My classmate Rachel Barenblat posted a nice recipe for Etrog Marmalade on her blog. I hope she used Italian or Greek etrogim - we were informed when we purchased our etrog that it must be returned, as it was from Eretz Yisrael, because it is a shmitta year (even though ours was surely picked before Rosh HaShanah).
Now, we searched (in English) and searched (in Hebrew) the internet, and found all kinds of halakhic rulings about shmitta and about etrogim, but could not find an explanation of the rule we heard when we purchased our etrog. So we'd be really glad to hear a learned explanation of why the etrog must be returned to Eretz Yisrael, and what will be done with it there. It seems an absurd expense, davka on a year when the etrogim were so cheap!
What is sure, no matter what the year, making marmelade is preferable than most other solutions - one is forbidden to dispose of an etrog in a dirty or smelly place (eg. trash can or compost pile). That is why there are traditions for marmalade, and for pushing cloves into the etrog all around, to be used for besamim at havdalah.
I learned from Reb Zalman to connect the holidays by things like this - your marmalade will best be eaten at channukah with your levivot, the drippings from the candles of channukah to make a small candle for seeking chametz on erev pesach, which is burned in a fire lit with kindling from your hadasim and your lulav. Some say aravot, too, but I put mine in water, and they have sprouted - now I'll plant them in the ground!
Rachel suggests saving the jam for Tu BiShvat, when her Berkshires home will no doubt be snowbound. For me, I couldn't wait quite that long...
Now, we searched (in English) and searched (in Hebrew) the internet, and found all kinds of halakhic rulings about shmitta and about etrogim, but could not find an explanation of the rule we heard when we purchased our etrog. So we'd be really glad to hear a learned explanation of why the etrog must be returned to Eretz Yisrael, and what will be done with it there. It seems an absurd expense, davka on a year when the etrogim were so cheap!
What is sure, no matter what the year, making marmelade is preferable than most other solutions - one is forbidden to dispose of an etrog in a dirty or smelly place (eg. trash can or compost pile). That is why there are traditions for marmalade, and for pushing cloves into the etrog all around, to be used for besamim at havdalah.
I learned from Reb Zalman to connect the holidays by things like this - your marmalade will best be eaten at channukah with your levivot, the drippings from the candles of channukah to make a small candle for seeking chametz on erev pesach, which is burned in a fire lit with kindling from your hadasim and your lulav. Some say aravot, too, but I put mine in water, and they have sprouted - now I'll plant them in the ground!
Rachel suggests saving the jam for Tu BiShvat, when her Berkshires home will no doubt be snowbound. For me, I couldn't wait quite that long...
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I'm glad you liked the recipe, Simcha Daniel! In truth, I don't know where my etrogim came from (and as they've already been made into jam, it's a bit late to be figuring that out.) I wonder, though, whether one could make an eco-kashrut case for the argument that flying used etrogim back to Israel is such an unnecessary use of jet fuel that such an act is eco-treif? :-)
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