Menachot 39b (לט:) — the Talmud in English

Rav said: The garment is beautiful,

the garment that is made entirely of tekhelet is beautiful,

but the tekhelet is not beautiful.

For its tzitzit are not beautiful, since he made no anaf for it, but only a gedil. 33 .

Rabba bar bar Hana said: The garment is beautiful, and the tekhelet is beautiful!

The Gemara explains:

With regard to what do they disagree?

What is the basis of their dispute as to whether tzitzit containing a gedil without a petil is valid?

Rabba bar bar Hana holds: It is written “gedil” “You shall make for yourself gedilim,”

[“You shall make for yourself braided threads”],

and it is written “petil,”

from here we learn that one may make the tzitzit

either a gedil or a petil.]]

But Rav holds: A petil is always required.

And that

the verse

“gedilim” came

for the enumeration

of the threads,

to teach us that eight threads are required. This is how it is expounded: Had the Torah written only

“gedil”

alone, it would have indicated

two

threads, because a gedil cannot be made with fewer than two threads, as one thread is needed to wrap around the second. But now that the Torah wrote

“gedilim”

in the plural, this indicates two gedilim, each of which contains two threads, for a total of

four

threads that must be inserted into the hole in the corner of the garment. And it is written: “And they shall place upon the tzitzit of the corner a thread of tekhelet”—the Torah said:

Make

from the four threads

one gedil,

and when they are inserted into the corner of the garment and doubled over in both directions, there will be eight threads,

and twist it

that gedil

from within it,

so that at the end of the gedil there will be an anaf of threads.

Shmuel said in the name of Levi: Wool threads

white threads

exempt,

that is, one fulfills the mitzva of tzitzit with them,

in

a garment made of

linen.

Since the two tekhelet threads are made of wool and must be placed in a linen garment, it is also permitted to place in it the two white threads when they are made of wool.

They raised a dilemma:

Threads of

linen—

what is the law: Do they exempt a

woolen

garment?

The sides of the dilemma are as follows: Is it the case that

wool in

a garment of

linen is what exempts, because, since tekhelet

is made of wool and must also be placed in a linen garment,

it exempted

and one fulfills the mitzva of tzitzit through it; therefore,

white

wool threads

also exempt?

But

placing

linen threads in wool

is not permitted by the Torah, for tekhelet placed in wool does not involve kilayim; if so, why should placing linen threads in wool be permitted?

Or perhaps, since

both of them—wool and linen—are mentioned in the verse,

as it is written, “You shall not wear sha'atnez, wool and linen together,”

“You shall make for yourself gedilim,”

from which we learn that it is permitted to wear kilayim for the purpose of fulfilling the mitzva of tzitzit, if so,

it makes no difference whether wool is in linen,

the Torah permitted it, since tekhelet, which is made of wool, constitutes kilayim when placed in a linen garment,

or whether linen is in wool

[linen tzitzit on a woolen garment].

The Gemara brings a proof:

Come and hear: Rahava said in the name of Rav Yehuda: Wool threads exempt a linen garment, and linen threads exempt a woolen garment.

But

wool and linen threads exempt everywhere,

in garments of every type,

even silk,

silk garments that are neither wool nor linen.

It is explicit in Rabbi Yehuda’s statement that linen threads exempt a woolen garment, and the dilemma of the Gemara is resolved.

Concerning Rabbi Yehuda’s additional ruling—that two white linen threads together with two tekhelet threads exempt garments of every type—the Gemara says:

And this disagrees

with

Rav Naḥman. For Rav Naḥman said: Silk garments

are exempt from tzitzit.

The Torah obligated tzitzit only on a woolen or linen garment.

Rava raised an objection to Rav Naḥman:

But we learned:

Silk garments,

a silk cloak,

and kelakh and serikin,

which are cloaks made from silk fibers—

all of them are obligated in tzitzit!

And we answer:

By rabbinic law

they are obligated in tzitzit, whereas Rav Naḥman exempted them only from an obligation by Torah law.

And we ask:

If so,

that silk garments are obligated in tzitzit only by rabbinic law,

say the latter clause: And all of them,

all garments that are neither wool nor linen,

wool and linen threads

[apparently referring to two white linen threads and two tekhelet wool threads]

exempt them.

This presents a difficulty:

Granted, if you say

that the obligation of silk garments in tzitzit

is by Torah law,

then

that is why kilayim is permitted in them,

because the prohibition of kilayim was permitted for tzitzit.

But if you say

according to Rav Naḥman, that the obligation of silk garments in tzitzit

is rabbinic

—

how is it permitted in them

to place wool and linen threads together, which constitute

kilayim?

And we answer:

Say:

He places on a silk garment

either

wool threads

or

linen threads.

linen.

The Gemara proves this answer:

This too is logically compelling

in accordance with Rav Naḥman, who holds that silk garments are not obligated in tzitzit by Torah law.

For the latter clause teaches: They themselves,

the tzitzit of the other types,

with their own type

they

exempt,

so that one fulfills the obligation by placing silk threads on a silk garment. But

not with their own type—

they do not exempt.

The Gemara proves:

Granted, if you say

that the obligation of silk garments in tzitzit is only

rabbinic, that is why silk garments are exempt

with silk garments,

with their own type,

with silk threads.

But if you say

that the obligation of silk garments in tzitzit

is by Torah law,

there is a difficulty: How can a silk thread exempt them? After all, only

wool and linen exempt

and are valid

for

tzitzit, since the Torah mentions only that wool and linen threads exempt, as it is written: “Wool and linen … you shall make for yourself gedilim.”

And we reject this:

That is not necessarily so.

This cannot serve as proof for Rav Naḥman; according to Rav Yehuda as well, silk threads exempt a silk garment,

as Rava taught.

For Rava posed a contradiction:

he raised an apparent contradiction in the wording of the verse.

It is written “the corner,”

which they expounded as teaching that one must place tzitzit that are

of the same type as the corner,

including silk threads on a silk garment.

But

on the other hand,

it is written

immediately adjacent to the verse “You shall make for yourself gedilim,”

“wool and linen.”

This indicates that only with them does one fulfill the obligation.

How is this resolved?

Wool and linen exempt both with their own type

and with a different type.

Whereas

the other types

only

exempt with their own type,

but

with a different type they do not exempt.

This exposition demonstrates that the obligation of silk garments in tzitzit is by Torah law.

And Rav Nahman,

who exempted silk from tzitzit by Torah law, did so because

he followed the tanna of the school of Rabbi Yishmael.

For the tanna of the school of Rabbi Yishmael taught: Since the term “garments” is stated in the Torah

in the mitzva of tzitzit, “on the corners of their garments,”

without qualification,

and the verse did not specify of which material those garments are made,

and the verse specifies one of them,

in the passage concerning nega'im, that the verse refers to a garment of

wool and linen,

we may learn from here that

every

place where the Torah says “garment” refers to a garment of

wool and linen.

Abaye said: And this tanna of the school of Rabbi Yishmael,

who expounded a verse to exempt other materials from tzitzit,

excludes

and comes to disagree with

the other tanna of the school of Rabbi Yishmael,

who derives through exposition that every “garment” in a verse includes garments made of other materials.

For the tanna of the school of Rabbi Yishmael:

It is written in the passage concerning nega'im,

“a garment”

of wool.

I have only

a wool garment, to which the laws of nega'im apply;

from where do I include

a garment made of

camel wool, rabbit wool, goat hair, kalakh, serikin, and silk— from where

do I know that these too become impure with the impurity of nega'im?

The verse states: “Or on a garment

of linen.” The verse repeats the term “garment” in order to include other garments.