Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/403

 11 8. V. APRIL 27, 1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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an indisputable fact that the doctors of the Talmud (as may be gathered from Tractate Succah,cap. 4), relying primarily, as they were wont to do, upon tradition, found very little direct inspiration in Leviticus, ibid., where the citron (esroug) is designated a pree eitz hodor ("fruit of some aromatic tree"). The four integral specimens requisite to fulfil this delightful precept are the citron, the palm-branch (hdav), myrtle (hadass), and the willow. The willow, representing the ot 7roA.Aot of the afore-mentioned allegory, was employed to bind the several " staves " or spearheads of the litlav (king) and to support him in his dignified "wavings" = blessing his people. The citron (queen), when conjoined with the luJav, signifies the association of power with beauty intellect and nature in happy union. The myrtle supplies the idea of the court and officers of state, the great middle classes, and the aristocracy. The various happy wavings and rustlings of the palm branch occur in modern days during the appointed " cir- cuits " by the Chazan, the officers, and the congregants round the " almemar " (or praying-dais).

In Palestinian times these " circular tours " proceeded during the performance by the high priest of the antique rite called " nissuch hamahyeem," or pouring water over the altar, in the presence of a vast concourse of Hebrews. Of this picturesque ceremony we get graphic glimpses in the pages of our celebrated historian Graetz, who records a very thrilling scene hi the Temple, one Succoth morning, during the ministry of Alexander Janneus, high priest in the Maccabean period, who was pelted with a terrific hail of citrons by the ferocious Pharisees, and driven from the altar at the hazard of his life. Succah 36 describes how the wealthy " nobs," and the days indulged their fancies and developed their artistic proclivities, fed by a stream of Hellenism and a species of Kabbalistic theosophy, from which, about a century later, sprang the Neo-Platonism of Philo and the Alexandrine school of Midrashic thought. They strengthened the palm branches with circlets of gold or silver, and attached " holders " of gold or silver for the bunches of myrtle and willow. With their " esrougeem," reposing in
 * ' bloods " of the Sadducean caste, in those

caskets " studded with costly jewels, in one hand, and with their palm branches decorated with gold and myrtle in the other, they strode, in the flashing sunlight of a September morning, through the streets

and wynds of old Jerusalem, bearing them gallantly up the steep Mount of Olives into the precincts of the Temple. It must have been a glorious sight. Caskets were recom- mended by the Rabbins (Succah 34) in order to protect the " pittom " or citron tip a thing of rare beauty, and highly prized by the cognoscenti (for not every citron is suitable for ritual usage), great care having to be taken lest they become " posul " (damaged).

The " casket " referred to in the query is one of those boxes, and will possibly explain the passage in Prov. xxv. 11, usually trans- lated " apples of gold," &c. Solomon, when casting about for some pictorial trope or metaphor to express prudence and good taste, no doubt bethought him of the silver caskets showing off the citrons in the " succahs " (booths) of his richer subjects, " Words discreetly spoken are like citrons of gold in silver caskets." " Tapuach " pre- sents this difficulty ; though derived from " nafach " (to be scented), it suggests the citron, but does not fulfil the conditions of Canticles ii. 3, where " sweetness " implies some fruit other than the citron, unless the Palestinian kinds were sweet.

M. L. R. BBESLAB. Percy House, South Hackney.

"Ethrog" is the Chaldee word anns for citron, which is the fruit of the " goodly " trees (Lev. xxiii. 40). The palm branch, citron, myrtle, and willow are used by the Jewish community in synagogue during the first seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles. Sometimes citrons are kept in a simple cardboard box ; sometimes, as in the case of the late Chief Rabbi Dr. Hermann Adler, in a handsome ornamental gilt case.

The name " Chaikir " should be Chaikim.

M. L.

The spelling of " ethrog," according to the ' Jewish Encyclopaedia,' should be " etrog." It is the citron, the fruit of a tree of the orange and lemon family, and is oblong in shape, and sometimes as much as six inches in length. The skin is thick and some- what hard, fragrant, and covered with pro- tuberances. The pulp is white and sub- acid. The north of India is assumed to be its native home. On p. 262 of vol. y. of the ' Jewish Encyclopaedia ' there is an illus- tration of a silver box for the etrog. It is evidently two of these boxes, or cases, which Dr. Adler, the late Chief Rabbi, bequeathed to his friends.

ABCHIBALD SPARKE, F.R.S.L.

Bolton.