In Search of the Perfect Esrog

One day in the summer of 1935 the Chazon Ish went for a walk in the orchards of Tzfas. He had decided to summer in the cooler northern climes of Eretz Yisrael for health reasons but his active mind and wide pursuit of interests allowed not even a minute of idle time. He therefore set out to solve a centuries-old halachic problem.

By the time he arrived in Eretz Yisrael two years earlier in 1933 at the age of 57 nearly every halachic authority considered the esrogim grown there suspect. In the years prior to World War II many major growers openly admitted to grafting their esrogim to create a more attractive fruit. That practice made them pasul. The idea that Jews in Eretz Yisrael and elsewhere were using nonkosher esrogim appalled the Chazon Ish so he undertook to rediscover the strain of kosher esrogim that had grown in the area since the time of the kabbalists of Tzfas.

It was believed that the Beis Yosef and the Arizal had planted esrog trees in the fields around Tzfas for personal use. After the passing of these two Torah giants the Ottoman sultan had appropriated that same land and designated it as a royal arboretum. For several centuries this area was off-limits to everyone. Eventually the sultan relinquished the land and the Yidden resumed taking esrogim from the area. Over the years the rabbanim most notably the 19th century chief rabbi of Jerusalem Rav Shmuel Salant sent emissaries to ascertain that the trees located there were indeed pure esrogim with no possibility of harkavah or grafting.

The Chazon Ish studied the local trees and met with local agricultural experts. Initially he believed it was possible to discern if they had been grafted. But according to a letter (printed in Pe’er Hador Vol. II page 132) he wrote a year later he realized there were forms of grafting that he had been unaware of the previous summer and he believed that his findings were no longer valid and so contrary to legend he didn’t popularize these Tzfas esrogim.