Illustration Credit: Elad Lifshitz, Dov Abramson Studio
What's going on here? מַה זֶה?
God instructs Adam that he can eat from all of the fruits in Gan Eden, except for etz hada’at (Bereishit 2:15-16).
What type of tree was this?
The Torah never tells us directly, but midrashim in the Talmud (Berakhot 40b) and Bereishit Rabbah (15:7) offer several possibilities:
- Rabbi Meir says it was a grape vine
- Rabbi Nehemyah says it was a fig tree
- Rabbi Yehudah says it was a wheat stalk
- Rabbi Abba says it was an etrog tree
(But no one in the Torah or midrashim suggests it was an apple tree!)
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