Etrog Container

France or Germany, 19th century
Silver, carved coconut shell
B’nai B’rith Klutznick Collection of the Skirball Museum

The Festival of Sukkot, a seven-day Thanksgiving festival, takes place four days after Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.  Sukkot is one of Judaism’s harvest festivals and is often celebrated with various ceremonies, such as Consecration, which marks the beginning of a child’s Jewish education, and meals in the Sukkah.  The Sukkah is a temporary hut that is decorated with harvest symbols and is required to have at least three walls.  The sukkah is meant to represent the huts that the Israelites inhabited during their 40 year journey in the desert, as well as God’s continuing protection and shelter.  Two other important symbols of Sukkot are the lulav and etrog.  These two items refer to the four species described in the book of Leviticus.  The lulav is the product of three different trees, taking branches and leaves from the palm, myrtle, and willow trees.  The fourth species is the etrog, a sweet citrus fruit indigenous to Israel. Shown here in a photograph, the etrog is a yellow fruit with a tough, warty skin and a thick acid pulp. The green branches shown depict the lulav. The lulav and the etrog, often in conjunction with the shofar, became, after the menorah, the most characteristic and far flung symbol of Judaism. Even today many regard handling the etrog and lulav as an inspiring act.

So far as is known, the earliest representation of the etrog and lulav is on a Maccabean coin; currently it appears on an Israeli banknote. The container for the etrog is a later development. The most common form is a rectangular box, ranging in style from simple to highly decorative. The container is intended to house the etrog for the seven days of the duration of the Festival, so that the fruit can be kept safe when not in use, and thus remain unblemished and usable for ritual purposes. The shape often recalls a coffer, or a treasure chest, signaling the preciousness of the item it contains.

This etrog container in particular is very unusual. It is a coconut shell carved in high relief with vine branches and grape clusters (symbols of life) supported by a silver base decorated with lion’s paws and terminating in lion’s heads (representing the lions of Judah). The cover carries a Hebrew inscription: “And you shall take the fruit of the goodly tree…” (Leviticus 23:4).