Menachot 38a — the Talmud in English

This law was stated only with regard to rabbinic prohibitions that one transgresses

through the negative commandment of “Do not deviate”

from all that they instruct you; but a Torah-level prohibition, such as carrying in the public domain, is not set aside on account of human dignity.

And some say

that this was not the incident; rather,

from there

—from the place where he saw that his tzitzit had been severed—

he said to him

Ravina said to Mar bar Rav Ashi, that the threads had been severed,

and he said to him

Mar bar Rav Ashi:

What is your thinking

in telling me this matter? Do you think that I am obligated

to remove it

—to take the garment off me?

For the Master said: Great is human dignity, which overrides a negative commandment in the Torah.

And this is not a matter of human dignity, to take the garment off. And we raise an objection against Mar bar Rav Ashi: How did he permit himself to continue walking with a garment without tzitzit and to transgress the prohibition of Shabbat because taking it off is not a matter of human dignity?

But Rav bar Shaba translated it before Rav Kahana

that the entire permission to transgress a negative commandment on account of human dignity applies only to a rabbinic transgression, which one transgresses

through the negative commandment of “Do not deviate,”

whereas here, this is a Torah-level prohibition of carrying in the public domain. And we answer:

Here too,

the incident involving Mar bar Rav Ashi was

in a karmelit,

which is not a public domain by Torah law, and carrying in it is only a prohibition

of the Rabbis 59 .

We have completed the chapter Ha-Kometz Rabbah.

The mitzva of tzitzit applies to a garment that has four corners, and it is a mitzva from the Torah to place on each of its four corners “twisted threads,” made from bundles of threads [threads wound together], which split into cords. The bundle and the cords must be made from two white threads and two techelet threads, which together are four threads, and when they are doubled, they are eight threads.

Mishna:

1.

Techelet does not prevent the white.

The mitzva of placing a techelet cord in the bundle of the tzitzit does not prevent the placing of the white threads in it. That is, if there are no techelet threads, it is possible to make the bundle and the cords from four white threads [and when they are doubled, they are eight white threads].

And likewise,

the white does not prevent the techelet.

The mitzva of placing the white threads does not prevent the mitzva of placing the techelet threads. Therefore, if there are no white threads, it is possible to place in their place two additional techelet threads, and one thereby fulfills the obligation of tzitzit with a bundle and cords made from four techelet threads 5 .

Therefore, if one has no white threads, one may place two additional threads of techelet in their place and fulfill the obligation of tzitzit

2.

Tefilla [tefillin]

of the hand does not prevent

that of the head.

Therefore, if he does not have hand tefillin, he may put on head tefillin alone 6 .

And likewise, head tefilla,

if it

is lacking,

does not prevent

the mitzva of putting on

hand tefillin,

and he may put them on his hand alone 7 .

Gemara:

And we raise a difficulty concerning it:

Shall we say that the Mishna,

which said that the white threads and the techelet do not prevent one another,

is not in accordance with Rabbi?!

For it was taught: “And you shall see it,” teaches

that the threads of tekhelet and the white threads

hold one another back,

for if one of them is missing, it is impossible to fulfill the mitzva of tzitzit at all,

the words of Rabbi. And the Sages say: They do not hold one another back.

And the Gemara clarifies:

What is Rabbi’s reason

for holding that they hold one another back?

For it is written, “the corner,”

and we expound: that the threads should be white like

the type of the corner,

since most of the talitot in their days were made of white linen cloth.

And it is written

also

“a thread of tekhelet,”

and concerning both of them

the Merciful One said, “And you shall see it,”

to say:

until there are both of them,

white and tekhelet,

in one

braid of tzitzit.

And the Sages,

from where did they derive that they do not hold one another back?

Because it is written

“And you shall see it,”

and it did not write, “And you shall see them” [for if it had been written “and you shall see them,” its meaning would have indicated that both are indispensable]. Therefore,

each one by itself is implied.

By white threads alone or by tekhelet threads alone one can fulfill the mitzva of tzitzit, for the non-fulfillment of one part of the mitzva does not hold back the other 8 .

And the Gemara returns again:

Shall we say

that our Mishna, which said that the tekhelet and the white do not hold one another back,

is not according to Rabbi,

who holds that each holds the other back?!

And we answer:

Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav: You may even say

our Mishna

is Rabbi’s

[Mishna], and in order to fulfill the mitzva he must give both tekhelet and white, and the Mishna is speaking when he gives both of them. Nevertheless, the Mishna can be reconciled, because what the Mishna said, that they do not hold one another back,

was needed only concerning precedence.

The Mishna comes to say that if he gave the tekhelet on the corner of the garment before giving the white, he has fulfilled his obligation after the fact, and he need not detach the tekhelet threads in order to give the white threads first and afterward the tekhelet threads; rather, he may now give the white threads.

For it was taught: It is a mitzva to put the white before the tekhelet

when attaching them to the garment. For this is the order of the making in the Torah: first one gives the white threads, and afterward the tekhelet, as it is written, “And they shall place upon the tzitzit of the corner a thread of tekhelet.” That is, upon the tzitzit made of the type of the corner of the garment, which is white in color—as explained above, that most of their garments were made of white linen cloth—upon it one must place “a thread of tekhelet.”

And if he put first

the insertion of the threads of

the tekhelet before the white, he has fulfilled his obligation, except that he has lacked a mitzva.

And we explain:

What is “he has lacked a mitzva”?