The Species Master

Rabbi Yechiel Stern is considered the supreme authority on everything related to the Four Species of Sukkot.

The species master
Rabbi Yechiel Stern is considered the supreme authority in his Jerusalem neighborhood and beyond on everything related to the Four Species of Sukkot
By Yair Ettinger • Ha’aretz

When the cool autumn air descends on Jerusalem, Rabbi Yechiel Michel Stern goes down to the sukkah in his yard (built, as usual, at the beginning of the month of Tishri ), places his work instrument - a lamp - on the table, sits down and opens for business. Between the holidays of Yom Kippur and Sukkot, the line stretches out to Ezrat Torah Street: every day dozens, sometimes hundreds, of people arrive armed with lulavim (palm fronds used on Sukkot ).

Stern, who will turn 61 this Sukkot, has served as the rabbi of Jerusalem's Ezrat Torah neighborhood for nearly 40 years. Considered both in and outside his neighborhood as the supreme authority on matters connected to the Four Species used on Sukkot, he has written over 80 books, one entitled "The Halachos of the Four Species." This guide, published 19 years ago, is supposed to help prepare the reader to go to the market and purchase the personal equipment that will accompany him throughout the holiday: a lulav, hadasim (myrtle twigs ), an etrog (fruit of the citron tree ), aravot (twigs from the willow tree ).

While his is not the only book on the topic out there, and certainly not the most modern and scientific of them, it does try to combine halakhic and botanical aspects of the mitzvah.

"This is a basic book that all the yeshiva students in the world use," says Stern, explaining that to write it he spent "days on end" on the Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University, where he read books in the library and met with botany experts. He also adds, with pride, that he was the first one in the Haredi sector to use color photos in a book on halakha.

Sweeping authority

Anyone who has read the book is supposed to know when a tiny spot on the peel of the etrog makes it unkosher, and when the spine of a lulav is too open. But people don't make do with the tome and come to the expert with their merchandise - etrogim and lulavim only. Certain orchard owners and merchants in Jerusalem rely on Rabbi Stern (and on their own merchandise, too ) to such an extent that they are willing to accept his halakhic decision totally. A customer is allowed to buy merchandise and exchange it a few days later if he has a letter signed by Rabbi Stern stating that the merchandise is not kosher. Stern says he doesn't earn a thing from the deal.

"I will tell people that the mehudar [premium] lulav they bought for NIS 350 or the mehudar etrog they bought for $200 are not good," Stern explains. "Sometimes you can see their heart breaking, as though they've just received the most terrible news. On the other hand, people whose lulav or etrog I approve jump for joy. Last year a little boy came to me with an unkosher etrog. He returned a few hours later with another unkosher one, and then again another. The third time I asked him, 'Why are you the one going to buy them? Maybe you should call your father?' He told me his father had died three months earlier. I gave him my lulav and etrog."

Suffused with the Haredi-Jerusalemite atmosphere, Stern also possesses highly secret information such as the location of trees with yichus (good ancestry ). Because even in trees like a willow, and especially an etrog tree, yichus not only guarantees that the tree is not grafted with lemon or quince, but guarantees the quality of the fruit as well.

Certain trees are known for producing superior etrogim, and there are customers who request fruits from these trees from the orchard owners. Stern tells of two magnificent etrog trees in Nablus whose fruits were used by the rabbis of the old Haredi community back in the 19th century. After the Six-Day War, Stern and others just as obsessed as he went to meet the descendants of the Palestinian orchard owner who had planted the tree and saw that the trees were still standing; they received cuttings from it. Stern takes his personal etrog from a tree related to this Palestinian tree, planted in Moshav Beit Meir on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Today, as back then, these etrogim are called, in Yiddish, "Nablus etrog."

Born on Sukkot

"I was born on Sukkot, and my grandfather was an etrog dealer. Every year I would see how my father and grandfather treated this mitzvah - the love they implanted in us for the mitzvah was tremendous. There was nothing to eat at home, we used to walk in torn sandals, but they were willing to pay half a year's salary for an etrog. That endowed us with the feeling that there is something within an etrog that goes beyond how much it costs. At the time, the etrogim weren't beautiful the way they are today. My grandfather would send me to bring etrogim to respected rabbis, who would dance around the table with joy when they saw the etrog. Today, even my grandson would throw out etrogim like the ones I used to give the rabbis."

"My father would not agree to give me a lulav before my bar mitzvah," Stern continues. "Today, they are already buying the Four Species for children from the age of six or seven. And the adults have more options; today you can buy Four Species of higher quality. Of course, that's a good thing."

Comments

[Adam Neira]

This story reminds of one of my favourite Israeli movies "Ushpizin". Nothing like a good etrog to get the heart going.

[Yochanan Lavie]

There's a sukkah born every minute.

[chaim1]

I would like to state that of course everyone knows that one has to 'pay' for the etrog before yom tov. The vendors will tell you that you are not 'yotsai' otherwise. But no vendor pays in advance, and I have been told by the Ludmir family they are pleased if he at least pays after yom tov. This means many people are not 'yotsai' the mitsva having paid a lot of money for it, since it was never his to sell even if the vendor paid after yom tov.
He can make what is called a 'kinyan' this is not simple at all.
At the moment the 'deri' lulavim are all the rage. They cost more than double but are stronger and can be 'shaken' better. Since their tree does not provide much fruit and the lulavim are only a side line, only 4 I think altogether per tree every year, they are not commercially viable.

[effie]

There was nothing to eat at home, we used to walk in torn sandals, but they were willing to pay half a year's salary for an etrog. That endowed us with the feeling that there is something within an etrog that goes beyond how much it costs.

Something more important than feeding and clothing your children?? This is sick.

[Adam Neira]

To Yochanan Lavie...

Great line. Very timely. (:

[Yochanan Lavie]

Thank you, Adam.

[harold]

Rabbi Yechiel Stern is considered the supreme authority in his Jerusalem neighborhood and beyond on everything related to the Four Species of Sukkot

Who would be the authority here in the states?

I am curious, are the esrogim graded before they come to the states? I am always perplexed how one can put prices on esrogim. I usually can find a nice one (I have low standards) in the cheapest batch and can't for the life of me see the difference between what I chose and the ones on the other trays. Maybe I should buy Rabbi Stern’s book? Nah, then I will wind up being compelled to pay more in the future. I prefer to remain ignorant in matters of esrogim and buy what looks to be a nice one.

If someone wants to pay more, gezunta heit, people do this all the time. Some people buy an Accord, some a Lexus, some people pay obscene prices for a painting, I prefer to buy a picture, some people get excited if the Post Office screwed up and made an error printing a stamp or the Mint erred and double struck a coin. Some people spend a fortune on a bottle of wine, I like Cream of Malaga. People pay for what THEY perceive of having value and brings them joy. What can I say.

[Menachem Mendel lll]

@ Yochanan Lavie

Bravo :)!

[Menachem Mendel lll]

IMHO if and when these Haredi boychekels pick and choose their wives as carefully as they do their beloved Essrogim that would end all domestic violence, child abuse and rapes overnight.

Don't worry...it ain't gonna happen because has v'halila they would have nothing fun and exciting to look forward to coming home after f_ucking the dog from morning till night.

[WoolSilkCotton]

++harold | September 20, 2010 at 11:09 AM +

I agree.

I can see spending a pretty penny on a new tallis or tefillin, which I would use for years to come, but when you plan to throw the esrog in the garbage a week after the purchase, I'm ok with the basic 'cheap' batch.

[Menachem Mendel lll]

Check out the photos on Haaretz.com.

Picture #8 is my favorite.

What's yours.

[WoolSilkCotton]

MM3, as Jeff Foxworthy might say: you could be a haredi if...

...you take a magnifying glass with you to buy a lulav and esrog.

If you're that meshuga, you deserve to be charged 100's of dollars for some branches and a fruit that cost pennies in an Italian supermarket.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Thanks, MM3.

[ah-pee-chorus]

the more you keep the sheeple busy with minutiae , the less time they have to spend thinking about how any of this could possibly make sense. not only are they presuming there is a god,but that this god cares about a black speck on a citron which will be held upside down while shaking a palm frond to please him.
i liken this rabbis expertise to being expert in the genetic code of a unicorn.

[ah-pee-chorus]

what a shame to think about all those jews over these many years who had to choose between burning in hell for having a nonkosher arba minim and feeding their children. aaahhhh, the beauty of it all.

[chaim1]

I dont think you all understand. The idea is that these kollel people have nothing to do now (they are all closed!). So they go from one vendor to the next, instead of offering hundreds of dollars or shekels (which they dont have) for a good set, they waste their time trying to find a good set among the 'cheap' ones and then they brag about in shul the fact how they fooled the vendor and got a good set on the cheap.
Usually this happens when boxes are mixed up, I believe non of them are 'yotsai' since the vendor is 'forced' to sell it to them. This is called today doing a 'hiddur' mitsva!

[Catcher50]

@Harold / WSC...why would you throw a perfectly good etrog into the garbage at the end of the holiday. First, it seems that almost every community has a person who gathers them and makes preserves/jam/jelly. It's good.

Or, you can do what I used to do and put cloves into it and make a kind of pomander, which smells good for months.

Also, I would wonder what that "expert" would think of an etrog grown in California. That state seems to have the ability to produce fruit that looks perfect and beautiful, travels well, but has no real taste. Seems that it would be ideal.

[effie]

MM: I like #2. The idea that they are all lined up to have their fruit inspected makes me giggle.

[WoolSilkCotton]

++That state seems to have the ability to produce fruit that looks perfect and beautiful, travels well, but has no real taste.++

LOL!

Catcher, I have a nice hand-carved wooden bowel in my living room, into which I place my esrog every Hashannah Rabbah. I've got quite a few there, all shriveled and golden brown, and I enjoy the memory of all the Sukkos holidays that the bowel brings!

P.S. All the best to you for a Gut Gezunt Yahr!

[David]

WSC - I think you mean "bowl", not "bowel"....

[David]

I wish the Charedim put as much effort into behaving in a decent, honourable and halachically acceptable way as they do deciding the kashrut status of various spots on the ertrog and its yichus.

[WoolSilkCotton]

David, thanks!

[Menachem Mendel lll]

David

I agree with you.

Could you imagine (it would never happen) if these Haredi mumzers all of a sudden learned it was paskin'd to have a golden retriever and more more "perfect" the better.

Will they take a magnifying glass up it's tuches in order to kavod for Ha'shem.

Disgusting.

[Office of the Chief Rabbi]

I've got my long thing.
And the round, shriveled up thing next to it.
I'm going to wave it around.
While waving it, I'm going to thing about wetness coming all over everything.

I'm going to pray for the Divine wetness, and fertility - God spraying the Divine sperm all over the land.

Gotta love the imagery of Sukkot, with a mitzvah cooked up by the Etrog Growers' Guild ("You must own your own")