One steamy evening, actually a few days before the war started in Israel, the 3rd evening of Sukkot, five of us, my husband Ben and I, an elderly female friend and an Orthodox Jewish couple, sat on makeshift chairs in the small Sukkah of this elderly friend in the Golan Heights of Israel. The discussion was warm and friendly and soon revolved around New Moon observance and festival times and then something was said about blue dye and tzitziot which led to a discussion on Shatnez (“cloth containing both wool and linen (linsey-woolsey), which Jewish law, derived from the Torah, prohibits wearing” Wikipedia.) The man who claimed authority on this used Shatnez as the reason unclean things could be used in the Temple justifying the use of snails blood for dying Tzitzit. I had a bad feeling about this. He spoke of the Mishna as the qualifier for what he said. The broader discussion centered on the color Tekhelet and it’s source. We had suggested that Tekhelet (the color blue in the Torah) was not sourced from the Murex snail, being that the Torah condemns the use of unclean animals.
We, my husband and I had recently researched the ancient use of the dye for the color Tekhelet from Woad (check it out here). We found pretty solid evidence that the dye used for the Tzitzit, priestly garments and the blue used in the Tabernacle (Mishkan) was made from a vegetable source (most likely Woad) — not from an unclean snail as most Rabbinic Jews have believed. But this guy held out that it was totally acceptable because Shatnez was used in the Temple. He assured us that this example (the use of the dye from the unclean Murex snail) shows that other seeming inconsistencies regarding kosher and non kosher according to Torah were used in the temple service and thus also for us individually that were qualified by the written Torah.
I felt a bit confused and miffed with this explanation and began digging the next day. From where did this idea come, that a wool and linen mixture, completely forbidden for garments was allowed for the priestly service and in their garments? And even if Shatnez were allowed, how does this justify the use of extracts from an unclean marine mollusk?
Did the priests in Mishkan really wear wool in their garments? I always thought so from the Bible versions that I had read. I reached out to a friend who told me that I was mistaken, that wool was never permitted to wear inside the precincts of the Mishkan or Temple. Astounded I did a word search and found this to be correct–wool is not mentioned anywhere in the Torah as a clothing for priests. In fact the first reference was in Judges 6:37. So I went to Strongs to see if maybe it was wool but called something else. It was there under the Hebrew צֶמֶר. But what does it refer to in the 5 times it is mentioned in the Torah? Four times in Leviticus it is mentioned in relation to the plague of Leprosy (Tzarat) that can occur in a garment whether it be wool or otherwise. It was speaking, not of priestly garments but of common garments. Then the last reference is
Deuteronomy 22:11: “Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woolen and linen together.” (Shatnez).
But there is no reference to wool in any of the priests garments, unless of course we look at the English translation in the Artscroll Chumash and a couple of other Jewish Bibles. Wow! What did they do to our Bible? I always thought the Ephod was made of wool. Not so.
So looking at the Hebrew or a more reliable translation, what it does not say becomes very interesting:
Exodus 28:6, 8 (Hebrew) reads thus:
וְחֵשֶׁב אֲפֻדָּתוֹ אֲשֶׁר עָלָיו כְּמַעֲשֵׂהוּ מִמֶּנּוּ יִהְיֶה זָהָב תְּכֵלֶת וְאַרְגָּמָן וְתוֹלַעַת שָׁנִי וְשֵׁשׁ מָשְׁזָֽר
וְחֵ֤שֶׁב אֲפֻדָּתוֹ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר עָלָ֔יו כְּמַעֲשֵׂ֖הוּ מִמֶּ֣נּוּ יִהְיֶ֑ה זָהָ֗ב תְּכֵ֧לֶת וְאַרְגָּמָ֛ן וְתוֹלַ֥עַת שָׁנִ֖י וְשֵׁ֥שׁ מׇשְׁזָֽר׃
וְשֵׁש מָשְׁזָֽר means fine twined linen. Nothing about wool in Hebrew.
The Koren Jerusalem Bible translates the verse this way (no mention of wool):
Exodus 28: 6,8: “And the finely wrought girdle of the ephod, which is upon it, shall be of the same, according to its work; namely, of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen…And the finely wrought girdle of the ephod, which is upon it, shall be of the same, according to its work; namely, of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen.
But on the other hand, the Rashi Chumash version translates this way:
Exodus 28:6,8: “And they shall make the ephod of gold, blue wool, purple wool, scarlet wool, and twisted linen, artistic work…And the cheishev [the belt] of his adornment which is above it [i.e., which is on the upper edge of the ephod], after its manner [i.e., artistic work, of the five varieties (of material)], of it [i.e., woven together with the ephod] shall it be: gold, blue wool, purple wool, scarlet wool, and twisted linen.” (Lots of things added!)
The JPS 1917 Version states these two verses:
Exodus 28:6, 8: “And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, and purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen, the work of the skillful workman. And the skillfully woven band, which is upon it, wherewith to gird it on, shall be like the work thereof and of the same piece: of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen.”
The Metsudah Chumash 2009:
Exodus 28:6, 8:“They shall make the ephod out of gold, greenish-blue wool, dark red wool, crimson wool, and fine twined linen, the work of a craftsman. The ephod’s belt, which is on it, shall be made in the same manner [as the ephod]—it shall be woven with it. [with] gold, greenish blue wool, dark red wool, crimson wool and fine twined linen.”
These are all Jewish translations. Why did some translate fine twined linen as wool? And why did they add several colors to the mix?
So where did this confusion come from? And why was this changed? Who authorized it? For a start, let us look at some commentaries about this:
Aramaic Targum
Onkelos Exodus 28:6 They shall make the ephod out of gold, greenish-blue WOOL, dark red WOOL, crimson [colored] WOOL, and fine twined linen, the work of a craftsman. Onkelos Exodus 28:15 Make a breastplate of judgment, the work of a craftsman. Make it in the same manner you made the ephod. [Out of] gold, greenish-blue WOOL, dark red WOOL, crimson [colored] WOOL and fine twined linen, shall you make it.
Talmud
Zevachim 88b:2 § With regard to the priestly vestments, the Sages taught in a baraita : The robe of the High Priest was sewn entirely of sky-blue WOOL, as it is stated: “And he made the robe of the ephod of woven work…, all of sky-blue WOOL” .
Rashi
Exodus 28:31 “And you shall make the me’il of the ephod [i.e., belted by the ephod] entirely of blue WOOL.”
The Rashi chumash by Rabbi Shraga Silverstein
Exodus 28:15 “a choshen which atones for subversion of judgment]; artistic work, like the work of the ephod shall you make it: gold, blue WOOL, purple WOOL, scarlet WOOL, and twisted linen shall you make it.”
The Rashi chumash by Rabbi Shraga Silverstein
Exodus 39:5 “Its skillfully woven waist band was of one piece with the Ephod, and like its material of gold, blue, purple, scarlet WOOL, and fine twined linen, as the Eternal commanded Moses.” Torah Yesharah, translated and edited by Chas. Kahane. New York, 1963
Rambam
Mishneh Torah, Vessels of the Sanctuary and Those Who Serve Therein
9:9: “They are called the belt of the ephod ….The entire garment is woven with gold, sky-blue WOOL, red WOOL, scarlet WOOL, and linen with 28 threads as described with regard to the breastplate.He should sew to it two shoulder straps …”
Mishneh Torah, Vessels of the Sanctuary and Those Who Serve Therein
9:10 “Afterwards, he places the ends of the cords of the breastplate in the upper rings that are on the shoulders of the ephod and he should place the two strands of sky-blue WOOL that are on the hem…”
Somehow I see fingerprints of who may have messed with the Torah! And now we know why the gentleman—the Mishna-ite in the Sukkah on the evening of the 3rd day of Sukkot excused the use of snails blood to dye holy garments and Tzitzit.
Apparently the laws about Shatnez had been violated even in the days of the prophet Ezekiel:
Eze 44:15-18 “But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord GOD: They shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table, to minister unto me, and they shall keep my charge. And it shall come to pass, that when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come upon them, while they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within. They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with anything that causes sweat.”
So no wool, no combination of wool and linen, and no unkosher snails blood! Can we clean this up a little?
Ariella Tiqvah
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