Re-Discovery of Tekhelet and the Significance of the Tallit

The tzitzit tassels on the tallit have great significance in Judaism. The blue fringe, or tekhelet color was thought to be lost but was rediscovered through the efforts of such people as the Radziner Rebbe, whose students fought the , Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog, and Jewish scientists who combed Israel’s beaches looking for the elusive chilazon.

Plus, how a tallit saved Israeli soldiers during the Yom Kippur War, the creation of the Israeli flag, and the story of a grandfather who felt compelled to wear the biggest tallit he could find to his grandson’s bar mitzvah.

Thank you to the Kehillat Eretz Hemdah tzitzit project, Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins, author of Enveloped in Light: A Tallit Sourcebook, and all others who helped with this podcast.

NOTES:

• Kehillat Eretz Hemdah tzitzit for soldiers project

• Enveloped in Light: A Tallit Sourcebook by Dov Peretz Elkins

• Talis by Daniel Pinkwater, from the book Fish Whistle

• Talis by Daniel Pinkwater, from the book Fish Whistle - audio book

• Israel National Symbols: The Israeli Flag

• Who Designed Israel’s Flag?

• Spiritual armor for the IDF

• Demand for religious Jewish garments surges in IDF as soldiers seek spiritual protection

• Why Are Israeli Soldiers Snapping up Tzitzit?

• Rabbi Eliyahu Tavger - Blue Fringes

• Rabbi Eliyahu Tavger - Wikipedia (Hebrew)

• Rabbi Menachem Burstein

• In Search of the Lost Chilazon

• What Color Was Tekhelet?

• The Dyeing with Murex Extracts, an Unusual Dyeing Method of Wool to the Biblical Sky Blue

• To Identify Blue in the Tzitzit

• Messiah’s Snail - Calcalist news article

• History of Izhbitza Radzin Hassidus - official website

• History of Izhbitza Radzin Hassidus - Wikipedia Hebrew

• Rabbi Avraham Issachar Englerd of Radzin - Chabadpedia

• Rabbi Avraham Issachar Englerd of Radzin - Wikipedia (Hebrew)

• Rabbi Shmuel Shlomo Leiner of Radzin - Wikipedia (Hebrew)

• Rabbi Gershon Henoch Leiner of Radzin - Wikipedia (Hebrew)

• Rabbi Isaac Herzog

• Biologist Henri de Lacaze-Duthiers

• Azure in the ancient world