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NEWS
Checking the Esrogim of Morocco

by Rabbi Gershon Twerski

Interviewing Berber farmers in Morocco - HaRav Efrati is at the right
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HaRav Efrati, head of the Institute and talmid of HaRav Eliashiv, provides background: "In the Institute for Agricultural Research According to Torah, we dealt with this question. Most Providentially, in 5756, with full rabbinic backing, a delegation set out to Morocco, among whose members was HaRav Aharon Dovid Dunner from London, as well as professional experts on citrus fruit and esrogim, such as Professor A. Goldschmidt. They saw and tested everything there. According to their findings, the places where esrogim are cultivated do not have any question of grafting, for a very simple reason — there is no need for it."

Grafting is done on citrus fruit for the purpose of strengthening the tree, especially at the trunk, by inserting a sturdy section which can combat the Melsko fungus which climbs up from the roots and strangles it.

"It seems that in the area where the Moroccan esrogim are grown, on the slopes of the Atlas mountains, there is no vestige of this plague," Rav Efrati describes his results from his examination.

Based on this collective opinion of the members of the delegation, Rabbenu established in "Mishna Acharona" that we only suspect grafting in places where there are causes necessitating it, for then we require testimonies regarding the esrogim and their genealogy. But where there is no reason for grafting to begin with, there is no reason to question the purity of those esrogim.

Furthermore, "For this very reason, one can favor the Moroccan esrogim over various local esrogim where we know that grafting has taken place, while the ones we have here before us are unquestionably purebred.

"This surprising revelation," Rav Efrati sums up, "is [responsible for the fact] whereas HaRav Eliashiv was up until then accustomed to bless over a Chazon Ish esrog, relying upon the latter's instinctive and studied eye, but after that visit of rabbonim and their findings that the Moroccan esrog is incontestable, he would even prefer saying the blessing over a Moroccan esrog to begin with, and only afterwards, to take a Chazon Ish esrog for the customary motions."

What brought about the expedition which took place in Sivan 5781? Why was the previous trip of 5756 insufficient?

Rav Efrati: "As aforementioned, the Moroccan esrogim grow on mountain slopes, and they fall short of an adequate supply. That is why in latter years, esrogim were being grown further down the mountain, near the town of Trodant."

Maran's reliance on the Moroccan esrog in its time, was that people unanimously counted on the tradition regarding it. There was no suspect of grafting since in those places, there was no need for it.

With the passing of time, however, due to changes taking place in the area, there was no guarantee that the esrogim in the Andir region, below, were qualitatively equal to those grown on the upper mountain slopes.

There arose the desire to return to the site and examine those mountain-grown esrogim and compare them with those grown in the Trodant region. It is notable that after HaRav Eliashiv began preferring the Moroccan esrog over the Chazon Ish one, many people began switching over to the Moroccan species as well. They wished to ascertain for themselves the superiority of the Moroccan esrog.

"We set out to our destination on Monday, after Shacharis with a minyan and krias haTorah, whose organization required much effort on the part of Mr. Moshe Harvey Levi, secretary of the Jewish kehilla which went out of its way to accommodate our needs.

"We traveled from Agdir for an hour until we arrived at Trodant. From there we continued for another half an hour, partly on dirt roads, to the foot of the Atlas Mountains.

A view in the Atlas mountains in Morocco
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"We reached a place called Asarat, at the edge of a village, from where we had to proceed by foot along a stream which recently has all but dried up. We reached a place called Romdir after an hour and a half walk, some of it on precarious paths. We passed ancient aqueducts which delivered water to isolated homes which no longer existed. It was wild, pristine, totally uninhabited.

"Traversing a wadi and mountains, we saw fruit trees in the wild: pomegranate, fig and even a vine. There was an infested apricot tree, pines, cactus plants, bushes infested by a white growth on their leaves. Moroccan Jews maintain that Jews lived here centuries ago and they even testify to a small Jewish cemetery on a mountain top."

The delegation finally arrived at an esrog grove. Terraces upon terraces hugged the mountain, cultivated by local residents who are ethnic Berbers. "We saw them irrigating the plots with water drawn from the almost-dry stream by an electric pump activated by a small generator, also spraying the produce against insects.

"One seventy-year-old farmer confided that he had inherited his plot from his father, who had worked it from dozens of years before. He demonstrated how he created a new tree by bending an existing one to the ground, from which it soon took root, producing a new tree, like with grapevines.

"Their agricultural methods dated back to ancient times. They grew fruit trees in small square plots unlike the large fields we are used to with orderly rows of trees. Their trees looked more like a vineyard. Their plots are no more than a few square meters in size. A lot of new shoots come out of the ground and the whole area is like a thicket of low trees.

"We had come to investigate diseases and pests, which are the cause for grafting. We could see — and they testified as well — that the trees in Domdir did not suffer from diseases at all. They did suffer from parasites, like thrips and moths, but they overcame these with slight pesticide spraying, less than what the growers in Eretz Yisroel use. The members of the delegation inquired with interest about their agricultural methods, past and present.

"Our tour of the mountains and the esrog groves of Domdir led us to the conclusion that there has been no change in the cultivation of the groves of Domdir, and most importantly that nothing has changed that would provide any reason to graft esrog trees. In other words, the conclusion of the group that went previously in 5756 is still in force for the Moroccan esrogim."

On our way back we visited some of the commercial groves that are mainly in the area of Trodant, whose climate is very conducive to growing citrus fruit. These groves are on the plains at the foot of the mountains.

Because of the commercial demand for Moroccan esrogim, many groves have been planted both by Moroccan Jews and by foreign investors. In general the plants have been taken from trees in the Domdir area.

Some of these groves look just like those higher in the mountains of Domdir, but some are also planted according to the practices common in Eretz Yisroel: rows of trees at a distance one from the other, drip irrigation and all the other equipment that we find in groves in Eretz Yisroel.

 

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