Apples play a small role in Ashkenazi customs. We use them for charoses on Pesach and with honey on Rosh Hashana. This fruit would appear to not be particularly significant in Jewish ilife, compared for example to citrons or the seven species with which the Land of Israel is blessed. Even when the sources refer to apples, they may not be apples but citrons. For example, when Yakov entered to receive Yitzhak's blessings, the latter said: "See the smell of my son like the smell of a field which Hashem has blessed". On this Chazal say: "Like the fragrance of the apple field". Yet, Tosafos points out that the word tapuach that we now use for apples was used in the olden times for citrons instead. Thus the reference in Joshua 12:17, "the king of Tappuah", may not be to apples at all. Traditionally. based on the Tosafos in Taanis 29b) tappuach refers to esrog.
Harold N. and Alma L. Moldenke wrote in their book "Plants of the Bible":
The identity of the apple has perplexed scholars for years. According to the authors, the Hebrew word used is tapuach. "The apple tree of the Scriptures was a tree which afforded a pleasant shade. Its fruit was enticing to the sight, sweet to the taste, imparting fragrance, with restorative properties, and of a golden color, borne amid silvery leaves," they say.
Many scholars, they continue, have argued in favor of the common apple, Malus pumila. But most botanists agree that it is not native to the Holy Land. It was only comparatively recently that the "poor wild fruits of the common apple have been so improved by selection and cultivation as to bring them to a form which would fit the description in the Biblical quotations," the Moldenkes write.
Other writers have supposed the "apples of gold" were oranges, Citrus sinensis. But the fruit is native to China. The Seville orange, Citrus vulgaris, also suggested by some, is a native of eastern India, not introduced into the Holy Land until 1000 C.E., the authors add.
Other plants that don't meet the criteria include the citron, Citrus medica and the quince, Cydonia oblonga. Neither is "sweet to the taste."
The Moldenkes conclude the only fruit that meets all the requirements is the apricot, Prunus armeniaca. With the exception of the fig, it is the most abundant in the Holy Land, referring to Canon Tristam's "Natural History of the Bible." Tristam maintains the plant, originally from Armenia, was introduced to the Holy Land around the time of Noah (about 2950 BCE)."The apricot is a round-headed, reddish-barked tree growing to 30 feet tall," write the Moldenkes. This is clearly outside of the traditional consensus but interesting.
(As an aside: See also here
on the possible identification of Pri Etz Hadar with an avocado, a close relative of an apricot.
For an intersting discussion of rabbinic views on the Eve's apple see this article from the New York TImes of Jan. 18, 1907)
" Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, (cited in Nefesh Harav pp. 209-210) however, argues that the word Tapuach refers to a citrus fruit such as an Etrog (see Tosafot Taanit 29b s.v. Shel Tapuchim, which supports Rav Soloveitchik's argument). Based on this point, Rav Hershel Schachter places a citrus fruit in his Charoset instead of apples. This practice is supported by the Gemara (Pesachim 116a), which mentions that since the Charoset serves as a reminder of the Tapuach, the Charoset should be acidic. Citrus fruits are distinctively acidic but apples are not. "
In fact, however, apples do have important significance that might explain their inclusion into Charoses.
Zohar refers clearly to apple and not esrog when it writes: "Just as the apple has various colors, so does the Holy One Blessed be He has various colors ( referring to the "colors" of Sefiros). Just as the apples heal all, so Holy One Blessed be He heals everyone (Zohar Acharei Mos). Apples do come in different varieties and colors but not citrons. This passage echoes Rashi to Shir Hashirim 2:5 who writes that the Sages advised bringing apples to the sick. Truly, an apple a day keeps the doctor away.
Ben Ish Chai (Hilchos Nitsavim) writes that the apple is the only tree associated with the sefira of Tiferes. I suspect though that he is referring to the esrog, which is green, the color of Tiferes, and is associated with Yakov who, as noted, before, brought with him the smell of the apple tree, which Tosafos says is esrog and not apple.
I recently saw an explanation of how the apple is connected to Tiferes (B'Or Hatorah, 10:71) in the name of R. Avraham Brandwein and R. Yitshok Ginsburgh). As is well known, the name YKVK is associated with Tiferes. Yud is indicated by the the ten dots in the pulp surrounding the seeds. Hei is indicated by the five spaces for the seeds, The Vav is the apple stem and the last hei is the five seeds themselves.
The apple is then an important part of charoses, the element of Tiferes that hold the whole mixture together. While the charoses reminds of the servitude in Egypt, the apple in it reminds us that all extremes are held together by the center and that even the bitter exile will eventually be transformed into the sweetness of Redemption.
I attach two videos:
1.R.Avigdor MIller's famous exposition on the apple
2.Throwing apples in Zanz-Klausenberg. Please recall that 26 is the gematria of YKVK
A bit of symbolism in the Tosafos's identification of "tapu'ach" with esrog...
The esrog is noted "sheta'am eitzo upiryo shaveh -- the taste of the tree is the same as the taste of the fruit". This is in contrast to what happened on the fourth day of creation, where the ideal would have been to have an "eitz peri -- a fruit tree", and the reality that emerged was an "eitz oseh peri -- a tree that made fruit", rather than being more "of" the fruit. The ideal was that every tree taste like its fruit; but the world isn't made to be ideal. It's made to be a place we are to make ever closer to the ideal.
Gan Eden is referred to "chaqal tapuchin qadishin -- the orchard of holy tapuach's".
Chazal note that the "rei'ach hasadeh -- the smell of the field" that Yitzchaq smelled on Esav's cloak (when worn by Yaaqov) was that of Gan Eden. That the cloak was the kutones Hashem gave Adam, and gave the wearer mastery over the animals.
If the "field" in question is an esrog orchard, the smell is the smell of the fruit, the original ideal for creation.
-micha
Posted by: Micha | March 16, 2009 at 09:51 AM