The Chazon Ish Etrog Tree

It is told that one Sukkos the Chazon Ish gave Rav Michel Yehuda a packet of seeds taken from the etrog he had used for the Yom Tov. He told him to plant them in his yard. Rav Michel Yehuda had never worked with plants, but he did as he was told, planting and watering the seeds. A tree grew and bore fruit.

Each year the Chazon Ish came to choose his etrog from that tree, as did his brother-in-law the Steipler Gaon and other gedolei Yisroel. Rav Michel Yehuda also let etrog growers take cuttings, so that whole orchards could grow etrogim that the Chazon Ish had approved as mehudar (especially beautiful).

Those who know about growing etrogim marvel at the tree. An etrog tree normally grows from a cutting, and one planted from seed rarely bears fruit. Such trees usually give fruit for only five to seven years, yet this one yielded hundreds of clean, fine etrogim for over fifty years. In an interview in 2016, his daughter, Rebbetzin Leah Elyashiv, said that the original tree still stands in the backyard, surrounded by offshoots of the second, third and fourth generations.