In this week’s Torah portion, Shelah, the nation stands on the threshold of the Land of Canaan, which will later be called the Land of Israel.
By RABBI SHMUEL RABINOWITZUpdated: JUNE 3, 2021 15:32The Bible Lands Museum’s new exhibition displays, for the first time, 2,000-year- old techelet- and argaman-dyed textile fragments found in the caves of the Judean Desert and at Masad(photo credit: Courtesy)
In this week’s Torah portion, Shelah, the nation stands on the threshold of the Land of Canaan, which will later be called the Land of Israel. It sends spies to check out the military situation in the land, and the option for conquering it.The spies return and announce that conquering the land is impossible, and that it is “a land that consumes its inhabitants” (Numbers 13:32). The Children of Israel, no longer interested in conquering the land, turn to Moses and Aaron in hysterics.Their complaint expresses their loss of faith in the God Who took them out of Egypt, provided them with sustenance in the desert, gave them the Torah in the Divine revelation, and promised them to bring them to the Promised Land.Shelah ends with the commandment of tzitzit. According to tradition, tzitzit are composed of intertwined threads that are tied on clothes that have four corners. The Torah adds that some of these threads should be dyed the color of techelet. The color techelet is produced from a marine creature known as the hilazon.Beginning about 1,500 years ago, the production of techelet diminished, until ultimately the method of production was lost. Jews stopped tying techelet threads on their clothes and sufficed with undyed tzitzit.There are researchers who identify techelet with the dye produced from the shell of the hexaplex trunculus, and produce techelet from it for tzitzit today.We read about the purpose of the commandment of tzitzit and techelet in the parasha: “This shall be fringes for you, and when you see it, you will remember all the commandments of the Lord to perform them, and you shall not wander after your hearts and after your eyes after which you are going astray. So that you shall remember and perform all My commandments and you shall be holy to your God” (ibid. 15:39-40).The tzitzit are meant to prevent us from being swept away by our hearts and eyes, from following impulsive desires, by reminding us of God’s presence in the world, and of the values of morality embedded in His commandments.From the verses of the Torah, it seems that the thread dyed techelet is what is supposed to remind us of God’s presence. How so? Of this it says in the Talmud:“Why is techelet different from all other colors? Because techelet is similar to the sea, and the sea is similar to the sky, and the sky is similar to the Throne of Glory..., as it says: ‘The likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone’ (Ezekiel 1:26)” (Menahot 43b).
Reading this superficially, we understand that the techelet is meant to remind man of God’s presence by resembling the color of God’s throne in Ezekiel’s prophecy.In a more careful readying, we see additional layers. Techelet resembles the sea and the sky... and only after that God’s Throne. According to Rabbi Moses ben Nahman, one of the great sages of 13th-century Spain, the color of techelet hints at the never-ending, infinite nature of the sea and the heavens.Techelet, therefore, is meant to remind us of the beauty of creation, its infinite nature and – through it – the presence of God. According to Ezekiel’s prophecy, even His throne was the infinite color of techelet.When a person looks at nature, at a green valley, at the depths of the skies, he is able to see past the immediacy of what stands before him, past the impulsive desires of his heart, and remember his place in the context of creation and in relation to its Creator.Our parasha begins with the sin of the spies and ends with the commandment of tzitzit. The spies were swept away by what they saw and the instinctive fears that stemmed from it. Tzitzit are meant to help us see beyond immediacy, to look at the big picture and remember God’s presence in each and every detail of our world.The writer is rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites.
