Rabbi Rubin visited the workshop and the sites where the
chilazon is caught when the joint work began, and inspected
all the stages of the string production process — beginning
with catching the chilazon, through the processes of preparing
the dye, and the stages of preparing the strings, and finally their tying
into tallitot and tzitzit by God-fearing tiers.
The Rabbi returns and does this periodically in order to verify
that the whole intricate process is carried out properly,
lemehadrin min hamehadrin and according to every detail of halachah.
In addition, a mashgiach on his behalf accompanies the process
of extracting the dye from the chilazon in order to verify and attest
that the dye is indeed produced solely from Murex
trunculus.
Every stage of the process is carried out by trustworthy Jews — experts in their craft and God-fearing — whom Rabbi Rubin relies on and personally trains for the holy work of making strings and tying tzitzit lishmah.
As part of the care taken to work lishmah, every morning all the workshop staff are careful to state aloud and to have in mind that every stage of the day’s work should be for the sake of the mitzvah of tzitzit, and each morning they also sign a binding document stating that the entire production process is for the sake of the mitzvah of tzitzit.
The spinning of the wool, the dyeing of the threads, the plying of the strings and the tying of the tzitzit are all carried out by God-fearing Jews with great experience, and all of it lishmah, for the sake of the mitzvah of tzitzit, and in order to enable Am Yisrael to keep the mitzvah of tzitzit properly.
The dyeing of the strings in Tekhelet is done in the most mehudar way, and we are careful to dye the threads before the plying stage. In this way the Tekhelet is absorbed through the full depth of the wool fibers, and the finished strings are of the highest quality and most mehudar.
Beyond these chumrot, we at the Ptil Tekhelet association are careful to be stringent in the making of the tzitzit in further ways — among them dyeing in the first bath only, without a second bath. Likewise, although halachically there is no obligation for the preparation of the Tekhelet dye itself to be done with intent lishmah, we in the workshop are careful that the stages of preparing the Tekhelet itself are all done for the sake of the mitzvah as well.
All the wool we use to produce the strings is sheep’s wool of the finest quality, lemehadrin min hamehadrin.
So that you can be sure that the Tekhelet you are buying is indeed kosher Tekhelet, produced from Murex trunculus alone, lemehadrin min hamehadrin, and in accordance with the ruling of Chazal that “Tekhelet may be bought only from an expert” (Menachot 43a) — and therefore only when it is “a seal within a seal” (Avodah Zarah 39a) — all the Tekhelet strings we produce are sold in sealed packages bearing a unique hologram carrying the emblem of the Badatz of Rabbi Rubin shlit”a.
Ptil Tekhelet — lemehadrin min hamehadrin.
