This week's Torah portion tells us that the serpent speaks to the woman. He persuades her to eat the forbidden fruit.
The woman eats the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. She gives it to the man who also eats it. Their eyes are opened. They saw they were naked. Then they made garments of fig leaves. What did they eat?
The text itself does not say what fruit they ate. Most people would quickly say an apple. It is from the Latin translation of the Hebrew Bible. The Latin word for evil is malus and the Latin word for apple is malum.
Nowhere in the Jewish sources do we find it described as an apple.
Rashi says it was a fig. After Adam and Eve eat of the unidentified fruit, they realize they are naked. They use fig leaves to cover themselves. Why fig leaves? They were already standing next to a fig tree!
This interpretation was also popular in some Christian circles. In his fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo depicts the forbidden fruit as a fig.
Some of the ancient rabbis argue that the forbidden fruit was an etrog. The Tradition says that the Etrog is the fruit of the beautiful tree. Its fragrance was enticing and the woman could not resist it.
