In order to get a first hand understanding of the dye procedure, I recommend getting one of our dye kits from our store. Basically, when the liquid comes out of the snail its a murky clear substance; in light and oxygen it slowly turn yellow, green, blue and finally settles at almost blackish purple. This…
read more“teima” refers to the procedure of taking a sample of the dye solution on to a test piece of wool to determine if the dye in the vat has reached the proper state to start dyeing wool. The need for such a procedure seems to indicate that vat dyeing was the method employed since in…
read moreOutside of the Murex family of snails – the only organic source for indigo dye is from plants: Indigoferra tinctoria and woad. – Mois Navon.
read moreYou are correct that there is a machloket as to whether the color should be dark or light. Rav Yehuda Rock writes about this in his article in Techumin and his latest book called “Eved HaMelech” – you can see the relevant section in his article on our website (https://www.tekhelet.com/rak.pdf) see the bottom of p.17…
read moreYes, the final colors are very different. – Mois Navon.
read moreFirst of all, I believe it is fair to say that in a case of contradiction that you mention, we use the Rambam’s Mishnah Torah (Hilchot Tzitzit) for halachic decisions. To the best of my knowledge the indigo plants produce only one color – indigo. However this does not mean that we can’t produce different…
read moreR. Eliyahu Tavger is the Rav of the Amuta. The workers doing the dyeing, spinning, twining of the threads are all yirei shamayim Jews who are very careful to state explicitly before every process, “L’shem mitzvat tzitzit.” – Mois Navon. Rav Avraham Rubin gives a Badat’z hechsher on all our strings and processes. You can…
read moreThe color of the snails shell after it’s been polished in beige to brown. I have never seen a snail with this color in the ocean or in an aquarium. The snails grow in the water, and naturally have sea fouling grow on them. The sea fouling is whatever color the sea bottom is. I’ve…
read moreThe most ubiquitous source to the best of my knowledge was the Murex family of snails, which was (and is) available throughout the entire Mediterranean Sea. Transport of the precious dye source reached far and wide (the Talmud provides evidence that it reached ancient Babylonia – i.e., Iraq/Iran). There were purple dyes which used alkanet…
read moreIn terms of quality they are both the same high quality wool. The Beit Yosef is White with White Stripes, the Super Prima is White with Black Stripes. – Mois Navon.
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