אור לישרים דברים נגד בעל התכלת, קונטרס אור זרוע לצד-SIGNED BY RABBI AVROHOM SHOR

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אור לישרים דברים נגד בעל התכלת, קונטרס אור זרוע לצד-SIGNED BY RABBI AVROHOM SHOR:
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אור לישרים, (תרמ\"ט, ירושלים) - הכולל חידושים על מסכת פסחים, קונטרס אור זרוע לצדיק (שבו קטעים המיועדים להיאמר על קברו של רבי שמעון הצדיק בירושלים), ספר פתיל תכלת (בו הוא תוקף בחריפות את הצעתו של האדמו\"ר מרדזין לחדש את התכלת, וכן את הרב עקיבא יוסף שלזינגר, איש ירושלים, שתמך בהצעה זו).
TekheletFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaSee also:Hexaplex trunculusA set of Tzitzit, four tassels or \"fringes\" with blue threads produced from aHexaplex trunculusbased dye — tied according to the opinion of theSefer ha-Chinuch.

In theSeptuagint,tekheletwas translated \"hyacinth\"). The color of the hyacinth flower ranges from violet blue to a bluish purple.

According to theTalmud, the dye ofTekheletwas produced from a marine creature known as theḤillazon(also spelledChilazon).[2]According to theTosefta(Men.9:6), theḤillazonis the exclusive source of the dye.

After the destruction of theTemple in Jerusalemby the Romans, the sole use of theTekheletdye was inTzitzit. A set ofTzitzitconsists of four tassels, some of their strands being Tekhelet, which Rashi describes as green as “poireau,” the French word forleek, transliterated into Hebrew. There are three opinions in Rabbinic literature as to how many are to be blue: 2 strings;[6]1 string;[7]1 half string.[8]These strands are then threaded and hang down, appearing to be eight. The four strands are passed through a hole 25 to 50mm away from the corners of the four-cornered cloth.

Tekhelet is mentioned in the third paragraph of the dailyprayersknown as theSh\'ma Yisrael(Hebrew:שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל; \"Hear, [O] Israel\"), citingBemidbar–ParashatShelakh(Book of Numbers15:37–41).

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Contents[hide]

1Biblical references
2History
3Identifying theḥillazon
- 3.1Sepia officinalis
- 3.2Janthina
- 3.3Hexaplex trunculus
4Gallery
5Alternative interpretations
6See also
7Bibliography
8References

Biblical references[edit]

Of the 49[9]or 48[4][5]uses in theMasoretic Text, one refers to fringes on cornered garments of the whole nation of Israel (Numbers 15:37–41), 44[citation needed]refer to the priesthood or temple clothes and garments. The remaining 6[citation needed]inEsther,JeremiahandEzekielare secular uses; such as whenMordechaiputs on \"blue and white\" \"royal clothing\" in Esther. The colour could be used in combination with other colours such as2 Chronicles3:14where the veil ofSolomon\'s Templeis made of blue-violet (Tekhelet),purple(Hebrew: אַרְגָּמָןArgaman) andscarlet(Biblical Hebrew: שָׁנִי (Shani); modern Hebrew: כַּרְמִילkarmiyl).Ezekiel 27:7may indicate the source of the shellfish to have been theAegean region.[10]

History[edit]

At some point following the Roman destruction of theSecond Temple, the actual identity of the source of the dye was lost, and during a period of over 1,400 years, most Jews have only worn plain white tassles (Tzitzit).[11]

The stripes onprayer shawls, often black, but also blue or purple, are believed by many to symbolize what the majority opinion in mainstreamJudaismconsiders as the lostTekheletwhich is referred to by various sources as being \"black as midnight\", \"blue as the midday sky\", and even purple.[12]These stripes oftekheletinspired the design of theFlag of Israel.

Identifying theḥillazon[edit]

Various sea creatures have been suggested as theḤillazon, the purported source of the blue dye.[13][14][15][16]

Sepia officinalis[edit]

In 1887,Grand Rabbi Gershon Henoch Leiner, theRadzinerRebbe, researched the subject and concluded thatSepia officinalis(commoncuttlefish) met many of the criteria. Within a year,Radziner chassidimbegan wearingTzitzitthat included threads dyed with a colorant produced from thiscephalopod. SomeBreslovHasidim also adopted this custom due to RebbiNachman of Breslov\'s pronouncement on the great importance of wearingTekheletand in emulation of Rabbi Avraham ben Nachram ofTulchyn, a prominent Breslov teacher who accepted the view of his contemporary, the Radziner Rebbe.[citation needed]

RabbiYitzhak HaLevi Herzog(1889–1959) obtained a sample of this dye and had it chemically analyzed. The chemists concluded that it was a well-known synthetic dye \"Prussian blue\" made by reactingIron(II) sulfatewith an organic material. In this case, the cuttlefish only supplied the organic material which could have as easily been supplied from a vast array of organic sources (e. g., ox blood). R. Herzog thus rejected the cuttlefish as theḤillazonand some suggest that had the Grand Rabbi Gershon Henoch Leiner known this fact, he too would have rejected it based on his explicit criterion that the blue color must come from the animal and that all other additives are permitted solely to aid the color in adhering to the wool.[17]

Janthina[edit]

Within his doctoral research on the subject ofTekhelet, Herzog placed great hopes on demonstrating thatHexaplex trunculuswas the genuine snailḤillazon.However, having failed to consistently achieve blue dye fromHexaplex trunculus, he wrote: “If for the present all hope is to be abandoned of rediscovering theḤillazon Shel Tekheletin some species of the generaMurex(now \"Hexaplex\") andPurpurawe could do worse than suggestJanthinaas a not improbable identification”.[18]Although blue dye has in the meantime been obtained fromHexaplex trunculussnail, in 2002 Dr. S. W. Kaplan ofRehovot, Israel, sought to investigate Herzog\'s suggestion thatTekheletcame from the extract ofJanthina. After fifteen years of research he concluded thatJanthinawas not the ancient source of the blue dye.

Hexaplex trunculus[edit]A guide from thePtil Tekhelet Foundationshows how a piece ofwool, dipped into the solution for theHexaplex trunculusbased dye, turns intoleek-like green in sunlight, and eventually into (dark) blue with a purple hue.

In his doctoral thesis (London, 1913) on the subject, Rabbi Herzog namedHexaplex trunculus(then known by the name \"Murex trunculus\") as the most likely candidate for the dye\'s source. ThoughHexaplex trunculusfulfilled many of the Talmudic criteria, Rabbi Herzog\'s inability to consistently obtain blue dye (sometimes the dye was purple) from the snail precluded him from declaring it to be the dye source.

According to Zvi Koren, a professor of chemistry,Tekheletwas close in color to midnight blue.[19]This conclusion was reached based on the chemical analysis of a 2000-year old patch of dyed fabric recovered fromMasadain the 1960s.[20]The sample, shown to have been dyed withMurex snailextraction, is a midnight blue with a purplish hue. Additionally, in 2013, Na\'ama Sukenik of theIsrael Antiquities Authorityverified a 1st-century CE-dated fragment of blue-dyed fabric to have usedH. trunculusas the source of its pure blue color.[21]

In the 1980s, Otto Elsner,[22]a chemist from the Shenkar College of Fibers in Israel, discovered that if a solution of the dye was exposed toultraviolet rays, such as from sunlight, blue instead of purple was consistently produced.[23]In 1988, Rabbi Eliyahu Tavger dyedTekheletfromH. trunculusfor theMitzvah(commandment) ofTzitzitfor the first time in recent history.[24]Based on this work, four years later, thePtil TekheletOrganization was founded to educate about the dye production process, and to make the dye available for all who desire to use it. The television showThe Naked Archaeologistinterviews an Israeli scientist who also makes the claim that this mollusk is the correct animal. A demonstration of the production of the blue dye using sunlight to produce the blue color is shown. The dye is extracted from the hypobranchial gland ofHexaplex trunculussnails.[15]

However, Talmudic researcher Ben Zion Rosenberg contends that there is not enough evidence supportingHexaplex trunculusas the source for tekhelet. He further claims that the proponents of the Murex as Tekhelet twist the religious texts, at times \'almost beyond recognition\'.[25]