{"id":47511,"date":"2019-01-14T14:44:42","date_gmt":"2019-01-14T12:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=47511"},"modified":"2022-08-07T10:58:42","modified_gmt":"2022-08-07T07:58:42","slug":"tallit-entirely-of-tekhelet-then-and-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/tallit-entirely-of-tekhelet-then-and-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Tallit Entirely Of \u201cTekhelet\u201d \u2013 Then And Now"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[794,363,812],"acf":{"old_id":"47511","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33877,"related_cahpter":"133","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"From a populist rebellion to hypocritical self-righteousness","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our chapter begins with the ominous words \u201cAnd Korah took\u2026\u201d in order to list by name those whom he took with him to rise up against Moses and the legitimate leaders of the Israelite community. \u201cThey combined against Moses and Aaron and said to them, \u2018You have gone too far! For all the community are holy, all of them, and the Lord is in their midst. Why then do you raise yourselves above the Lord\u2019s congregation?\u2019\u201d (16:3). <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Midrash (Tanhuma Buber, Korah 4 and parallels) describes in detail how Korah questioned Moses\u2019 leadership by referring to what comes immediately before in Numbers Chapter 15 &#8212; the Mitzvah of Tallit (the prayer shawl, with its fringes): \u201cWhat is written in the preceding passage? \u2018The Lord spoke to Moses saying: Speak to the Israelite people and instruct them to make for themselves <em>Tzitit<\/em> (\u201cfringes\u201d) on the corners of their garments throughout the ages. Let them attach a <em>Ptil Tekhelet<\/em> (\u201ca thread of blue\u201d) to the Tzitit at each corner\u2019 (16:37-38). <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cKorah asked Moses: Would not a Tallit entirely of \u2018<em>Tekhelet<\/em>\u2019 be exempt from the requirement to also have Tzitzit? &#8216; Moses replied that such an all <em>Tekhelet Tallit<\/em> would still require Tzitzit just like a Tallit of any other color.\u201d Korah fired back that such a ruling contradicts common sense, because this means that only four threads of <em>Tekhelet<\/em> are more \u00a0halakhically effective than a Tallit entirely of <em>Tekhelet<\/em>. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Korah is here employing a kind of \u201ccatch-question\u201d, misused to cynically undermine the legal authority of Moses and the Torah. From Rabbinic times to our day, similar kinds of questions &#8212; but lacking any such pernicious intent &#8212; are sometimes asked by students of their rabbinic teachers, who appreciate this sort of intellectual give-and-take (<em>shaqla\u2019 ve-tarya\u2019). <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Significantly, the Rabbinic Hebrew expression that translates \u201ca Tallit entirely of Tekhelet\u201d, found in the Talmud (Yerushalmi, Sanhedrin 11:1, 27d) and in our ancient Midrashic texts has survived into Modern Hebrew. To say that someone is not a Tallit she-Kulah Tekhelet suggests that they are not as righteous as they make themselves out to be. Unbeknownst to most Hebrew speakers today, this modern usage of a Talmudic expression is, in effect, a colorful midrashic description of the biblical Korah. Korah is depicted as having made himself out to be even more halakhically observant than Moses, by suggesting an impractically strict interpretation of the Torah. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Korah\u2019s misuse of Talmudic reasoning to further his rebellion against the authority of Moses ultimately failed miserably. As we read in the dramatic end of our Chapter: \u201c\u2026the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households, all Korah\u2019s people and all their possessions. They went down alive into Sheol, with all that belonged to them; the earth closed over them and they vanished from the midst of the congregation\u201d (16:32-33).<\/span><\/p>\n<p>image:\u00a0Gustave Dor\u00e9, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Korah#\/media\/File:Dore_Death_of_Korah,_Dathan_and_Abiram.jpg\">Death_of_Korah, Dathan and Abiram<\/a>\/ wikimedia<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":47512,"id":47512,"title":"Num16-Dore_Death_of_Korah,_Dathan_and_Abiram","filename":"Num16-Dore_Death_of_Korah_Dathan_and_Abiram.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Num16-Dore_Death_of_Korah_Dathan_and_Abiram.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/tallit-entirely-of-tekhelet-then-and-now\/num16-dore_death_of_korah_dathan_and_abiram\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"num16-dore_death_of_korah_dathan_and_abiram","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":47511,"date":"2019-01-14 12:43:00","modified":"2020-11-10 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