Halachic position: Is it advisable to wear a tassel with light blue?
Repentance Terry wanted to buy a tassel at a sanctuary store.
He turned to the seller, who offered two options: a tassel with azure threads or an all-white tassel.
But what is the difference between them and is there a prohibition on wearing a tassel with light blue according to Halacha?
Rabbi Shai Tahan explains in detail
David Berger, submitted on behalf of Shuva Israel
26/06/2022
Sunday, 26 June 2022, 11:16 Updated: 11:28
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Most arbitrators argued that there was no need to aggravate.
A boy with a tassel (Photo: ShutterStock)
Many times in our daily lives, halakhic questions arise and topical doubts arise.
Rabbi Shai Tahan, head of the Shaare Ezra Kollel and head of the Arazi Lebanon Teaching House, makes the laws accessible to us and answers questions asked in and out of the beit midrash.
And this time: Is it advisable nowadays to wear a tassel with azure?
Question
:
Peace and blessings to the rabbi.
I come back fresh and as I am more with the religious public more and more questions arise in me.
One of the questions I came up with recently was when I walked into a sanctuary to buy a tassel, and the seller asked if I would like to buy a tassel with azure threads or an all-white tassel.
When I asked what the charge was according to Halacha, he said that there were opinions on it, and he could not explain further.
So I wondered, what does this mean for opinions, and what should I do?
Answer
:
Hello to the esteemed questioner.
And His Excellency knew that this question is a very charged question, and I will try to summarize things without length that has no place here.
At the end of Parshas, the Torah mitzvah sent you the tassel mitzvah.
One of the details in this mitzvah is to dye the tassel thread light blue and tie it with the rest of the white threads, according to the verse:
The same azure color must be taken from a special creature found in the ocean, and its blood matches the above color, it is the snail.
In ancient times the snail was known and known and indeed people used it to dye their threads and the nations also used it to dye royal clothes, but since then we do not know what that snail is, so it has not been used since.
And here for over a hundred years (1857), Rabbi Mardzin, Rabbi Gershon Hanoch Leiner claimed to have found the azure creature, after all it is the squid fish. Indeed, this fish was formerly common for dyeing important clothes.
In his book called 'Sandpipers', Rebbe Mardjin compared this fish with the various signs given to us by Sages on the azure worm and declared that they matched the same creature he found. Since this fish has been known for generations and has not yet been used to dye tassel threads, it is considered as if we have a tradition and acceptance that it is not the desired azure
. This is harmful, and on the other hand it
can be that a person fulfills his biblical duty in it.
Nevertheless, the great ones did not agree with him even with the claim of the doubt because this law that goes to severity is only if we aggravate, we will certainly simplify the doubt (see FMG A.A. C. Katzad SKG and Minchat Asher H.B. C. B.), Here even if we wear the above color the doubt remains the same, for even after dyeing the threads in the above we do not know if this is the real color.
On the other hand, we have argued that there are many sources that prove that we are strict even when the doubt has not spread.
Later others found another creature called the Morax snail.
This snail miraculously has features that miraculously match all the signs of the original azure, so the finders claimed that it is the snail of Torah.
They piled up proof of this
from the words of the Torah and the words of our rabbis and also relied on it by scientific evidence.
The greats of the generation still did not agree with them, so to this day most people wear plain white threads without the same thread painted azure.
Delaying the discovery of the snail took various reasons.
Some simply said that the evidence was incorrect and that it was not the snail that was wanted at all.
In contrast, they argued halakhic reasons for canceling the dyeing of threads in this snail.
There is no room here to elaborate on the various arguments for and against this thing, however we will try to give a little explanation so that the reader will feel a little about what it is all about.
First of all, we should know that Sages taught us that the color of azure does come from the blood of the snail: "Azure is not kosher except from the snail" (Tosefta Minchot 5: 6).
And here are the signs of the Morax snail are as follows:
a.
It has a body like a worm or a fish and the snail's body is wrapped in a conch, which is a hard structure.
B.
The same conch is made of layers that look like the sea waves.
third.
The same snail has a bulge like a pocket in which the same light blue color is found.
D.
Since this snail is not very common therefore its color is expensive.
Let us now see what our sages have discussed about the azure snail.
It was said of its essence: "This snail is like a body in the sea, and its creature is like a fish."
(Minchot Med, a) and some likened his body to a worm (Rashi Sanhedrin Tza, a d'''h snail) and indeed this is his body while on the top of the conch shows sea waves.
The azure blood is collected in a bulge and looks like it is lying in a bag and is not mixed in its body, as the city of Rabbeinu ended in the additions (Shabbat AH):
The same color has always been expensive and its use is mainly made by royalty or wealthy people, as quoted in our sages' sources as well as external sources.
The name that the nations called for this color also matches what is found in our sources: Porfira.
Conclusion
:
As we wrote above, most of the arbitrators argued that there is no need to aggravate (see the file of answers to Rabbi Elyashiv Kha'a C.B. as well as Minchat Asher H.B. S.B.
However, some have written (see the words of Rabbi Yisrael Belsky at the top of the book dressed in the coffin) that whoever wants to give this azure thread on his garment must have something to rely on and at least not to despise those who give azure thread in their garment.
In addition, there is evidence that Rabbi Elyashiv (see the Or Yisrael file, 1958, an input sign) discussed at the end of his life about the above-mentioned snail, whether it should be published that this is indeed the snail worthy of light blue And in the end he decided not to publish in order not to cause multiple expenses for Klal Israel.
Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef, in his book Rishon Lezion (KJV), wrote at length to reject those who say that it is a blue snail, but he wrote in his words that To humble his manners.
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