String Ratios Discussed:
Bottom Line
This post uses the Gemara’s discussion of sha’atnez in tzitzis to test the different ratios of lavan and Techeiles.
The key point is that the Gemara treats tzitzis as a source for aseh docheh lo sa’aseh because wool and linen can come together in the mitzvah. But according to Rashi and Tosafos, who have a 2:2 arrangement, the wool Techeiles strings and linen lavan strings remain separate threads. If sha’atnez de’Oraisa requires the fibers themselves to be “shua, tavui, v’nuz” together, it becomes difficult to see where the Torah-level sha’atnez actually occurs.
The Rambam’s 1:7 arrangement potentially solves that problem much more naturally, because one string itself is partly lavan and partly Techeiles. That creates an actual mixed wool-linen thread and makes the Gemara’s use of tzitzis as the paradigm for aseh docheh lo sa’aseh easier to understand.
Bottom line: Micha’s question is whether the sugya of sha’atnez itself points toward the Rambam’s ratio. It is not a proof in the post, but it is a strong structural question: if Rashi and the Raavad keep the wool and linen on separate strings, why does the Gemara treat tzitzis as a case of Torah-level sha’atnez at all?
Main Text
Message: 4
From: Micha Berger
Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2023 11:40:30 -0500
Subject: [Avodah] Techeiles and Shaatnez deOraisa
A maqor for asei dokheh lav is the fact that shaatnez and tzitzis are juxtaposed when each are repeated in Devarim (22:11-12). (Yevamos 5a-b)
“Dawidh Yoseph Aguirre” asked about this last night on the Techeiles Facebook group.
Later on the same amud, we learn that the reason why the pasuq says both “shaatnez” and “tzemer ufishtim yachdav” is because the former limits the issur deOraisa to when the fibers are “shua tavui vanuz – combed spun and connected” together.
Tosafos (d”h “ad sheyehei…”) note that with their shitah that tekheiles is two full strings (4 ends) per corner, tzitzis wouldn’t violate shaatnez deOraisa, and thus no need for asei dokheh lav.
Rabbeinu Tam concludes that the “va-” is or — the issur deOraisa is when the threads are combed OR spun OR connected together.
RDYA’s question is with Rashi.
Rashi also holds the strings are 2:2. And he takes “va-” to mean “and” in (see d”h “shua tavui vanuz”. And in Niddah 61b, where the same expansion of the word “shaatznez” appears, Rashi (“vanuz”) makes a point of saying that nuz alone is only derabbanan.
Rashi also holds the strings are 2:2.
The Rambam has 1:7, which mean that there actually is a string that is half laven and half tekheiles, and therefore making Rambam tekheiles strings where the lavan is linen actually could involve “shua tavui vanuz”.
So the question is, how do we explain Rashi?
Raavad – 1:3. Same problem, there is no thread that would be combed and spun from both lavan linen and tekheiles (which by definition is wool).
And…. isn’t pashut peshat in the gemara a raayah for the Rambam?
Tir’u baTov!
-Micha
