Tekhelet was one of the most sought-after commodities of the ancient world. Throughout the Near East and the Mediterranean, Tekhelet-dyed cloth was worn by kings, rulers, generals and priests, and so represented status, rank and wealth. In the Torah, Tekhelet had a central role in the Mikdash and in the garments of the Kohen Gadol — and in the daily life of every Jew, in the tzitzit strings placed on a four-cornered garment, as commanded by the King of Kings, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, to the nation He chose from among all the nations.
Many reasons led to the disappearance of Tekhelet some 1,300 years ago — some of them known to us, and some still lost in the recesses of history. It was not only Tekhelet and the craft of dyeing that vanished; the chilazon from which the Tekhelet was produced also became a mysterious legend. The continuity of Jewish life, and the desire to keep the mitzvah of tzitzit, led to a reality of incomplete tzitzit, with white strings alone.
The longing to return to keeping the mitzvah of Tekhelet in tzitzit was great, and prominent rabbis occupied themselves with it — foremost among them the Rebbe Gershon Henoch Leiner of Radzyn zt"l, and Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac HaLevi Herzog zt"l, the first Chief Rabbi of the State of Israel, who devoted many years and extraordinary effort to researching Tekhelet and solving its mystery. Over the decades of research that have passed since, rabbis, scientists and archaeologists have uncovered many sources and archaeological and scientific findings, which led to the conclusive identification of the Murex trunculus snail as the source of the ancient Tekhelet dye.
The revival of the mitzvah, and the opportunity given to every Jew to place Tekhelet on his tzitzit, has moved Jews in every corner of the world, and many of them merit to fulfill this mitzvah, and to fulfill in practice "וראיתם אותו..." — “and you shall see it…” — as they hold the Tekhelet strings during Kriat Shema, day after day.
