אתרוג איטלקי לעומת אתרוג מארץ ישראל

00:00 This is Igris, and today we're going to discuss Calabria or Yanover Esregim. As we'll soon see, it has been the Ashkenazi custom for at least a thousand years to buy an Esreg for the holiday of Sukkos, not from the Holy Land, but from a specific region in southern Italy known as Calabria. The Alter Rebbe, as we'll also soon see, actually maintains that the custom goes back even further to Moshe Rabbeinu himself, and that the very first Esreg ever used for the mitzvah was supernaturally transported from Calabria to the Jews in the desert. We're gonna look at letters from Chabad Rabbeim emphasizing the importance of using Calabria or Yanover Esregim. We'll see some of the reasons for this. Some are halachic in nature, others more spiritual in nature, and hopefully get a better idea of why it's crucial that everyone make the bracha this year on a proper Yanover Esreg, notwithstanding our love for the land of Israel and its fruits. This will be a two-part shiur, but I'll be editing them together into one long podcast for the convenience of our listeners at home. Without further ado, let's take a look at the first letter. It's on your screen. The letter is labeled Taf-Kuf-Tzadik. It's one of the very earliest letters of the Rebbe. It's from Gimel Iyar of Tov Shin Yud, and it is written to a Yitzchak Zvi. Let's see what the last name is. Lieberman. And the Rebbe writes, "Shalom Uvracham, ein ha'asheh losi." Greetings and blessing. I'm responding now to your

01:12 request. "Minag Chasidei Chabad lakaches lidalin minim esa esreg magadeilim midreim Italia v'nikraim besheim Calabrer al sheim makam gidulam." So the Rebbe starts off strong. He says that the minhag of Chasidei Chabad, of Chabad Chasidim, is to always take an esreg that grows in the southern part of Italy in an area that is called Calabrer, which is Calabria. And that's based on the name of the place where these esregim grow. They grow in the southern area of Calabria. "Oib besheim Yanover," or they're either called that or they're called Yanover esregim, "al sheim ha'ir shemesham hayu shocheim umesamim uletufnim," because that's the city that they would send them out from. That was the port city. So I did look, I did look this up on a map, and my Google Maps is now full of, uh, entries from Italy. It shows, like, where, where I live in Pomona, it shows 770, and then a whole list of Italian places to try to figure out where these places are. So I, I did look it up, and Calabria is the southernmost, most region at the very tip of the bottom of Italy. And Yanover is, uh, Yanov is not. The Yanover esregim, which is Genoa, that is, uh, in Yiddish, you might be familiar with the idea that in Yiddish, a lot of yuds and gimbals get confused. Geler means yellow, and, uh, Yanover means Genov- Genover, which is Genoa. So Genoa, which I might be mispronouncing, is a port city in Italy that's all the way up

02:19 on the northwest, uh, on the northwest part of it. So I, I looked it up on Google Maps just to see the ten-day walk. So I would like to thank the farmers of yore who walked ten days from Calabria to Yanover to deliver our esregim. But the reason why you might have heard o- of these esregim that Chabad uses, that we use, uh, called either Calabrias or Yanovers, is because Calabria is the name of the location where they're grown, and Yanover is the Yiddish form of Genoa, which is the port city that they were sent out from. So the Rebbe's clarifying this at the beginning of the letter. Our custom is to use these esregim, and that's either because they're from that region of Italy, or they're from the, or they're shipped out from, they're from the region of Italy, but they're then shipped from the port city that is known as Genoa or Yanover. "V'shanam achrenis hayu kenem esam etz achim Ka- uh, Karo bigin- bigino, uh, biginwa, beGenoa." Uh, I, I think what he's saying is that there were these, there were these brothers called the Karo brothers, and that they were the ones who used to, uh, arrange the sale of these esregim out from Genoa. "Ve'al es reg hazeh hayim mevara kam kedushas, kam, gam kam kedushas morei chamad mer," with all of the honorifics after his name. So the Rebbe clarifies that this is short- shortly after the Yahrzeit of the Frieda Kadeba, and he says that this was the

03:23 esreg, it was an esreg like this from Calabria, Yanover, that the Frieda Kadeba would always make a bracha on. That's the one he would make a blessing on. Then the Rebbe says, "Ve'ayin shut Chasam Sofer." You should take a look at the shailas and teshuvahs of the Chasam Sofer if you want to find out more about this. And, uh, we should actually listen to the Rebbe. Let's open up the Shut Chasam Sofer and see what the Chasam Sofer has to say. So I, I went looking to find what he's referring to, this so- source that he's quoting, and it is definitive. The Chasam Sofer says, I'm gonna read the Chasam Sofer to you. "Eysan habayim meYanover shemesara beyedem avaseinu, avaseinu v'rabaseinu, chachmei hatzarfatim asher me'eilim yeshi medinas Ashkenaz sh'yetsim mi'dei chavasam ve'es regim habayim meYanover." So the Chasam Sofer says that the best esregim, these are the ones that come from Yanover, and we know that the rabbis and the wise men of France, that would be of old, like, Franco-Germany, the original Rishonim, that would be from the time of, like, Rashi. "Yeshi medinas Ashkenaz," the Jews who dwelled in the lands of Ashkenaz, that's, that's Germany. Uh, Sefarad is France. That's why I say Franco-Germany. "Sh'yetsim mi'dei chavasam ve'es regim habayim meYanover." That they always fulfilled the mitzvah using an esreg that comes from Yanover, from the Yanover port, specifically from Calabria. "Eilei nakshérim," these are the kosher esregim. These ones are kosher. "Ve'ein sarach l'shom siman," they don't need any particular sign

04:30 to let you know for sure that they are kosher. The Chasam Sofer is tapping into a very long history of the Yanover esreg. I mean, he says this a little bit in his teshuvah as well, but we have record of the Yanover esreg being used from the times of the earliest Baalei Tosefos. Um, it's known, uh, it's, it's the earliest known variety among the Ashkenazim, without a doubt. Uh, the, uh, until around the year, I have in my notes here, until around the year seventeen eighty-five, the only variety of esreg that Ashkenazi Jewry would have used would have been the, uh, Yanover esreg. The Corfu esreg, which we're not gonna talk about much right now. I don't think we can talk about it much at all during this shiur. Um, but it's worth looking into. The Corfu esreg, which became very co- popular later on, uh, around the years from seventeen eighty-five for a couple hundred years, uh, was a lot prettier than the Yanover esreg. And the reason why it was a lot prettier, uh, was because it was grafted. It was because it was mixed with lemons and other things like that, so it was not nearly as reliable, or, uh, most Rabbonim didn't think it was all that reliable. This was a big debate. If you were around in the eighteen hundreds, this was all anybody talked about on Sukkos. The Corfu esreg was defended very vigorously by some people, and, uh, we, along with most Rabbonim, really, I think, as far

05:34 as I know, most of the, most of the, uh, firm Rabbonim, were rejecting the Corfu esreg pretty sternly. The Chasam Sofer in this letter, in this letter, in this, uh, teshuvah, is rejecting the Corfu esreg, and we have teshuvahs also that reject the Corfu esreg pretty strongly. Uh, that's not really for us today, but I do mention it along the way because I, I do wanna mention that, um This sheer, I don't wanna say based 'cause it's not, it was inspired. It was-- certainly was inspired in part by an excellent sheer that was just given by, uh, Rabbi Mordechai Dinerman on his podcast. I'm a big fan of that podcast, so this is a, uh, completely free shout-out to the Dinerman Podcast, where he goes through sort of historical documents, uh, definitely with a Chabad lens on it, but also in a, in a much more general way. It's fantastic. It's really a lot of fun to listen to. So he just put out an episode, uh, last week or early this week about Calabria Esrogim. Instead of focusing specifically on the letters like we are, he focused more on the specific Corfu and Yanover debate. If you'd like to know more about that, definitely listen to Rabbi Dinerman's podcast. Uh, we're going to take some of his stuff, uh, obviously not the whole thing, otherwise, what would be the point of doing our own sheer? But, uh, a letter from the Rebbe Rashab that I'm going to show you, I stole directly from him.

06:40 Uh, I wouldn't have found it otherwise. So we did take some resources from him. As long as we're giving credit, I should add that it's not just the Dinerman podcast, um, Derech Er. Derech Er put out an excellent full article on this just last year on the history of Calabria Esrogim in Lubavitch. I read through that. It's excellent. You should read through it too. A lot of the sources that are coming up are from there. Um, there's other fantastic sources out there. The Otzmen Hagechabad has a very good list of just places in Igress and letters and in Sichas where the Rebbe, each of the Rebbe, talk about the importance of Calabria Esrogim. So there are fantastic sources all over the place that you should look into if you're more interested in this topic. We are going to be focusing just on the letters. And since we are focusing just on the letters, I probably should get back to the letter that we departed from. So back to the Rebbe's letter. Back to the Rebbe's letter. He said, "Look in the Chasam Sofer's Shalas and Teshuvahs," and we ended up over here. But anyway, the Rebbe has told us so far that the Minichabad is to take Esrogim that grow in the southern part of Italy, which is called Calabria, uh, or called Yanover because of the port city they get shipped from, that there were certain brothers, the Caro brothers, were involved in shipping them. That's what the Friediker Rebbe always used. And that

07:38 if you check the Shulchan Chasam Sofer, you'll find out why. And indeed, the Chasam Sofer has told us that the only Esrogim that he considers entirely reliable, that he's sure are real Esrogim, are the ones that have been used for a thousand years by Ashkenaz, and that would be the ones from Calabria, from Yanover. "Linin Esrogim Calabria," the Rebbe continues in his letter. "Regarding Esrogim that are from Calabria, She'nikris bedrashos chazal Italia shel, Italia shel Yavan." The Rebbe says that the region called Calabria is called a different name by Chazal. Chazal don't call it Calabria. They call it the Greek... They call it Greek Italy, uh, Italia shel Yavan, Greek Italy. "Yesh lahar gam kemiberedei Shesh Rabas," the Rebbe says, "Given that Calabria is Greek Italy, Italia shel Ya-Yavan, we should check a Midrash Rabba on this." There's a Midrash that talks about the, uh, maalas, talks about the advantages of Greek Italy, of Italia shel Yavan. And it says there, "Mishmanei ha'aretz yemes habecha." This is a blessing. This is the beracha that Yitzchak gave to Esav, that he would get the fat of the land. That would be part of his portion, that he would get the fattest of the land. That would be a land that produces the fattest crops or the most choice crops. "Mishmanei ha'aretz yemes habecha, zeh Italia shel Yavan." That this is defined in the Midrash as being Calabria, as being Italia shel Yavan. So what the Midrash is saying over here is that the very fattest land,

08:46 the very finest land that produces the best fruits in the entire world is going to be Calabria. So it makes sense if we're going to do the mitzvah of, uh, pri eitz hadar, finding the very finest of any fruit and using it for a mitzvah, that we would wanna, that we would wanna go to the land that is already said in the Midrash and that Yitzchak gave a beracha to Esav, that this land would be the most fruitful of all lands. So this is the best place to get your esrog because it is the finest of all lands. The Rebbe kind of gives us two reasons in this letter, uh, if you read between the lines. One reason why he says that we're very careful about the Calabria esrog is because we have the best tradition about the Calabria esrog. That's the one that we know going back a thousand years was a reliable esrog. And the second thing the Rebbe says is sort of a spiritual reason, that it seems that there's something very special about the land in Calabria, that it produces the best Esrogim, and therefore, in order to fulfill pri eitz hadar, in order to have the finest fruit possible, we should be getting fruit, specifically this kind of fruit. Our esrog, our mitzvah fruit, should come specifically from the land that was blessed to be the fattest. Now, we spoke very briefly about the Corfu esrog, and I told you we weren't going to go too deeply into it, but

09:46 I need to mention it for just a second in order for us to understand this next letter that's on our screen. This is a letter from the Rebbe Rashab, and as I mentioned earlier, credit to Rabbi Dinerman for pointing this letter out in his, uh, in his sheer. This is then from Igress Rashab, and this letter is a tragic letter. The Rebbe Rashab writes about how he basically didn't get an esrog in time for Sukkot. Uh, he got Esrogim, but they weren't good enough for him. And I'm showing you this letter because I want to emphasize just how seriously the Rebbe Rashab takes the idea of using a Calabria Esrog as opposed to any other kind of Esrog. So let's read the letter. Inside, this is in Igress Rashab. You'll find this in volume one on page one fourteen. And here the Rebbe Rashab writes, "Ki ni be'etzma kashrut esrogi Eretz Yisrael." When it comes to the actual kashrut, is an esrog grown in Eretz Yisrael kosher? In the land of Israel, is that a kosher esrog? "Yedu asher kabbal kedushas harebei zeh rabenu hagadol," uh, which would be the Alter Rebbe. "Hechme levarech esrog Genova davka." We know that the Alter Rebbe was very careful to only make a beracha on a Yanover Esrog. He was very careful not to make an esro-- make a beracha on an Esrog that grew in Eretz Yisrael. "Ad sh'pha'am achas hayam milchama gedola be'olam," to the degree that once upon a time, there was a terrible war

10:46 in the world. If this was a war in the times of the Alter Rebbe, I'm assuming it was the Na- the Napoleonic Wars, so it would've been very dangerous to travel. "Venishma shelo yenichu la'aver scharim Italia." And during that time, there was some sort of an embargo going on. You couldn't get Esrogim out of Italy. "Ratzah leshlech ish meychud leGenova liknes esrog beshvil hakedua." That the Alter Rebbe had wanted to send somebody in a dangerous way, wanted to send somebody in the middle of a war, sneak 'em, smuggled across-- to smuggle 'em across the border, so that he could smuggle an Esrog back across the border, specifically from Italy in the ti- in times of war. It doesn't say here whether he actually did it. I think the implication is that he didn't, because otherwise, why would you say he wanted to, not that he did? So it sounds like the Alter Rebbe never actually did this, but the Alter Rebbe took this so seriously that he was ready to risk someone's life in order to get a Calabria Esrog, even though presumably, the Corfu ones would've been available, and probably even Eretz Yisrael ones might've been available. "Vechehen achmiru acharei rabbei zeh navai zehnu." Similarly, all of the other Rebbeim of Chabad have always been very strict about this, says the Rebbe Rashab. "Ad mashar isi mikabbal kedushtah avi amar," I saw that the Rebbe Maharash, his father, uh, "Shehechmir bezei ad me'ir," I saw that the Rebbe Maharash, my father, was very, very

11:45 strict about this. "Uvemnei shebeyamav neskachu eid beis bekemis niyi again vasham havim mesikar leGenova." And in his days, they actually created two new places that would bring Esrogim to the Yanover port. "Veheym," and I can't pronounce these, Ardagerra maybe and Riviera. Ardagerra, Riviera. And, uh, so what he's saying in this paragraph, we're gonna jump around a little bit, what he says in this paragraph is that, uh, the reason why we were always able to get a Yanover Esrog from the Genoa, from the Genoa port and be-- and consider it reliable Is that these esrogim that came from the Genoa port were always from Calabria. But in the time of the Rebbe Maharash, other esrog dealers from different parts of Italy started sending their esrogim also to Genoa, hoping to sell to the Jews from there, which meant that, uh, we had to start investigating whether Yanover esrogim were in fact also Calabria esrogim. Shows just how specific the Rebbeim were, that they want a esrog from Calabria specifically, not from another part of Italy. So he says the Rebbe Maharash, uh, spent a lot of time making sure that his esrog wasn't just an Italian esrog, but a Calabria esrog, because it's specifically that southern region of Italy that gives you the Mishmanna or its blessing that the Rebbe talks about in his letter. I'm adding those words, but that's the implication, is that there's something special about southern Italy specifically. Continuing in the letter, the Rebbe Rashab says, "Ve'achad l'chag hasukkah zahavah." Now, in

12:56 this past Sukkot holiday, "Lo kibalti esrog bizmanai," I did not receive my esrog in time. Uh, he was traveling, he didn't receive his esrog in time. "Mama'od hag masnevesh hayah li mizeh, Hashem yirachem." I had incredible-- I, I suffered from this incredibly. May Hashem have mercy. "Ve'atzis lo hayin beyadinu lehaem tzemindivarem, im nidid esrog karfu, Eretz Yisrael," and say, "Heteh l'varech halem." So the Rebbe Rashab says, "I wish that I'd had my books with me. I would have wanted to look into the din. I would have wanted to look into the halakha." I was traveling, but I wanted to look into the hal, do the halakha to find out, look at this language, "nimtzei heteh levarech halem," to see if I could find a heter to make a berakha on them. The Rebbe Rashab's standing assumption is you, that you cannot make a bre- blessing, al ha-al n'tilat lulav, if you're holding an esrog in your hand that's not from Calabria. So he had a karfu esrog available, which I told you had problems, and he had one from, uh, Eretz Yisrael, it sounds like, and he was trying to figure out whether he could even make a berakha on them because his Calabria hadn't arrived. And then the Rebbe Rashab says something wild. He says, "Ve'emes, af matzasi heteh bisvarim." Even if I had-- The Rebbe Rashab says, "Truth is, even if I had found a heter in books, "eneni yadayim hayisi sameich al zeh," I don't know if I would have relied on

13:57 it. I don't know if I would have used the rabbinic allowance that I might have found in these books. "Ach shavasenu raboseinu hechmir bezeh kol kach," given how strict my forefathers were about this, given how strict the Chabad Rebbeim have been about making sure their esrog is from Calabria, I don't know if I would have accepted a rabbinic allowance to use a non-Calabria esrog. But in the end, "lo hayah li sfarim," I didn't have any books. "Achar izi beseder chadash," then he goes on to say, "I did see certain things in certain books. I came to some conclusions." It's unclear from this letter what he actually did, but it does say in the Etz Minhagim Chabad that one year the Rebbe Rashab was unable to get a Calabria esrog. He had a Corfu one or an Eretz Yisrael one, I don't remember which one it says, and that he shook the lulav with it, with a berakha, with a berakha, but that he cried as he did it. So to give you an idea of just how seriously we take, uh, we take making sure our esrog is from Calabria, the Rebbe Rashab wasn't even sure if he could make a berakha on a non-Calabria esrog. He cried when he had to make a berakha on a non-Calabria esrog. This is something that we take very, very seriously. One more letter that I want to show you for part one today, and this letter is in, this letter is in English. This is from the

14:59 Friediker Rebbe, and this was sent in Elul of 5704, and this is printed in the Der Ha'ar article. I wasn't able to find it anywhere else, so I have the Der Ha'ar article on the screen in front of you, but this is from the Der Ha'ar article, and, uh, this was print-- this was a letter sent in 5704, which would have been, what, um, 1944? So the middle of World War II, and it was sent as the Allies were advancing through Europe. They were pushing back the Axis forces. Southern Italy was liberated, and you know, southern Italy, besides being Mussolini's stronghold and important for America and important for the Allies who wanted to win the war, was really important to us because southern Italy is where they keep Calabria. So the Friediker Rebbe sent a letter to the War Department, which is today known as the Defense Department, in an effort to obtain some Yanover esrogim, and his letter is in English, of course, and here are some-- here's some of the things that he wrote in that letter describing how important it was to him to get some of these Yanover esrogim, uh, even in the middle of World War II. So the Friediker Rebbe writes in English, "For several generations, it has been the sacred custom of my ancestors, who have been the heads of the Chabad hierarchy." It's a funny way to say the, uh, Nasiyim, but that's the way that he put it. "The Chabad hierarchy, and the recognized leaders of

15:59 world Orthodox Jewry to acquire the kind of citrus fruit known as ethrog, which is needed for the ritual of our festival of Sukkot, Tabernacles, from Calabria, the peninsula in the southeast of Italy." I will point out, just because I think this is awesome, that in this letter, the Friediker Rebbe writes that the Chabad hierarchy, the leaders of the Chabad hierarchy, the Rebbe Sena Nasiyim, or the Rebbes, that they are the recognized leaders of world Orthodox Jewry. That's it? That that's the Friediker Rebbe's description in English? What is a Chabad Rebbe? The recognized leaders of-- recognized, recognized leaders of world Orthodox Jewry. I love it. And he says that they, they always got their ethrog, which is of course an esrog, from, for the festival of Tabernacles, from Calabria. "Even during the last war, fac-facilities were granted to my saintly father to have a special emissary bring a number of those citrus fruits from Calabria to Stockholm and thence to Russia so that my late father and I, along with some of our hierarchy members," that would be Beis Din Av, "could perform the sacred precept of our religion in accordance with the custom of our ancestors." I, I'm translating from English back into Hebrew for people. But in any event, uh, it sounds like during World War I, the Rebbe Rashab was able to get them, so the Friediker Rebbe's saying, "Now it's World War II, I would like to get them also." "Now that Calabria is liberated, thank God, I would deem it a

17:04 great privilege to once again be able to observe this sacred and cherished precept of my faith on Calabria-grown ethrogs, and at the same time offer a special prayer for the speedy and complete victory of the Allies over fruit grown on liberated soil." So the Friediker Rebbe is dangling a carrot here. He's telling the, he's telling the American government, "Listen, you want a very important rabbi who's the leader of world Orthodox Jewry to be praying with a fruit that comes from land you just liberated so that you, so that you'll win the war? I am offering you that opportunity. All you have to do is get me my citron, and I will be on my way." So the Friediker Rebbe is offering to pray for them using this very special fruit that comes from a very special land that they just liberated, if only they'll give him the esrog. "Therefore, I therefore venture," I'm continuing the letter, "I therefore venture to ask you for the great favor of cabling the competent authorities so that particular," excuse me, "the competent authorities in that particular district to, to send out via airmail some ten ethrogs grown in Calabria so that I may receive them before our Sukkot festival, which takes place from October second to October tenth." So the Friediker Rebbe has made his ask. He wants ten esrogim from Calabria for Sukkot. Um, bad news. The War Department did not say yes. In a letter that is dated September twenty-first, they wrote back to the Friediker Rebbe.

18:12 They said they're very sorry, they can't do it. The airmail service is restricted to missions essential to the war. I guess they did not think that us davening for their success was, was essential to the war, which frankly, their loss. And, uh, they also said that it would set a pretty bad precedent because if they allowed one religious leader to smuggle things, or I guess move things legally out of a, out of a war zone in order to, uh, pray with them, then maybe the other religious leaders would ask for it too. They would also complain. So they ended up saying no to the Friediker Rebbe, and I guess that year he didn't have a Calabria Esrog. But once again, we're seeing just how serious the Friediker Rebbe is taking this. In the middle of a war, he's writing to the War Department asking them if he can get a Calabria Esrog. This is Icarus, and today we are continuing our discussion of Calabria or Yanover Esrogim. Just to recap from yesterday, we saw a letter from the Rebbe that says it's important to make sure your Esrog is from Calabria because it is the strongest tradition in Ashkenaz. The best fruit grows there. We saw a letter from the Rebbe Rashab regarding a Corfu and Eretz Yisrael. We saw that he was very upset that he had to use an Esrog that was from Israel, from Corfu, and he couldn't use a proper Calabria Esrog that year. We read that he cried when he

19:13 had to make a berakhah on such an Esrog. We saw a letter from the Friediker Rebbe about how he tried to get an Esrog during World War II. So we've talked about the importance of Esrog to our Rebbeim absolutely. What we haven't really addressed yet, and what we're going to do today, is that there's two reasons to have a Calabria Esrog. One is practical and halakhic. Until recently, if your Esrog grew anywhere but Calabria, Italy, there was a reasonable to certain chance that it was not a pure Esrog. It had been grafted, it was what we call murkav, and it was therefore unsuitable for the mitzvah. This is presumably why the Rebbe Rashab was so opposed to making a berakhah on a non-Calabria Esrog, why he cried when he had to do it, because he wasn't sure he was making a berakhah on an actual kosher Esrog. This was a real issue. This is also presumably why the Rebbeim were mesanefesh, uh, in some cases, literally sacrificing or nearly sacrificing their lives to get the Yanover Esrogim because it wasn't always clear to them that the Esrog they were holding that wasn't a Yanover was a kosher Esrog. That's not what we're dealing with nowadays. If you bought an Israeli Esrog this year and it has a good hashgakhah, uh, you don't have this concern at all. I, I don't think there are any poskim who would say that it's a problem to make a berakhah on an Israeli Esrog that's sold by a reliable

20:11 vendor because all modern Israeli Esrogim that are under good hashgakhah are from reliable stock. They're, they're from Calabria. They're from good, reliable stock. They're watched carefully to ensure no funny business. We're not really dealing with halakhah here, which brings us to today's letters. Uh, is there still a reason to be strict to only buy a Calabria Esrog nowadays when there's no longer a pure halakhic need to verify what an Esrog really is? And should we be strict even nowadays to make a berakhah only on a Calabria or a Yanover? That's the same word I just keep on saying. Both a Yanover Esrog. So to that point, uh, today we're gonna look at letters that address that question, and I want to start off with something that reminds me of something else. That's why I have it on the screen. This is in the Etz Minhagei Chabad, and this is apparently a letter, uh, that is attributed to something the Rebbe Rashab said, so it's not a primary source. But apparently the Rebbe Rashab once said, and kemidom beshema marazaken, it seems that he was saying this in the name of the Alter Rebbe, that, uh, the reason that we are mandif mesorege Calabria, the reason why we have so much emphasis on to getting an Esrog from Calabria specifically, af al pi shelo teir lamole hadar, even though they actually aren't that pretty. We talked about this a little yesterday. The Corfu Esrogim were a lot prettier than the Calabrias because they were grafted with

21:14 lemons. So a Calabria Esrog is a less pretty Esrog than some of the other brands. We specifically buy a Calabria Esrog. It's not because it's pretty, not because it's, uh, hadar that way. Misub shel shomayim yesh b'yehudim. The reason why is because there's no Jews living there. Very interesting. We buy Calabria Esrogim because Jews don't live in Calabria. L'fikach v'bikash tem mi-shames hashema lakha. Be-- therefore, when the verse says that you should request, you should reach out to God from the place where there are no Jews, from the lowest place, from the darkest places. V'bikash tem mi-shames hashema lakha, request God from the darkest places. Jitzar ach tavor, and it says, "Gam ha'makom kaze," you gotta go to the deepest, darkest places to elevate the holy sparks. Now, I'm either misremembering this thing from the Rebbe Rashab, or I read something else that's slowly-- that's related to it, but what I have in my head every year is that the golus that we're in right now, the exile we're in right now, is the golus of Edom. This is the golus. The exile is the exile of Rome, which means the seat of negativity, the seat of Klipa in this world right now is the Roman Empire, whatever's left of it. That's the, uh, what I guess nowadays is Western civilization. Uh, that's, that, that's the seat of the exile that we're in right now. If we take an Esrog from that place and pray with it from that place, we're elevating the sparks from

22:15 the very lowest place in the entire world. And this is either what the Rebbe Rashab means or something related to what the Rebbe Rashab means, a spiritual reason why we're careful to take a Calabria Esrog. But I wanna do some more practical stuff. So here we have a letter from the Friediker Rebbe. This letter is from Menachem Av of Taf Shin Ches. That would be nineteen forty-eight. And for some reason, all my letters are a little blurry. I'm sorry. It says here, "Shalom u-brakhah. " So it's the year nineteen forty-eight. Somebody writes to the Friediker Rebbe and says, "I would like you to help me encourage people to buy Esrogim from Eretz Yisrael. The Jews have Israel back. They're starting agriculture. It's a big deal there. It's how they support themselves. And obviously, the holy land is the holy land. Let's all encourage everybody to buy Israeli Esrogim this year." You might have heard this call to, uh, you might have heard this call to action in some of your circles. Uh, I certainly, uh, I, I was in a, I was in a Hesder yeshiva for a year. Let me tell you, bringing a Calabria Esrog into that room was, was-- you almost got pelted by Israeli Esrogim. There's an idea that, that specifically to support Israel and to support Jews who are involved in agriculture in the holy land, you should have an Esrog from Israel. So Uh, the Rav HaKadosh Basif, Rav Bonim Vilna says, "Regarding that which the Zionists are claiming

25:15 that this is now a Jewish kingdom and that you have to buy from us, uh, you should remember what my father, the Rebbe Rashab, said at the rabbinic conference in Vilna. The Rebbe Rashab declared that we did not of our own free will leave the land of Israel the first time. It will not be through our own strength that we return to it. So that's sort of a, a, a, a kind of an aside that we're not that into this big Zionist idea. He says, nonetheless, when it comes to keeping Torah and mitzvahs, we are completely free from every government and from every nation. No government, no nation, including the Zionist nation, is capable of telling us how to keep Torah and mitzvahs. That's our job. And we're all waiting for Mashiach to come and clarify things in the name of the 3D could have in the mask he wrote this letter. Now, what he's saying in the second paragraph, to take some of the, uh, edge off of it, just is that if people are telling me that because the-- because of Zionism and because of supporting the land of Israel, I have to do mitzvahs differently, they're dead wrong. Nobody gets to tell me how to do mitzvahs. No country, no land, including a Jewish government, gets to tell me how to do Torah and mitzvahs. And Torah and mitzvahs, uh, the mitzvah of esrog is authentically done with an esrog that is not from the land of Israel. So there's many ways

26:22 to support Israel. This is not one of them. Look at a letter from the Rebbe because we're going to qualify this. This actually is-- buying an esrog from Eretz Yisrael might be a good idea, but using one not. We'll see in a second from some other letters from the Rebbe. So this is a letter from our Rebbe. This is, uh, Zion. So this is, what, nineteen fifty-seven? Uh, ER of nineteen fifty-seven. And he writes this to Schneur Zalman Gorelik, who is in, uh, Kfar Chabad. the Rebbe writes, "I received your letter mentioned about the sea, and let's go to the middle." Says they've been planting-- they've been taking esrog from Calabria, and they've been taking the shoots of these esrog or the seeds of these esrog, and they've been transplanting them into the land of Israel. This would seem to be the best of both worlds, right? You have a Calabria esrog with a great pedigree, and it's also from-- it has all the advantages of being Calabria, and you put it right in the land of Israel. Now you can benefit Jewish farmers, and also you have the holy land and strengthening it. The Rebbe says, I don't think it's the same thing at all. It's not the same. The only thing you've fixed is the grafting issue. It's true, if you take an esrog from Calabria and transport it into the land of Israel, I'm now sure it's an esrog. So the grafting issue is not there anymore. It's definitely a kosher esrog.

27:33 But if you look at the sikhos of our Rebbe, the only problem with a Ca-- with a non-Calabria esrog has not been the concern about grafting. That wasn't our only issue. We don't use Calabria just because we wanna make sure it's a pure esrog. We have other reasons. Based on what the Alter Rebbe says, that when Hashem told the Yidden in the desert that they have to take a, uh, lulav and an esrog that Hashem sent shluchim to Calabria, and esrog were brought from there, which implies that this has really very little to do with grafting being the issue. Here, the-- because I don't think anybody was grafting esrogim in the year-- thirty-five hundred years ago. The issue here is that the best place to get an esrog is from there. The Rebbe says, I've also written in other places. We actually read that letter yesterday. The reason, according to the revealed parts of the Torah, that Calabria is the location that Midrash means when it says the Italia of Greece, the Italy of Greece, and that is the fattest land. That is the land that produces the best fruits. And that's therefore the commandment that all of the best fruits should be given to God would fall on this, which is the Rebbe's way of saying, as he did in his previous letter, that since the land of Calabria was blessed specifically by God to produce the fat of the land, it would be inappropriate for us to do a mitzvah from any other

28:50 land because Israel wasn't given that blessing. Israel doesn't have the blessing of producing the best fruit in the entire world. Calabria actually has that blessing. So if you're going to pick fruit, you should pick fruit, specifically this kind of fruit, from the land of Calabria, which is the fruit that it grows. Um, and then he continues the letter by wishing him a happy birthday. We're not gonna read that right now. He tells him he should be a good mara d'asra over in Kfar Chabad, and that letter concludes. Second letter that's similar to this, and then we'll do a little bit of a recap on these Rebbe letters before we go into the next thing. The second letter similar to this from okay, it was a year early. Maybe I should have done them in a different order. Um, but this is a very interesting letter. This is written to, uh, Mordechai Perlow, and the Rebbe says, Says, had, had been, had been near-- had been by the Rebbe. who is the, uh, who is related to the, to Rab Derber Ludmir. And his whole idea was he wants to take some seeds He came to visit Rebbe Albim, and he has an idea. He wants to take esrogim from Calabria, and he wants to transplant them in Eretz Israel in Kfar Chabad. So this is what we have nowadays. Nowadays, you can get Kfar Chabad esrogim that are transplanted from the reliable orchards of Calabria. Now look at this. The Rebbe says, I think that's

30:05 a great idea. Definitely do it. The Rebbe says here that even though there's room to say that when it comes to when it comes to using a Calabria esrog, it's really not just about the concern about the provenance of the esrog, but it's about the fact that we wanna make sure our esrog comes from the fat of the land, which is from the land of Calabria. which is only in Calabria, that's the lower southern part of Calabria. Uh, even though there's room to say that, the Chazal, the Rebbe says, uh, nonetheless, I'm jumping to the next paragraph. Calabria it's okay to do it instead even though you wouldn't get that advantage of Mishman Ha'aretz, the advantage of, uh, of drawing an Esrog from the fat of the land, from an Esrog that was grown in Eretz Yisrael. You still would get the advantage of being sure that it's not a grafted Esrog. So the Rebbe basically says it's better than nothing. People are buying Esrogim that are not reliable. If you take an Esrog from Calabria, you plant it in Kfar Chabad, at least we can be sure they're getting a real Esrog, and that takes away one of the major concerns. But the Rebbe does not say it's the same thing at all. He says for Anash, for Hasidim, for people who, for people who are careful about what the Alter Rebbe says about the first Esrog being-- Meishar Ben's Esrog being from Calabria, for that which the Medrash says and which the Rebbe

31:21 emphasizes about the most important thing with this mitzvah being to take a fruit from the fat of the land. You don't get that at all with the Kfar Chabad Esrog, even though it is replanted from Calabria. That you lose the moment you leave the soil of Calabria. The only thing you gain is a lack of grafting. And I just-- I wanna end with the bottom-- I wanna do the bottom of this letter because it's, it's fun. Says Rav Alban is Negev Adar, he's involved in this. And he asked me, he asked me, like, how to get around Italy, and the Rebbe goes, "I don't know how to get around Italy." I said that he should call you. I send him to you because you know Italy, the Rebbe is saying, and I'd like you to let him know which orchards are the right ones, because obviously not every Calabria orchard is a reliable orchard. I want you to tell him which are the right ones to use, and that way he's gonna take the best and most reliable Calabrian, uh, seeds and plant them in Israel. And it is understood that he is going to pay you for it. Don't worry about it, you're gonna get money. I specifically told him while he was here that he's not to use you unless he's going to pay you. I'm waiting to hear good news. So the Rebbe was involved in, uh, in, in helping make a Shidduch at least, and also approving in this letter the

32:29 idea of growing Calabria Esrogim in Eretz Yisrael, but that's not because it's the same thing. That's because it takes away one of the major concerns. At least it's not grafted, but it's not just as good, not remotely. I have here on the screen a ma'amar from the Rebbe. Whenever I get something handwritten, I try to show it to you. Not that I can read the Rebbe's handwriting, uh, even on a good day, especially not with the blurry screen we have today. I'm gonna switch over and show you the ma'amar in proper, uh, printed Hebrew. This is in the Rebbe's Igres. It is letter-- the letter is labeled Tes Tav Tav Kuf Pei Gimel. Uh, and the volume is... Where is the volume? It is volume Kuf Abav, page five thirty-six. Somebody wrote to the Rebbe in Tav Shin Lamed. This is many years later. Many years later. I don't know. Yeah, this is like twenty years later. This is many years later. And he's writing to the Rebbe saying, "I really am somewhat offended by the fact that you insist on using Italian Esrogim. We have the land of Israel, we have Jews in Israel now, who for a while," this is the seventies, right? This is nineteen seventy. "For, uh, for thirty years, they've been, they've been building up these orchards, and you want-- and you're not making a berakhah on them. You're telling all your Hasidim not to buy from them." Somebody wrote to the Rebbe somewhat upset about this, and the Rebbe

33:28 writes back, "Let me give you the reason," and the Rebbe gives him an incredible mashal. He says, The Rebbe says, "I wanna know why do you think that Israelis spend so much money of foreign currency that costs them a ton so that they can buy weapons from America and from Germany? Why don't they make their own weapons?" "Why aren't they happy with the supplies they make in Israel? Israel knows how to make guns, and Israel knows how to make airplanes. They, they made some of their own. Uh, people-- and they're constantly buying foreign, foreign weapons. Nobody complains about it. But to the contrary, you want more weapons from America, you want more weapons from Germany, why don't you make your own weapons?" That's what the Rebbe asked this guy. He says that the reason why is because if you want to defend the Jewish people, you need to have weapons that work. You have to have good mitzvahs and good weapons, both. The weapons have to be reliable, and they can't just be-- If the stuff you grow locally, the stuff you make locally isn't a good weapon, you're not gonna use it to defend your people. So the Rebbe says, He says you can't switch out a Phantom. The, the reason why the Rebbe is saying this, I believe, is because nineteen seventy was right after a deal went through to sell a whole bunch of Phantom aircraft to Eretz Yisrael. It was-- They're, they're fighter bombers. And I think we all know what

34:47 an Uzi is. It's a kind of weapon. So, uh, the Rebbe's saying you can't switch out a Phantom, which is a good American plane, or I think America makes them, or Uzis. I'm not sure which-- I'm not sure who makes Uzis, but not, not Israel. You can't switch out good weapons for something you guys are making in your backyard just because you wanna support the land of Israel, and that's the same thing as switching out the Esrog of Calabria for an Israeli Esrog. You're just-- You're getting a rotten weapon. Somebody wants to switch them, et cetera, which I think is the Rebbe saying, "You wanna switch? Good, good luck with your homegrown airplanes and your homegrown guns, and good luck with your homegrown Esrogim. You're just-- You're not gonna be able to protect the Jewish people with a mitzvah that y- that, that your area doesn't specialize in. Israel's real good at some things, real not good at other things. Italy is the best place to get an Esrog. You don't buy an Esrog from Israel, the same way you don't buy a, uh, a, a fighter jet from Israel." Uh, I'm not gonna read the end of the letter right now 'cause it's not as important for our discussion right here, and we can talk about it later. The, uh, last thing that I wanna show you is a sicha from the Rebbe where the Rebbe says that even when Mashiach comes, we will still be leaving Israel once a year to pick up

35:49 our Calabria Esrogim from Italy, even then. Which certainly demonstrates it has nothing to do with Harkava, certainly isn't a grafting issue. The Rebbe says this in the middle of a sifra that isn't about this. It's from Ner. Uh, it says it's from Parshas Ner. It's from, uh, Tuch Shemem Tes, Chelek Alef in Teris Menachem, page three twenty. In the middle of the sifra, the Rebbe has parentheses. He says, "Lechayah, I'd like to just point out, Shegam Lo Asi Lova, that even when Mashiach comes, Yitzarchu L'fam L'tzes L'chutz La'aretz, there will be times that we will need to leave the land of Israel. All the Jews will be gathered into the land of Israel, but it won't be like we won't have a-- we'll still be able to get our frequent flyer miles. We will be able to take vacations. There'll be times you will have to leave the land of Israel. But Ladugma, let me give you an example," says the Rebbe. "Lahavi Esrig M'Colabria. Every single Jew living in Israel when Mashiach comes is going to be using a Calabria Esrig. They're not gonna be using Kfar Chabad Calabrias, even though they have the seeds there." Remember, this is in Mem Tes. This is nineteen-- this is nineteen eighty-nine the Rebbe's saying this. Kish M'kom Rav M'rabenu Azaken, as we received from the Alter Rebbe, Sh'kash N'tzavi Yisro L'kach Tem L'cham Pri Etz Adar, that when the Yidden were commanded in the desert to take a beautiful fruit, Hashiv M'shluchim Al Gabi Anan, this

36:45 is the actual full version of what the Alter Rebbe says, that, that shluchim were sent on clouds, V'shalchu Asem L'Colabria, and they landed in Calabria, L'havi Misham Esrigim, to bring Esrigim from Calabria to the Jews in the desert. Mizem Bo V'shiken Gam-- V'shiken, V'shiken Yihiyeh Gam Lo Asi Lova, it is understood that this will also be the case when Mashiach comes, that we're still going to need Calabria and Esrig. Maybe we'll travel there on clouds, but we're gonna need to have an Esrig from Calabria. V'rach, Sh'tzarchu Ribi V'esrigim, the Rebbe says, "Especially since we're going to need a ton of Esrigim. We need way more than usual. V'sh'ru Ribi V'nei Yisro M'kol Ha'deros, because then there's gonna be Tchiyas HaMeisim, all of the prior generations of Jews are going to come back to life, and they're all going to wanna shake their own Esrig. That's a lot of Jews. V'sh'ru Ribi V'nei Yisro M'kol Ha'deros, they're gonna need all these Jewish people from all these generations all need an Esrig, and they all need from Calabria. V'ad V'li Yitzachku Esrig Sh'tal, they certainly aren't going to use communal Esrigim where, like, one, uh, one couple Tzedekim get an Esrig and everybody shares. El Chol Ech V'ech Yhiye Esrig Mishloai, every single Jew from every single generation who's resurrected with the coming of Mashiach will be in the land of Israel and will need to go to Calabria to get their own Esrig. Or I guess there'll probably be vendors who will s-- bring them too,

37:41 but every one of them will need a Calabria Esrig. Lachem, because it says that you should have them for yourselves. Al Pi Sheha Tevilim B'dalimin Huin Achdus L'chol Bnei Yisro, even though the entire idea of shaking the lulav is connecting the entire Jewish people, different kinds of Jewish people, a lulav kind of Jew, an Esrig kind of Jew. Mudrichav Min Telas B'sucah, and also you'd be in Telas B'sucah, this is also emphasized by the fact that we do the Dalid Minim in the sukkah, which is th-that's the mitzvah Min HaMivchar, the best way to do it. And Shiru L'kol Yisrael SheSukkah Achas, and a sukkah, in theory, is, uh, can be as wide as you want it to be because every single Jew is allowed to be in the same sukkah. At least in theory, it just can't be as tall or as short as you want, but as wide, there's no limit. So sukkahs and lulav is all about achdus and all about sharing things. It's not about sharing an Esrig. Everybody gets their own Esrig, and everybody gets an Esrig from Calabria, even when Mashiach comes. So, uh, in conclusion, does this mean, uh, no Kfar Chabad Esrigim are allowed? It does not mean that at all. The Rebbe, and I believe I read the Friediker Rebbe too, excuse me, would buy Israeli Esrigim, uh, regularly to support the Jews living there and because of their great love for the land. They would purchase Israeli Kfar Chabad Esrigim. Um, I, I read that

38:40 the Rebbe held his Kfar Chabad Israeli Esrig for Halel, and I've also read claims that he would shake his Israeli Esrig with the lulav after first fulfilling the mitzvah with his Yanover Calabria Esrigs. He'd make a bracha on the Yanover and then put down the Yanover and then pick up the other one and also give it a little bit of, of time. But the key message is completely clear. For the actual mitzvah of lulav, for making the bracha, there's only one ideal option, uh, and that is an authentic Yanover Esrig from Calabria like our Adeiim, like our ancestors in Ashkenaz, and according to the Alter Rebbe, like Moshe Rabbeinu himself.