Tekhelet in Tanach

Background to the Period

Tekhelet has accompanied Am Yisrael from our earliest days as a people. Tekhelet, regarded as a precious royal color, is mentioned in the account of the building of the Mishkan, in the garments of the kehunah and in the mitzvah of tzitzit. The Torah commands: "דַּבֵּר אֶל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם וְעָשׂוּ לָהֶם צִיצִת עַל כַּנְפֵי בִגְדֵיהֶם לְדֹרֹתָם וְנָתְנוּ עַל צִיצִת הַכָּנָף פְּתִיל תְּכֵלֶת" — “Speak to Bnei Yisrael and say to them that they shall make for themselves tzitzit on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and they shall place upon the tzitzit of each corner a thread of Tekhelet” (Bamidbar 15:38) — and from that moment on, Jews used Tekhelet and placed it on their tzitzit.

The Minoan Civilization

The Era of the Dor HaPalagah

The Minoans, inhabitants of Crete, were the first to use murex snails to dye cloth —
roughly at the time when Avraham Avinu was born.
Once the astonishing purples and blues that could be produced from the snails were discovered,
they became the most valuable commodity in the Mediterranean basin.

Avraham

The Era of the Avot

After Avraham Avinu defeated his enemies, the king of Sedom offered him a generous gift.
Out of his emunah in Hashem, Avraham Avinu refused to accept it,
not even the smallest item in it — “מִחוּט וְעַד שְׂרוֹךְ נַעַל” — “from a thread to a shoelace” (Bereishit 14:23).
According to the Midrash, this profound act of emunah is the reason that we, the descendants of Avraham Avinu,
merited the mitzvah of ptil Tekhelet on our tzitzit.

The Amarna Letters

The Era of the Avot

In Akkadian, the language used by the Assyrians and Babylonians for thousands of years,
the beautiful blue and purple cloths dyed with murex were called “ta-kil-tu” and “ar-ga-ma-nu”.
Tablets found at Tel el-Amarna in Egypt, dated to the period after the time of Avraham Avinu,
are the earliest written evidence of these terms.
The tablets include a list of the precious items given by a princess of the kingdom of Mitanni
(today’s northern Syria) as a dowry to an Egyptian prince.

Yehudah and Tamar

The Era of the Avot

When Tamar, Yehudah’s daughter-in-law, held up before all the people “לְמִי הַחֹתֶמֶת וְהַפְּתִילִים” — “whose signet and cords are these” (Bereishit 38:25) — which her father-in-law had given her,
Yehudah admitted that Tamar was more righteous than he, in a profound display of integrity and courage.
According to the Midrash, this honesty is the reason that we, Yehudah’s descendants, merited the mitzvah of tzitzit
and the ptil Tekhelet — which is a sign of royalty.

Yaakov and His Sons

The Era of the Avot

When Yaakov’s sons were about to go down to Egypt to buy food, their father Yaakov instructed them
to prepare a precious gift for the Egyptian official in order to soften his heart, not knowing that this official was his son Yosef.
Yaakov advised his sons to choose “מִזִּמְרַת הָאָרֶץ” — “of the land’s finest” (Bereishit 43:11) — a term the Midrash explains as referring to the prized and costly snail,
the murex, the source of the Tekhelet dye.

Yetziat Mitzrayim

The Era of the Shevatim

As they left Mitzrayim, Bnei Yisrael took from the Egyptians “כְּלֵי כֶסֶף וּכְלֵי זָהָב וּשְׂמָלֹת” — “vessels of silver and vessels of gold, and garments” (Shemot 12:35).
Rashi, drawing on the Midrash, points out that these “garments” were worth more than the gold and the silver.
These garments may well have been cloths of Tekhelet and argaman, which later served as the source of the Tekhelet and argaman of the Mishkan.
Indeed, there have been periods in history when Tekhelet and argaman cloth was worth up to twenty times its weight in gold.

Lapis Lazuli

The Era of the Journeys

Tekhelet shares its color with the striking gemstone lapis lazuli, called “sapir” in the Torah.
According to the Midrash, the Luchot HaBrit too “were of sapir”.
Likewise, beneath the feet of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, as the Torah describes, was a brick of sapir,
whose color reflected the purity of the heavens (Shemot 24:10).
This is why Tekhelet is a constant reminder of the holy Torah and its mitzvot,
and of the Kisei HaKavod of the King of Kings, HaKadosh Baruch Hu.

The Mishkan

The Era of the Journeys

“וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָם” — “And they shall make Me a Mikdash, and I will dwell among them” (Shemot 25:8).
So Hashem commanded Bnei Yisrael at the beginning of their journey in the midbar.
This Mishkan was built from the finest materials and adorned with precious hangings of Tekhelet and argaman.
The building of the Mishkan mirrors the creation of the world itself:
Hashem created a beautiful world for us to live in, and we answer Hashem by building a beautiful Mishkan
into which all our resources, talents and creativity are directed.

The Kohen Gadol

The Era of the Journeys

“How glorious was the appearance of the Kohen Gadol”, says the piyut of Yom Kippur.
Beyond the distinctive garments of an ordinary kohen, the Kohen Gadol was given the privilege of wearing four further
royal garments, “לְכָבוֹד וּלְתִפְאָרֶת” — “for honor and for splendor” (Shemot 28:2) — each made from the most magnificent materials:
gleaming gold, precious stones and luxurious fabrics.
These garments are the me’il, the ephod, the choshen and the tzitz —
and Tekhelet has an important part in the making of every one of them,
above all in the me’il, which was woven entirely of Tekhelet — “כְּלִיל תְּכֵלֶת” (Shemot 28:31).

The Beit HaMikdash

The Era of the First Beit HaMikdash

When Shlomo HaMelech built the first Beit HaMikdash, he turned to Chiram, king of Tzor, for help.
The king of Tzor sent craftsmen skilled in working with argaman and Tekhelet (Divrei HaYamim II 2).
At the archaeological site of Tel Shikmona — a small village that lay along the northern coastline of Israel,
a short distance from Tzor — fragments of pottery were uncovered stained with purple and blue dye from murex snails.
These vessels are dated to 3,000 years ago: the time of Shlomo HaMelech.

Sennacherib's Prism

The Era of the First Beit HaMikdash

At the beginning of the 18th century, clay cylinders inscribed in cuneiform were uncovered in excavations at Nineveh.
These texts record the military campaigns of Sennacherib, king of Ashur,
including the campaign he waged against Israel, and the tribute paid by King Tzidkiyahu to prevent an attack on Yerushalayim.
According to the Assyrian records, the tribute included Tekhelet and argaman — items of great value.
This record strengthens the understanding that there was only one, very costly, kind of Tekhelet in the ancient world,
shared by Israel and by all the surrounding nations: Tekhelet from murex snails.

Nebuchadnezzar's Destruction

The Era of the Churban

The wicked king of Bavel, Nebuchadnezzar, destroyed the first Beit HaMikdash and exiled the inhabitants of Yehudah.
But he left behind in Eretz Yisrael the “יֹגְבִים” — the “vinedressers” (Melachim II 25:12) — who according to tradition were the snail hunters,
whose trade it was to catch the chilazon, the source of the Tekhelet dye,
which dwelt along the northern coast of Israel — “from the Ladder of Tyre to Haifa”.

Mordechai HaYehudi

The Era of the Persian Exile

Under Persian rule too, Tekhelet, alongside other precious fabrics, was used for royal purposes.
“וּמָרְדֳּכַי יָצָא מִלִּפְנֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ בִּלְבוּשׁ מַלְכוּת תְּכֵלֶת וָחוּר” — “And Mordechai went out from before the king in royal apparel of Tekhelet and white” (Esther 8:15).
This scene from Megillat Esther is preserved in the well-known piyut recited in shul
after the reading of the Megillah:
“שׁוֹשַׁנַת יַעֲקֹב צָהֲלָה וְשָׂמֵחָה: בִּרְאוֹתָם יַחַד תְּכֵלֶת מָרְדְּכָי:
תְּשׁוּעָתָם הָיִיתָ לָנֶצַח: וְתִקְוָתָם בְּכָל דּוֹר וָדוֹר”
“The rose of Yaakov rejoiced and was glad when together they saw the Tekhelet of Mordechai:
You were their salvation forever, and their hope in every generation.”