Tekhelet in the Days of the Mishnah and Gemara

Background to the Period

Tekhelet was part of the life of Am Yisrael in the time of the Mishnah and the Talmud as well, and Chazal describe at length the chilazon that was the source of Tekhelet, how it was caught, how the Tekhelet was extracted, how the dyeing was done, the rules for tying tzitzit with Tekhelet and white strings, how to tell genuine Tekhelet from a counterfeit dye of plant origin, and more. Finds and texts from the period teach us further about Tekhelet in the Jewish world, and about the fate of Tekhelet in the days following the churban of the Beit HaMikdash and the exile of Israel.

The Masada Textile

3810 (50 CE)

This textile is an archaeological find from Masada, dated 2,000 years back.
It appears to be part of a robe or dress worn by a member of the Herodian royal family.
Chemical analysis shows that the dye came from the Murex trunculus snail.

Nero Caesar

3820 (60 CE)

The emperor Nero was obsessed with the dye from the chilazon!
He banned the sale of the coveted dye and even ran a sting operation,
sending agents to try to buy the dye — and when they succeeded, he shut the market down.
When he saw a noblewoman wearing a purple dress, he was so enraged
that he sent his guards to strip her — of her clothes and of all her property!

The Destruction of the Second Beit HaMikdash

3830 (70 CE)

In 3830 (70 CE) the crown of our head fell and our Beit HaMikdash was destroyed by the Romans.
The Mikdash — with its parochot, its wall coverings and its vessels, and the garments of the kohanim who served in it —
was the single largest customer of the Tekhelet market.
With the churban, the Tekhelet industry entered a deep crisis
that hit the chilazon hunters, the dyers and the whole supply chain.
Despite the crisis, Jews continued to hold fast to the mitzvah of placing ptil Tekhelet on their tzitzit.

The Diaspora Revolt

3875 (115 CE)

After the churban, Jews continued to revolt against Roman rule.
The unrest spread to Jewish communities throughout the Mediterranean.
In the events Chazal call “the Kitos War”,
the Roman general Lusius Quietus was sent to crush the revolt, and did so with a harsh and merciless hand.
He outlawed every aspect of Jewish identity and national pride,
the wearing of Tekhelet among them.

Rabbi Yosi HaGlili

3880 (120 CE)

Through the turbulent years of fighting the Romans, the lives of the Jews of Eretz Yisrael were hard, oppressed and impoverished.
Facing a new spiritual reality — Judaism without a Mikdash —
Jews found themselves in new situations that demanded bold halachic responses.
Here for the first time we hear the words of Rabbi Yosi HaGlili, presenting the tradition he received from his teacher, Rabbi Yochanan ben Nuri:
that when Tekhelet cannot be obtained, one should continue to wear tzitzit with white strings alone.

The Wadi Murabba'at Textile

3895 (135 CE)

During the Bar Kochba revolt, Jewish fighters and their families hid in caves in the cliffs of the Judean Desert.
The objects they left behind were uncovered by archaeologists and tell their story 2,000 years later.
This small piece of cloth, dyed sky blue with a dye that came from the Murex trunculus,
proves that the technology for dyeing blue with snails existed in Eretz Yisrael in the time of the Mishnah.

Hadrian's Decrees – A Generation of Persecution

3905 (145 CE)

After Bar Kochba’s defeat, the Jews suffered under Hadrian’s cruel decrees,
which made keeping mitzvot or learning Torah a crime punishable by death.
In that period it was extremely dangerous to gather snails and produce Tekhelet.
Rabbi Yosi relates that he met a fisherman who warned him that the snails were surrounded by monstrous, venomous creatures…
(an allusion, of course, to the Romans and their vicious decrees).

Rabbi Meir

3940 (180 CE)

“תַּנְיָא הָיָה רבִּי מֵאִיר אוֹמֵר:
מַה נִּשְׁתַּנָּה תְּכֵלֶת מִכָּל מִינֵי צִבְעוֹנִין מִפְּנֵי שֶׁהַתְּכֵלֶת דּוֹמֶה לַיָּם וְיָם דּוֹמֶה לָרָקִיעַ
וְרָקִיעַ לְכִסֵּא הַכָּבוֹד”
“It was taught: Rabbi Meir used to say:
Why is Tekhelet different from all other colors? Because Tekhelet resembles the sea, and the sea resembles the sky,
and the sky resembles the Throne of Glory.”

Antoninus (Caracalla)

3960 (200 CE)

The emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, known as Caracalla, was a true friend of the Jewish people and a friend of Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi.
The Gemara tells many stories about the relationship between Rebbi and Antoninus.
The coin pictured here was struck in Tzor, just north of Eretz Yisrael. One side shows Caracalla,
and the other the eagle (the symbol of Rome) guarding the empire’s most precious product:
the murex snail, from which the dye for Tekhelet and argaman was produced.

Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi

3980 (220 CE)

Rebbi’s lifetime marked the high point of Jewish life in Eretz Yisrael after the churban.
Rebbi himself was the ideal leader: “Torah and greatness in one place”.
In his day the Romans placed no restrictions on the production of Tekhelet, and its price was not exorbitant.
Rebbi felt there was no excuse not to keep the mitzvah of tzitzit in its complete form, with white strings and Tekhelet strings alike.
He ruled that without Tekhelet one should not wear tzitzit at all:
“מעכבין זה את זה – דברי רבי” — “they hold one another back — the words of Rebbi”.

"Pragmatia" in the City of Tzor

3990 (230 CE)

The city of Tzor was known as the center of the argaman dye industry from the days of Shlomo HaMelech.
Chiram, king of Tzor, sent craftsmen to help build the Mikdash, and among them were experts in Tekhelet.
In the time of the Mishnah and the Talmud, Tzor was a hub of commerce, and its most important commodity was cloth dyed with the chilazon.
This can be seen on the coin depicting Tzor’s founding myth — the dog of Hercules discovering the murex.
Commerce knows no borders, and businessmen often traveled from Eretz Yisrael to Tzor
and learned about the dye industry there first-hand.
The Midrash even tells of Rabbi Chiya and Rabbi Shimon (Rebbi’s son) traveling to Tzor to trade in textiles.

Abaye

4090 (330 CE)

Abaye, who lived in Bavel far from the Tekhelet snails of the Mediterranean, questioned Rabbi Shmuel bar Yehudah when he came from Eretz Yisrael:
“Tekhelet — how do you dye it?”
The answer was somewhat laconic: take an extract of the chilazon, add chemicals, heat it… so far as the dyeing itself goes.
But there were further halachic considerations, Rabbi Shmuel explained —
namely that one must take great care not to spoil the dyeing vat by performing actions not directly connected with dyeing for the sake of the mitzvah.
From this we learn the importance of the proper intent at every stage of the dyeing — lishmah, for the sake of the mitzvah of tzitzit.

Rava

4110 (350 CE)

The Gemara tells of two Jews from Eretz Yisrael who brought Tekhelet to Rava, the greatest of the Amoraim of Bavel,
but were caught on the way by an “eagle”.
The story had a good ending: “through mercy and through their own merit they came out safely”.
Despite the Roman decrees (their symbol was the eagle) forbidding the use of Tekhelet and argaman,
Jews still risked their lives to keep the mitzvah of tzitzit in its completeness with ptil Tekhelet.
They were also willing to smuggle Tekhelet from Eretz Yisrael to their brothers in Bavel, for all the dangers involved.

Rav Achai

4266 (506 CE)

The Talmud describes the tests Rav Achai carried out to determine whether blue strings were authentic Tekhelet
or kala ilan — a counterfeit dye from a plant source. This Gemara teaches us several important things:
• The appearance of kala ilan (indigo) is completely identical to that of Tekhelet.
• There are only two ways to dye Tekhelet — with Tekhelet from the chilazon or with kala ilan; there is no third option.
• And most importantly, Tekhelet was still available in the days of Rav Achai, but this is the last record of its use.

Justinian

4320 (560 CE)

Goods forbidden for sale, and the people forbidden to sell or buy them:
No private citizen has the right to dye cloth in argaman or to sell it, neither silk nor wool,
nor in the dyes called blatta, oxyblatta and hyacinthina.*
Whoever sells wool dyed in these colors should know that he risks the loss of his property and his life.

*These are the dyes produced from sea snails — purple and blue.
Hyacinthina is the Latin translation of “Tekhelet”.

Redaction of the Bavli

4330 (570 CE)

“It may safely be argued that at the time the Talmud was sealed (around the year 570) the mitzvah of Tekhelet in tzitzit was still being kept in practice,
for nowhere in the Talmud is there the slightest hint that the mitzvah had ceased.”
So writes Rabbi Yitzchak HaLevi Herzog in his monumental work on Tekhelet.
Despite the difficulty of obtaining Tekhelet, despite the exorbitant price, and in the face of the grave dangers the Romans posed,
Jews continued to wear Tekhelet — until it became impossible…

The Persian–Byzantine Wars

4399 (639 CE)

The seventh century saw the destruction of the Jewish settlement in Eretz Yisrael.
The Byzantines, who had ruled there for centuries, were pushed out by the Persians.
A few years later the land was conquered by the Byzantines once more, a conquest that brought the deaths of tens of thousands of Jews.
Shortly afterwards, the Arab armies under the Caliph Umar defeated both the Byzantines and the Persians
and took control of the whole Mediterranean coast.
As the dye houses were destroyed, the secrets of the dyer’s craft and the knowledge of the chilazon’s identity were lost with them,
and the production processes were covered by the mists of history and forgotten.

Midrash Tanchuma

4510 (750 CE)

“ועכשיו אין לנו אלא לבן, שהתכלת נגנז” — “and now we have only white, for the Tekhelet has been hidden away” (Tanchuma, Parashat Shelach 15).
For the first time we hear that Tekhelet has been lost entirely.
From then on, there is no trace of anyone wearing tzitzit with Tekhelet.
Jews continued to wear tzitzit with white strings,
but always dreamed of the day when they would be able to keep the mitzvah of tzitzit in its completeness.

“ורחם עלינו ובנה עירך במהרה בימינו, והביאנו לשלום לארץ הקדושה.
וזכנו שיחזור ויתגלה החילזון, ונזכה לקיים מצוות תכלת”
“Have mercy on us and rebuild Your city speedily in our days, and bring us in peace to the Holy Land.
And grant us that the chilazon be revealed once more, and that we merit to keep the mitzvah of Tekhelet.” (the tefillah of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov)