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The Esrog Tree

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The Esrog tree is delicate and frail. It starts to bear its first fruit after four or five years and its life expectancy is rarely more than fifteen years. During its relatively short lifespan, the Esrog tree is susceptible to frost and disease, thus requiring constant care. Weakest of all is its relatively frail root system.
For a horticulturist, the solution is simple. When an Esrog tree starts to grow, it is grafted onto the rootstock of other hardier and more resilient citrus trees, most often of the lemon or orange. The resulting tree will be much stronger and more resistant to disease, require less care, and have a doubled life-expectancy. The tree will also produce more plentiful and robust fruit. Although virtually indistinguishable …show more content…

This issue is not discussed in the Gemoro at all. The most likely explanation for this omission is that there were simply no other citrus trees growing in Israel or Babylon at the time. Nowhere in the words of Chazal is there any mention of an orange, tangerine, mandarin, clementine, pomelo, grapefruit, lemon or lime. In the absence of other citrus trees, the Esrog could not be grafted, so the question was moot.
Halachic discussion regarding the status of a murkav began at the start of the 16th century, when the Jewish community began noticing the prevalence of Esrog grafting. The initial rounds of discussion and debate were spearheaded by the Remo in Poland, the Maharam Padua in Italy and Reb Moshe Alshich in Israel.
It seems that before the question was raised, many European communities – including their rabbinic leaders – unwittingly used murkavim. This became a sore point in the ensuing Halachic discussion. The stringent authorities had to resign themselves to the uncomfortable fact that scores of communities had not fulfilled their obligation for decades, if not centuries. The lenient opinions took the position that there was no way a murkav could be unsuitable if it had enjoyed such widespread

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