One of the largest Chasidic sects looks like it will be faced with significant difficulties this Succot, after almost the entire harvest of the etrog they exclusively use has failed.
Yanover (Genoa) etrogim, from Italy’s Calabria region, are used by many Jews as part of their fulfilment of the Biblical commandment to take the Four Species together -a palm branch, an etrog, myrtle and willow - but they are used exclusively by Lubavitch (Chabad) Chasidim.
However, after days of sub-zero temperatures in the region in January, over four fifths of this year’s etrog crop have reportedly failed.
Rabbi Moshe Lazar, Chabad’s shliach (emissary) in Milan, told Chabad.org, the news and information website of the Lubavitch movement, that he had just come from the fields and “there is nothing to cut at all”.
