THE BACKGROUND

The Science: Stock and Scion

Most commercial citrus trees are a graft: a bud of the fruiting variety, the scion, set into a hardy seedling, the rootstock. The thin growing layer under each bark, the cambium, fuses across the wound; above the joint the scion's buds build every leaf and fruit, while vessels carry water, minerals, and hormones up from the roots. Through that supply, a grower's choice of rootstock shifts fruit size, rind thickness, and juice. With one plant's genes above the joint and another's below, which of the two is the tree itself?

The Torah: The Root

The Midrash likens the Sukkos esrog to the heart (Vayikra Rabbah 30:14), and at its root the Alter Rebbe finds ahavah mesuteres (hidden love), inherited from the Avos (Patriarchs) (Tanya ch. 18). So even the least observant Jews, for the most part, give their lives rather than deny Hashem. Like a flame, the soul by nature strains up toward its source (Tanya ch. 19). The Geulah reveals that hidden love.