The peel alleviates all internal pain and strengthens the muscles. while the white of the fruit strengthens the internal organs. Its bitter taste is good for the liver, and cures thirst. The seeds are also good for internal pain as an an aid for digestion…it is as good as theriac for any person who is ill, and it is particularly beneficial for children with viral infections [ויראוליס] like smallpox. The wood of the tree itself does not have these qualities though without doubt it imparts them to the fruit, which is why the fruit never falls far from the tree [התפוח אינו נופל רחוק מן העץ]. And so if there is a scarcity of the fruit, cut some wood from the etrog tree and boil. It will strengthen the body and a serve to heal the soul.

The Etrog as a Cure for Cholera

We have had occasion in the past to talk about Hayyim Palagi (there are many different ways to spell his last name, 1788– 1868) who was a rabbi and leader of the Jewish community in Izmir (Smyrna), Turkey, though his influence was felt far beyond. Writing about the 1865 cholera outbreak in Turkey, Rabbi Palagi recalled how the Jews had fled Izmir.

In our town of Izmir in 5625 [= 1865] there was an outbreak of cholera, just like the outbreak of 5592 [= 1832] and many fled. The few who remained in the town were expelled by the mayor on the advice of physicians, and left for a nearby mountainside where men, women and children camped, and remained for about three weeks. There was not a single case of cholera the entire time,and the outbreak in the town eventually ended. During that time, I was particular with my prayers, and I prayed to God in the merit of Abraham who was called “a mountain” . . . that the merit of our ancestors would protect us and that we would not fall ill. And so it was. Praise be to God, for his loving kindness endures forever.

I am lucky to own a copy of one of his many works, called Refuah Vehayyim, published in Izmir in 1874. (It even contains three handwritten annotations in the margins written by Rabbi Palagi’s youngest son Yosef.) And here is what you can find on page 12b (though alas, there are no marginalia).

Sefer Refuah Vehayyim, Izmir 1874. 12b. (Chapter 4 #2).

It is written in the name of our teacher Rabbi Hayyim Vital, that to cure cholera take distilled water and the resin of the (?) mastic tree…and take half a cup of the size used for kiddush…and boil it with the resin and give it to the patient. And this is guaranteed.

And it is writtn in the Sefer Otzar Hayyim that this works with etrog peel…

Later in the book, Rabbi Palagi wrote that the etrog can be used for stomach aches in general, and not just those associated with cholera. However, it cannot be any old citron; it must be an etrog used for the mitzvah of lulav and etrog on Sukkot:

Sefer Refuah Vehayyim, Izmir 1874. 51b

For a stomach ache: the remedy is to eat etrogim with were used for the mitzvah of lulav and etrog during the holiday and through Hoshanah Rabbah. For they are used in prayer, and they heal…sometimes they are hard to digest, in which case they should be peeled and then boiled, and then that water should be drunk.

But wait - there’s more

In another of his many books Mo’ed Lekol Chai, Rabbi Palagi recommended the etrog as a means for easing the pains and dangers of childbirth. He cited another work in which this suggestion appeared, though in a slightly different and shorter form. (That work is Nazir Shimshon, published by Ya’akov Shimshon Shabtai Sinigaliah in Pisa in 1783. It is on page 38.)

When a women is pregnant, she should take the etrog on Hosha’ana Rabbah and after removing the pittom [style] she should distribute charity to the poor each according to her means, and she should pray that God should should save her and that her child should be born healthy.

The reason for this is that there is an opinion that the Tree of Knowledge was an etrog, and when Eve ate from it, Death came into the world. We know that many women die during childbirth, and therefore they should undertake this ritual and say the following prayer:

Master of the Universe, you know that because Chava [Eve] ate from the Tree of Knowledge she sinned and brought Death to the world as well as the pains of childbirth. Had I been there at that time I would not have eaten from it and I would not have benefitted from it in any way, just as I did not want to blemish the etrog during the Festival [of Sukkot] But now I have blemished it, because now it is no longer a mitzvah to take it. I would never want to disobey your mitzvot. Please accept my prayer and my supplication that I should not die as a result of this child or as a result of childbirth. Save me, grant me an easy labor without pain or hardship and let no harm befall me or my child, for you are the God who saves…

And so any man whose wife is pregnant during Sukkot should arrange for her to take the etrog and give it to his wife and she should follow this procedure. She should say this prayer word for word and conclude by saying “let this infant bring contentment and not pain, and may it be born to a good and peaceful life. Amen.”

Hayyim Pilagi, Mo'ed Lekol Chai Jerusalem 1976 #25.

The Etrog increases Male potency

The etrog. It’s not just for women. In the anonymous collection of segulot called Sefer Refuot published in Vienna in 1926, we find the following recommendation:

Sefer Refuot, Vienna 1926

For increased virility, take four drahms of the tongue of an ox together with half a handful of etrog peel and half a drahm of girofilo

Good to know.

Not so Fast - Chaim Bachrach and his objection

Rabbi Yair Hayyim Bachrach (1638-1702) better known by his famous work the Chavot Yair, was a leading posek of his generation, and led the communities of Worms and Mainz. In his commentary on the Tur (הלכות לולב #664) he also noted the custom of pregnant women biting off the pittom of the etrog, and he was not happy about it. Not at all.

It is the custom of pregnant women to bite off the tip of the etrog and it is mentioned in the Tzenah Urenah.How fortunate we are that this custom has been utterly uprooted.

Jewish Etrogs, and Greek Etrogs

The belief in the medicinal properties of the etrog was not unique to our ancestors alone. The Greeks believed it too. In fact, it was they who gave the fruit we know as an etrog a name that reflects just this; they called it Citrus Medica, “the medical citrus" and that is the Latin name of the species to this day. Citrus Medica.

Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24–79) better known as Pliny the Elder held the cirton tree in very high esteem as demonstrated by this passage in his Natural History (Book XII chapter 7):

The citron tree, called the Assyrian, and by some the Median apple, is an antidote against poisons. The leaf is similar to that of the arbute, except that it has small prickles running across it. As to the fruit, it is never eaten, but it is remarkable for its extremely powerful smell, which is the case, also, with the leaves; indeed, the odour is so strong, that it will penetrate clothes, when they are once impregnated with it, and hence it is very useful in repelling the attacks of noxious insects. The tree bears fruit at all seasons of the year; while some is falling off, other fruit is ripening, and other, again, just bursting into birth. Various nations have attempted to naturalize this tree among them, for the sake of its medical properties, by planting it in pots of clay, with holes drilled in them, for the purpose of introducing the air to the roots;

The Chinese Etrog

To this day, the etrog is used as a medicine in China. They grow several different varieties including the world’s largest citrus, the “Ning’er Giant. And, as the photo below shows, it really is giant.

“Ning’er Giant” citron weighing about 17lb (8kg), held in the gentle hands of the farmer who grew it, Li Hua Zhong, near Ning’er Yunan. (Photo credit David Karp, 18 October 2011.)

Some varieties are grown for their antioxidant properties, while others supposedly release insulin, which may be of use in Type II diabetes. In fact, according to a 2012 Review on Phytochemical and Pharmacological Properties of Citrus medica Linn, the etrog will cure just about anything.

Result shows that Citrus medica Linn. possesses analgesic, hypoglycaemic, anticholinesterase, anticancer, antidiabetic, hypocholesterolemic, hypolipidemic, insulin Secretagogue, anthelmintic, antimicrobial antiulcer and estrogenic properties.

And presumably, all without any side effects! The Jinguu variety from southern Yunnan is used to treat respiratory disorders, whereas the Qingpi variety, grown in the Provinces of Zhejiang and Jianxi is used for its more general medicinal effects.

Citrus Fruits and the First Randomized controlled Medical Trial

The citrus (but not the etrog, sadly) made a surprising appearance in the first randomized controlled clinical trial that humanity conducted. In the 18th century, sailors in the British Navy, went without fresh fruit for long periods of time. Citrus fruits contain the essential Vitamin C also known as ascorbic acid. Without it you develop a very nasty disease called scurvy. There is lethargy, the hair and teeth fall out, the gums bleed spontaneously, and bruising appears. Without treatment, you die. So yes, it is very nasty.

Sailors were often at sea for months at a time, without access to fruit containing Vitamin C. In the 18th century, it is estimated that more British sailors died from scurvy than died in battle.

For reasons we won’t go into here, a Scottish naval Surgeon named James Lind (1716-1794) had a hunch that the disease was cured by a lack of whatever it was that citrus fruits contained. So he took 12 sailors with scurvy and fed them various experimental diets that included one enriched with oranges and lemons (but not etrogs), and compared them to a similar group of sailors who ate a regular Royal Navy diet. The results were startling.

On the 20th of May 1747, I selected twelve patients in the scurvy, on board the Salisbury at sea. Their cases were as similar as I could have them. They all in general had putrid gums, the spots and lassitude, with weakness of the knees. They lay together in one place, being a proper apartment for the sick in the fore-hold; and had one diet common to all, viz. water gruel sweetened with sugar in the morning; fresh mutton-broth often times for dinner; at other times light puddings, boiled biscuit with sugar, etc., and for supper, barley and raisins, rice and currants, sago and wine or the like. Two were ordered each a quart of cyder a day. Two others took twenty-five drops of elixir vitriol three times a day … Two others took two spoonfuls of vinegar three times a day … Two of the worst patients were put on a course of sea-water … Two others had each two oranges and one lemon given them every day … The two remaining patients, took … an electary recommended by a hospital surgeon … The consequence was, that the most sudden and visible good effects were perceived from the use of oranges and lemons; one of those who had taken them, being at the end of six days fit for duty … The other was the best recovered of any in his condition; and … was appointed to attend the rest of the sick. Next to the oranges, I thought the cider had the best effects…

The most sudden and visible good effects were perceived from the use of oranges and lemons; one of those who had taken them being at the end of six days fit for duty … The other was the best recovered of any in his condition; and being now deemed pretty well, was appointed nurse to the rest of the sick.

Lind demonstrated that citrus fruits prevented and cured scurvy, and the first randomized controlled clinical trial, now the gold standard for evaluating new drugs, was born. Even Rabbi Bachrach would not have objected to that.

The etrog, whose Latin name means medicine, has long been a symbol of healing, not only in our own tradition, but in others, some just as ancient. After all, everyone needs a little healing.