Oomis and anyone else for that matter,
“The Torah refer to man as an eitz hasadeh (hope I got that right), and just as…”
I’m curious, what to people think hapened
do you believe the minhag arose for some other reason and this reason was used to justify it (not that this is bad! Jewish practices should be justified!)
Or
Was it always a Jewish practice going back to mantan torah, alluded to in the passuk and practiced over millenia, yet not written down until a few hundred years ago for whatever reason (including by those who set about to record minhagim like the maharil)
OR
At some point did someone look at passuk and make this hekish , thereby introducing a new practice and if so who and when?
Or something else