Debate Responses
Item
While the Ben Yehoyada (Ben Ish Hai) writes this, Rashi is very clear that they were caught because of the “goods from Luz” were Techeiles dyed there. So this is a distortion of facts. Granted, the main reason Chazal went up was to declare the leap year, but the secondary issue was that the Techeiles was confiscated in the process.
That’s basically saying that someone went to do illegal act A, while carrying illegal goods B. That person was caught under the suspicion of A but was let go because B was deemed more important than A. One can even argue that Techeiles was used as a bribe to let them go! Financially this makes more sense because the same Ben Yehoyada writes that Techeiles was absorbed extremely well in Luz, and therefore that brand of Techeiles was the most expensive out of all the kinds.
Even today with our Techeiles, people looking for strings more often than not ask for dark, rich shades. In some cases they might even contain a hint of violet. That’s not to say that the lighter, less rich shades aren’t Techeiles, but that the richer ones are more in demand. And in ancient times just like today, the greater demand, the higher the value.
