String Ratios Discussed: Chilazon - חלזון, Tosafot - תוספות
Tags:
Bottom Line
The Yad Ramah explicitly says that the chilazon described here — the one found on a mountain after rainfall — is not the same chilazon discussed regarding Techeiles, but rather a different type. That should hardly be surprising: there are land snails and sea snails, and the sea-dwelling chilazon haTecheiles would obviously not be expected to appear on a mountain.
But that is not the point for which the Yad Ramah is being cited here. The point is what the word chilazon meant.
The last four words are operative:
ומקרי בלשון ערבי חלזום
“And we call it in Arabic ‘Halzum.'” Halzum in Arabic literally means “snails.”
A clarification is important here. It has been claimed that only these last four words of the Yad Ramah were cited. That is simply not what appears on this page. The last four words were translated because they are the words relevant to the linguistic point being made, but the Yad Ramah’s full passage is reproduced above in the original. That passage includes his explicit statement that the mountain chilazon is not the chilazon haTecheiles. Nothing was omitted or concealed.
In other words, whatever particular species the Yad Ramah understood the mountain chilazon to be, he plainly regarded a snail as a chilazon. His distinction between this creature and the chilazon haTecheiles does not change that lexical point; it simply distinguishes one type of chilazon from another.
The argument here was never that the Yad Ramah identifies the mountain creature with the chilazon haTecheiles. He explicitly does not. The argument is that when the Yad Ramah tells us what this creature is called in Arabic, he gives the ordinary Arabic word for a snail. Thus, whatever differences there may be between the land-dwelling creature in this Gemara and the sea-dwelling chilazon of Techeiles, the Yad Ramah’s terminology is clear: a snail can be called a chilazon.
To make the reading accessible, the main text has now been translated into English as well.
Full Shiur on this by R’ Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer:
Main Text
אמר ליה ההוא [צדוקי] לרבי אמי אמריתו חיו שיכבי כו’ אמר ליה ומה במקום שאין מים ואין עפר בנה פלטרין גדולים מטיפה קטנה אי נמי במעשה בראשית שהמציא יש מאין ואין עפר בנה עכשיו שנפלו ויש מים ויש עפר עאכ”ו ואם אין אתה מאמין צא לבקעה וראה עכבר שחציו בשר וחציו אדמה מין עכבר הוא ששורץ מן העפר ואינו נולד מעכבר אחר למחר השריץ ונעשה כולו בשר ושמא תאמר לזמן מרובה הוא נעשה כולו בשר ואתה תמה איך המקום מחיה המתים ברגע אחד עלה להר וראה שהיום אין בו אלא חלזון אחד כו’ יש אומרים חלזון תולע שיוצא מן הים אחת לשבעים שנה וצובעין בדמו תכלת ולכתחילה אינו נראה בכל ההר אלא חלזון אחד ולמחר שגשמים יורדין נתמלא כולו חלזונות ויש אומרים שביצי חלזונות משרצין כולן. ואינן נראין בעינינו דמסתברא האי חלזון לאו האיך דאמרינן גבי תכלת הוא מכמה אנפי חדא דהאיך בהר מאי בעי וכי תימא דסליק בענני במטרא ונחית אטורא אי הכי מאי קאמר ליה למחר נתמלא כל ההר כולו חלזונות ודילמא הנך כולהו מימא אתו ולא מהאיך (קאמר) [קמא] איבנו ותו היכי מייתי ליה ראיה ממי דלא נפיק אלא משבעים שנה לשבעים שנה וכל שכן להאיך פירושא בתרא דקשיא טפי דכיון דביצי חלזון משרצין כולן הרי אין נבראין מן העפר ומאי ראיה איכא מינה לתחיית המתים. אלא מסתברא דהאי חלזון דהכא לאו האיך דאמרינן גבי תכלת הוא אלא מינא אחרינא דמיברי מעפרא וממיא ומקרי בלשון ערבי חלזום.
Source: https://www.sefaria.org/Yad_Ramah_on_Sanhedrin.91a.2?lang=bi
English Translation
That [Tzeduki] said to Rabbi Ami, “You say that the dead will come back to life,” etc. Rabbi Ami answered him: If, in a place where there was no water and no earth, He could build great structures from a tiny drop — or alternatively, at the time of Creation, when He brought something into existence from nothing and there was no earth, He was able to build — then now, after they have fallen apart, when there is both water and earth, certainly He can do so.
And if you do not believe it, go out to a field and look at a mouse that is half flesh and half earth. This is a type of mouse that develops from the earth and is not born from another mouse. By the next day it has developed and become entirely flesh.
And perhaps you will say that it only becomes completely flesh over a long period of time, and you are therefore wondering how HaKadosh Baruch Hu can bring the dead back to life in a single instant. Then go up to a mountain and see that today there is only one chilazon there, etc.
Some explain that the chilazon is a worm-like creature that comes out of the sea once every seventy years, and its blood is used to dye Techeiles. At first, only a single chilazon can be seen on the entire mountain, but the next day, when the rains fall, the whole mountain becomes filled with chilazonim. Others explain that all the eggs of the chilazon hatch.
These explanations do not seem correct to us. It is more reasonable that the chilazon being discussed here is not the same chilazon that we speak about regarding Techeiles, for several reasons.
First, what would that chilazon be doing on a mountain? And if you want to say that it rises with the rain clouds and then comes down onto the mountain, then what is the point of saying that by the next day the entire mountain is filled with chilazonim? Perhaps all of them came from the sea, rather than having developed from that first one.
Furthermore, how can this be brought as a proof from a creature that only comes out once every seventy years? And according to the latter explanation the difficulty is even greater, because if all the chilazon eggs are hatching, then they are not being created from the earth at all. What proof, then, is there from this to techiyas hameisim?
Rather, it seems that the chilazon mentioned here is not the same one that is discussed in connection with Techeiles. It is a different species, one that is formed from earth and water, and in Arabic it is called chalzum.