Choosing an Esrog

0:00Start as Srogum, we're not going to get too far, but maybe, maybe Thursday we'll see, we'll try to make some time to discuss more, but we'll start the discussion as Srogum. As Srogum are unique in that it is described by the Torah as pre-Aits Hudder. So in addition to the requirements by every Mitzvah, Zakkili van Veow, having a Mitzvah, as Srogum, it is described as it's by its very nature as being Hudder. Most as Srogum you're going to find in the story today are already Muhudder, because a guy who's growing Srogum, who has a part of his Srogum, has no motivation to ship out, deformed, or unusual looking Srogum, because no one's going to buy them anyway. Most of what you find is Scustential Konarch, including the Black Dots that are Scustential Konarch that are said to pass it on Srog when they're on the top part of the Srog, or over the grove of the circumference of the Srog, do not exist in our stores. So basically, even things that look like Black Dots are not the Black Dots that the Shog and Raphs are talking about. So what we are choosing from amongst Srogum is nice Srogum and nice Srogum.

1:05We are not choosing for the most part Pustal Srogum. There are certain pursuant to be aware of, which we'll hopefully get to. A basic look of an Srog, is that an Srog should have a nice Gidu, it should have a nice form to, which we'll discuss in a second. Skin should be yellow with bumps and crevices all over it, and it gives it a certain beauty to it. Pitum on the top should be in line with the ucoots on the bottom. It shouldn't be that the pitum sometimes you see totally off to the side. That's not as nice. It's again, it's a costume, but not as nice. An ideal Srog should not have scabs, bruises, deformities, watermarks, all of those things. All of those things ruin the hidor of the Srog, but they do not pass the Srog. Very, very rare to find a perfect Srog. The perfect Srog is saved for some chacillus red bovazochustin. It's going to pay $1,000 for it. Very, very rare that you're going to find a really totally perfect Srog. But you can find a good one, and you're going to have to sacrifice some qualities for others.

2:06And there's no real rules necessarily about which qualities are more important than the others. It's whatever is more important to you. You're going to have to see what your preferences are. The guidl of the Srog is as follows. An Srog should be shaped like a tower wide at the bottom, and a taper is at the top. From about the center of the Srog up, it starts to narrow, and the top most section is called the chotem of the Srog. That's the narrowest part of the Srog. The more an Srog resembles, that what I just described to you, the better the guidl of the Srog is said to be. An Srog hum work of is supposedly said not to have such a nice Srog shape. And that's why the guidl was assumed to be important by the acronym. Because the guidl was a simon that it wasn't work of, that it wasn't crafted with another tree. It's unclear whether that's really the maceous. In fact, the maceous may be the opposite. That the reason that they make an Srog hum work of that they graft it in the first place is that it gives it a much nicer look and a much nicer guidl sometimes.

3:09But anyway, that was the assumption that they always work with. Mr. Brewer doesn't mention anything about a nice guidl. Perhaps Mr. Brewer believes that a guidl doesn't really matter at all. Whether it's overall shape really matters so much. Now, the color of an Srog, the commissioner already talks very clearly about the ideal color of an Srog. The Tosus and Lamanalfa and Beys in Maceus, it was very clear that the Srog should be solid yellow. Now, when an Srog is green, it is usually cusher anyway because that green is a yellowish green. Only if an Srog is a very dark green, if it's yellow, kickarty, the gomar described as green like a leak. If it's a very dark green, then that can pass it. Generally, avoid dark green as Srog. Next year, it's going to be difficult because next year, Yantle falls out very, very early. So the Srog will not going to be ripened there. It's going to be more tricks to make it ripen more quickly. But we try our best to make it to buy a yellow Srog or a yellowish Srog.

4:12Now, an Srog that's a dark green. Now, one type of hider is the Srog should have a uniform color. Shouldn't have blotches of different colors throughout. Again, there are ways to make the color change, but you try to avoid that if at all possible. Now, what a discoloration can make an Srog puzzle. So, it talks about black spots, white spots. If we actually had those black and white spots, that could make an Srog an Srog puzzle. But the black and white spots that we often see are usually some foreign matter that's usually it's insecticide or residue or dirt that's become embedded in the Srog. Sometimes the glaze of the Srog will then spread over the insecticide or the dirt. And it will make it look like it's part of the Srog, but it's really not. It's foreign matter and will not puzzle the Srog. And usually what will happen is at some point the glaze will wear off and the dirt will just come off.

5:12And that will show you that it's really cussure. Second reason you have to be concerned about it is that all Srog have it. And therefore, it's considered to be the marrow of the Srog. It's considered to be a normal marrow. The Srog is not considered to be an abnormality. And that itself makes a cussure. So do not try to remove the black dots and an Srog, especially not with a pin or anything like that. Because you're likely to not only take off the black dot, you're likely to take out some of the surface right underneath the skin of the Srog. And then you will have what's called chaser and chaser is possible. If you remove the area right beneath the skin of the Srog, even in the tiniest mash of the area right beneath the skin of the Srog, you'll make the Srog chaser. And that is going to be a Pustler Srog. As Srog, very often grow in areas where there's a lot of sand, a lot of loose dirt, and wind blows in those areas. So there's this grayish, white dust that covers the Srog. Now before they ship them out, they take a sponge and they clean it off.

6:15But because in Srog has so many cracks and crevices. And so the sponge will clean off, whatever on the outer surface. But very often in the cracks, there will be a lot of dirt that's still in there. Now the problem with that dirt is that it could create an illusion of a real problem. Meaning it could look like black dots or white dots. It could look like it's cause it could look like a blood, or whatever. But it's still really going to be cautionary. That you could take a soft, you know, cutip or something, wet cutip and just clean out the dirt that's in that area. And that's not a problem. Red or brown spots that you find on an Srog are usually a bruise from squeezing, from banging the Srog against something. It's a hidden issue. The Srog is still cusher. Sometimes they'll have a red or brown spot. It's just a natural discoloration of the skin and is not necessarily from trauma. But that's called manumer bimara cusher. That it's manumer and speckled. It has certain spots. But the other spots that it has are also cusher.

7:17So that Srog, such an Srog that's manumer bimara cusher, is still going to be cusher. That's a bir alachem tarfeshmev chesif tazayin. It's still going to be cusher. It's just a little less muhudar. When using the Srog, if you hold the Srog too tightly or your palm sweat too much, and you're holding it in your palms, it's having your fingers. So it can cause reddish brown dots because the, which weren't there when you bought the Srog, because like any fruit, the next Srog excreeds juices when it's squeezed or when it's hit. And the acid in the juice will oxidize and will turn brown. It will not pass through your Srog, but it will make your Srog less muhudar. So that's why it's not a good idea to just mess around with the Srog all day. Isn't when using it. You don't like sitting there looking at your Srog. That was true. The gmarmicefus cusher says that the anci-rishlai will go around all day. Lula, vei-bia-dei. That they'll go and love and be Adam. That they'll go around. Team Vakrakol, and then Lula, bi-adam. And they've got to be smashes and Lula, bi-adam. They go here, they go there, they always have Lula, bi-adam.

8:19But they didn't just carry the Srog alone. And carrying the Srog alone is no key whatsoever. So if you're such a chuss that you walk around all day with your Ruvan Srog together, fine, then you can. But it's sort of being Makaimimitsva. If you're not being Makaimimitsva, by holding all the means, it's not a good idea to just mess around with the Srog. To play with the Srog, you're likely to either pass the litter at the very least, make it less muhudar. Now a blettle is a scab or a mark that's left under the Srog by a leaf, a thorn by a branch, far matter that comes into contact while the Srog is developing on the tree. It's the white mark that you often see on a Srog. But they call a blettle. The rules of a blettle are based on the rules of chazazis, because we don't have real chazazis anymore. So we just apply chazazis, which is a blister, and that's where we don't really have that so much, to the rules of a blettle. And the rules are there are two basic rules. First rule is that if it can easily be felt when you rub your hand against it,

9:21that could be a problem. If it can't be felt when you rub your hand against it, it's not a problem. Second rule is that the blister has been formed from the Srog itself. In order for an Srog to be possible, it has to be again. Both of those rules have to be there. It has to be suddenly that you can easily feel and it comes from the Srog itself. So the first one is just very easy to tell, which is close your eyes and rub your hand across it, and see if you could feel the blettle. If you could feel the blettle, then you then have to look into the second issue. The Rama says that Mule, which is found on a Srogum, some type of discoloration, it's found on a Srogum. The Rama says all motor, because it's flush with the Srogum. If it's flush with the Srogum, you can't feel it. It's all going to be motor. And the Rama says anyway, it's very common. So it's considered a Maraha Srogum. It's considered to be the normal look of the Srogum. So whatever is typical for the Srogum is going to be a motor. So the Mishmibris says we try to avoid an Srogum that has a blettle,

10:21but make a radine if you hold like that Rama, that anything has a Maraha Srogum. Anything that's a normal look of the Srogum is cusher. So then it's going to be cusher anyway, because it's Maraha Srogum. There is another episode of an Srogum called Khase. Khase comes up in three different areas. It could come from missing flesh of the Srog. The Srogum is made up of the glaze on the very, very outer surface. Then there's the yellow skin. And then right underneath the yellow skin there's the bustle, the flesh of the Srogum. If any of the flesh is missing from the Srogum, that's Khase. It could also be if there's damaged skin. That's called Niklaf. That the skin layer itself is damaged as Niklaf. That could be a Shaila of Khase. And third Shaila of Khase is if the Pytom is missing. If the Pytom gets broken off, that could be a Shaila of Khase. If the glaze is missing or just a bit of the yellow layer is missing, that is not a problem of Khase. However, very often once the yellow is missing, there's no way to tell whether a little bit of the area

11:26underneath it is also missing. So if it's missing a little glaze, doesn't it, a green that's shine, that's fine. But you know, over a certain area, that's fine. But if it's missing some of the yellow, then it's very hard to know. If it's missing a little bit of the area underneath it also, and therefore it should be assumed to be to be puzzled. There are ways to tell and to check if something is possible, but it's very, very difficult to really be able to know. And to check unless you have a lot of experience looking at, at, you know, and a Srogum. A lot of times he blacked out, browned out. Most of those are not Khase. Most of those are not Shaila's really, there's nothing missing from the Srog itself. The Pytum is something that obviously we're very sensitive to. Why did Srogum have a Pytum and some don't? Every Srog starts with a Pytum. It's part of the Blossom. Usually the Pytum falls off with the rest of the Blossom. However, because people like a Pytum and the Restrogue,

12:26they spray stuff on it so that it won't fall off when the rest of the Blossom falls off. They spray like some hearted-meaning thing that causes the Pytum to stay. That's why we have so many Pytumists, Srogum. Now, some prefer not to have a Pytum because then you don't have the risk of it falling off later. Others prefer an Srog with a Pytum because then you know that it didn't once have a Pytum that fell off. So, you know, different preferences whether you have a Pytum or not. When the Pytum is falling off at an early stage, there's a small depression shaped like an upside-down cone at the tip of the chote, at the very tip of the of the of the estrogue. The sides of that depression are smooth and natural looking. If there's no indentation and the top is just flat, smooth and white, then that's probably the Pytum fell off later. So, if it's like a brownish, you know, it looks like it's covered over almost. So, that happened on the tree and that's fine. But if you see like it looks like it's cut off and it's white at the top.

13:28So, then it likely happened after it was moved from a tree and that could be a upsole. The second another clue that an Esra grew without a Pytum is the rim right around the area of the Pytum. An Esra was Pytum fell off at a very early stage. We'll have a thin light brown ridge around the rim. And that alone is enough to tell you even without looking for the inverted cone to see the shape of it just looking at the coloring, the brown around the rim. That's usually enough to tell you when the Pytum fell off, when the Pytum did not fall off. When you're looking at an Esra, very important. You don't need to look like this, you know, right up in front of your face. You don't need the reason people use magnifying glass is they think they can be able to tell the magnifying glass if it's chassem. You're not looking for dots with the magnifying glass. Anything you're going to see a dot, it's not possible if you can't see it with the naked eye. I mean, the way the short mark says, from the distance that you would normally hold it when you're being out to the mitzvah. So you hold it way as far away from your eyes. You would hold it when you're being out to the mitzvah.

14:29It's hold it much closer is really unnecessary, entirely unnecessary. So when you're looking at an Esra, even for the beauty, you look mostly at the hotel, at the top part of the Esra is where you look for most of these issues. There's a lot more to talk about with an Esra. We have to talk about the pedigree of an Esra, it was a major issue. More Covent, how we can track whether an Esra was more Covent or not, but I guess that will suffice for now when it comes to Esra. I guess maybe we'll have one more time in the last year at some point. There are different varieties of Esra, what is more of a Xach-Morkov, less of a Xach-Morkov, but for now that will suffice until it's picking Esra.