Fruit Trees

[David Watts]

Hi All,

 

Not too sure if this is the right Category for this thread, so please let me know if I should move it.

 

I've recently been working on a site for an Orthodox Jewish client, who has asked me to identify any fruit trees on the site. It is written in the bible not to cut down a tree which bears fruit.

 

I wonder if anybody has dealt with this before, and if so your thoughts as to how you would define a fruit tree? While it is obvious as to what is commonly regarded as a fruit tree (cultivated apple, pear etc.), there are plenty of species which are borderline, and all angiosperms bear fruit of some kind.

[treequip]

Surely this is a divinical question rather than a tree question.

 

It matters not what a bunch of tree cutters think but the opinion of the Torah would be significant, ask a Rabbi or better yet, get the client to ask his Rabbi.

[David Watts]

I've gone down that route as well. To be honest I think the client is expecting me to just point out edible apples etc. Come across this a couple of times though, and clients have looked quite bemused when I've explained what a fruit tree is, and just wondered if anybody had come across anything similar.

[se7enthdevil]

surely all trees bear fruit of some kind to reproduce unless they are male trees i suppose, or ornamental cultivars?

[Darrin Turnbull]

Maybe this could help

http://www.aish.com/jl/jewish-law/daily-living/32-The-Jewish-Garden.html?tab=y

 

 

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[Betula]

Get hold of Kveldsanger, he's reading a book about trees in the Israeli and Palestinian conflict.

 

Seriously!!

[easy-lift guy]

Just charge the customer your hourly rate to point out fruit trees and be done with it. If the customer balks at your offer, thank him for his time and say good bye.

easy-lift guy

[Gary Prentice]

Surely this is a divinical question rather than a tree question.

 

It matters not what a bunch of tree cutters think but the opinion of the Torah would be significant, ask a Rabbi or better yet, get the client to ask his Rabbi.

 

There's so many discrepancies in religious works regarding nomenclature that the Bible or Torah probably won't help. ( I read a book about naming elms that had a couple of chapters on mistakes in translations over the years)

[Will Heal]

Just cut them all down in the winter when they are bearing no fruit.

 

 

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[David Watts]

Thanks for the link Darrin, much appreciated.

 

I think Gary's right, the Torah is unlikely to offer much light on this, as I very much doubt that it goes into taxonomic detail.

 

For the purposes of my survey, I'm going to identify any trees with fleshy edible berries/drupes and leave it at that. But if I believed in the bible/Torah, I would have to think about this a bit more. Firstly all angiosperms are 'fruit' trees, so I assume that the Torah is referring to edible fruit. But then if apple is an edible fruit, does that mean that ornamental cultivars of apple count as 'fruit' trees? Or species such as rowan, which are technically edible, but a bit sour, or even oak which I've seen Ray Mears laboriously pound into flour. Surely at some point a Jewish arborist must have thought about this.