[Avodah] Dates from Ancient Genes and Koseves

[Micha Berger]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/07/world/middleeast/israel-judean-dates-agriculture.html

    KETURA, Israel The plump, golden-brown dates hanging in a bunch
    just above the sandy soil were finally ready to pick.

    They had been slowly ripening in the desert heat for months. But
    the young tree on which they grew had a much more ancient history
    sprouting from a 2,000-year-old seed retrieved from an archaeological
    site in the Judean wilderness.

Quick, can someone get the volume of these things before Yom Kippur?

Kidding aside.... Do people think that the shiur of a kekoseves should
be re-assessed, if necessary, based on this newly available data?

RYBS, and his version of R Chaim's argument against Radziner tekheiles (or
his argument against assuming orez = rice) would imply we don't. Halakhah
can only be founded upon mesorah, not scientific data. My summary of that
section of Nefesh haRav is at
https://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol05/v05n073.shtml#12

Anyone want to provide meqoros for other opinions?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                     Time flies...
http://www.aishdas.org/asp               ... but you're the pilot.
Author: Widen Your Tent                          - R' Zelig Pliskin
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF