Everyone has heard that an אתרוג מורכב is פסול. The poskim give various reasons for this among them that the resulting fruit is not an אתרוג. However, scientists have found that when you graft the branch of an אתרוג tree onto say a lemon tree, the resulting fruit is basically unaffected certainly not genetically. Therefore, any אתרוג grown from the grafted אתרוג should certainly be kosher it is an אתרוג. Additionally, DNA testing shows that all types of אתרוג that are used today have no lemon or other citrus fruit genes in them and therefore should be considered an אתרוג.
However, the poskim have not uptaken this position and in fact R' Sternbuch writes that all the Esrogim today are ספק מורכב and he is skeptical how anyone is יוצא the mitzva today.
Another interesting question that will come up is geneticaly engineered esrogim. What will the din be?
In short, we see that based on science there really is no such thing as an אתרוג מורכב, the poskim on the other hand ignore this information.
Usually when you graft any branch onto a tree say within the same genus, the fruit follows the branch that was grafted. Nevertheless, I am pretty sure some features, even genetics may be exchanged host to grafted branch over time. I suspect the same is true for grafted esrogim. Can you cite a source for the claim that fruit from a grafted branch will not ever receive genes or characteristics from the host ? Thanks
ReplyDeletehttps://www.toraland.org.il/%D7%9E%D7%90%D7%9E%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%91%D7%9E%D7%A2%D7%92%D7%9C-%D7%94%D7%A9%D7%A0%D7%94/%D7%A1%D7%95%D7%9B%D7%95%D7%AA/%D7%90%D7%AA%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%92%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%9B%D7%91%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%95%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%9B%D7%9C%D7%90%D7%99%D7%9D/
ReplyDeleteIt says there is some genetic transfer.
בעשור האחרון הוכח שיחסי כנה-רוכב כוללים 'השתקת גנים', המבוקרת ע"י 'חלקיקי ר.נ.א.' כך שיש כיום תימוכין להשפעות גנטיות, אך לא להיווצרות מינים חדשים על ידי הרכבה