Shlaj Lejá 5777 - English

Rabbi Gustavo Kraselnik

Congregacion Kol Shearith Israel

At the end of Parashat Shelach Lecha we find one of the best-known texts from the Torah: the order of wearing Tzitziot (fringes) on the corners of our garments (which would later lead to wearing the Talit). It is the third paragraph of the Shema that we recite twice a day in our prayers. This passage is called Parashat Tzitzit and it starts like this:

“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the children of Israel and you shall say to them that they shall make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments, throughout their generations, and they shall affix a thread of sky blue [wool] on the fringe of each corner.” (Num. 15:37-38)

The Tzitzit is interpreted by tradition as fringes, a group of four folded threads (eight threads) with five knots each that goes on each corner of the Talit. As Rashi claims, this means that to the numerical value (Gematria) of the word Tzitzit, which is 600, we must add the 8 threads and 5 knots to arrive at 613, the equivalent of the number of Mitzvot in the Torah. 

This interpretation is valuable since the role of the Tzitzit is that, by looking at it, we are reminded of the Mitzvot and of fulfilling them, as the rest of the passage goes:

“This shall be fringes for you, and when you see it, you will remember all the commandments of the Lord to perform them…” (Id. 39)

This makes us wonder what is so special about the Tzitzit that it can achieve this, and without a doubt, the answer must be found in the thread’s color: Techelet. What was this color and why must it remind us of the Mitzvot?

Even though in modern Hebrew Techelet is light blue, the biblical color – also used in the priests’ garments – seems to be blue, purple or turquoise. A small passage of the Talmud (Menachot 43b) tries to answer this question:

Rabbi Meir used to say: “Why is Techelet different from the rest of the colors? Because Techelet is like the sea, and the sea is like the sky, and the sky is like the thrown of glory.”

However, the matter of the Techelet thread moved to a second place because, after the destruction of the Second Temple, it became impossible to make it. The dye that was used to get that color came from a mollusk called Hillazon that lived on the margins of the Dead Sea and, according to the Talmud, became extinct around that time. Since then, the Tzitziot are usually white.

Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan (United State, XX Century) provides a different analysis. In his opinion, defining Techelet as purple was a brave decision by the rabbis, as an act of rebellion against the Roman oppressor. Purple was the color of Roman nobility and to include a thread of this color in the garments of Jews was a declaration of rejection of the emperor’s authority. When the Romans extinguished the Jewish rebellion and destroyed the Temple, they decreed the penalty of death for anyone who wore that color. Hence, the rabbis established the “extinction” of the Hillazon.

I like Kaplan’s argument because it is deeply connected to the idea of the paragraphs that make up the Shema. The first paragraph (Deut. 6:4-9) is known as “Kabalat Ol Malchut Shamayim”, the acceptance of the celestial yoke, meaning our acknowledgement of God as the sovereign of the universe; the second (Id. 11:13-21), “Kabalat Ol Hamitzvot”, the acceptance of the bond of the precepts, the way in which we express our faith in God; and finally Parashat Tzitzit, where the Tzitziot not only remind us of the Mitzvot, but – in Kaplan’s reading – must inspire us to understand the meaning of our compliance with the Mitzvot, as an act of affirmation of faith and rejection against everything that goes against divine will.

In the last few years, from the apparent success of having identified a living species of Hillazon, there are some who are promoting we return to the use of the Techelet thread in our Tzitziot. It might be an interesting idea. Personally, I think the challenge is still to make our Tzitziot (whether they are white or with the Techelet thread) a source of inspiration that invites us to perceive the presence of God in our lives, and under His inspiration attempt to make this world a place that gives testimony to His presence.

Shabbat Shalom 

Gustavo