Menachot 40a — the Talmud in English

The Sages taught:

a linen garment

is it obligated in ritual fringes

or not?

Beit Shammai exempt it

from ritual fringes because of the prohibition of sha'atnez, as the tekhelet is wool and the garment is made of linen. And Beit Shammai do not expound the juxtaposition of sha'atnez and ritual fringes as permitting sha'atnez in ritual fringes.

And Beit Hillel obligate

one to place wool ritual fringes on a linen garment, because they expound the juxtaposition as permitting sha'atnez in ritual fringes.

And the tanna rules in the beraita:

And the halakha —

is in accordance with the words of Beit Hillel!

Rabbi Eliezer, son of Rabbi Tzadok, said:

The halakha is not in accordance with Beit Hillel, who obligate one to attach ritual fringes to a linen garment. The proof is that people do not customarily attach ritual fringes in accordance with the words of Beit Hillel:

And anyone who places tekhelet

on his linen garment

in Jerusalem

is nothing but an object of astonishment,

as everyone wonders how he could do this. Yet according to Beit Hillel he is obligated to place ritual fringes on a linen garment.

Rabbi said: If so,

that the halakha follows Beit Hillel,

why did they prohibit

attaching ritual fringes to a linen garment in Jerusalem? —

Because they are not proficient

in Jerusalem in the exposition of juxtaposed verses and do not know of the permission. If we permit sha'atnez in ritual fringes to them, they will come to permit sha'atnez everywhere. Therefore the Sages preferred to suspend a Torah positive command through inaction, so that they would not come to violate the prohibition of sha'atnez through an action.

Rava bar Rav Ḥana said to Rava:

Why can the permission of sha'atnez in ritual fringes not be publicized —

Let ten men put them on,

let them attach tekhelet fringes to the corners of linen garments belonging to ten people,

and go out to the marketplace

with their fringes,

and the matter would become public knowledge,

that sha'atnez is permitted in ritual fringes!?

And we answer: If they do so,

all the more will the people of Jerusalem be astonished

жители Иерусалима

at

those people: How can such respectable people wear sha'atnez!?

And we challenge:

Let him expound it publicly,

when the people of the city gather to hear the rabbi’s sermon, so that he can expound that sha'atnez in ritual fringes is permitted!?

And we answer: The reason they did not customarily attach ritual fringes to a linen garment in Jerusalem was because of a

decree,

that they decreed not to attach ritual fringes to a linen garment

because of kela ilan,

lest people come to dye the tekhelet threads with a dye that is not tekhelet but resembles it, called “kela ilan.”

And we challenge: What concern is it if they do not dye the tekhelet threads properly,

and kela ilan will be

the kela ilan

merely

as though it had not been dyed at all, and the thread will remain

white

—the mitzva of ritual fringes is fulfilled through white threads as well, as we learned in our Mishna, that when there is no tekhelet, one places white threads in its stead!?

And we answer: It is prohibited to place white wool threads in linen garments

since it is possible

to place them

of their own kind,

as one fulfills the mitzva of ritual fringes by placing white linen threads in linen garments. Therefore

it is not

permitted to place wool threads in them,

as Reish Lakish taught!

For Reish Lakish said: Everywhere that you find

a meeting

of a positive commandment

that requires one to perform a mitzva

and a negative commandment

that prohibits

fulfilling the mitzva,

if you can fulfill both, it is preferable

[for example, by placing white linen threads in a linen garment], and one must fulfill the mitzva in a manner that does not cause him to violate the negative commandment.

But if not,

for example, by placing wool tekhelet threads in a linen garment, when it is impossible to fulfill the mitzva of tekhelet without violating the prohibition of sha'atnez —

the positive commandment comes and overrides the negative commandment!

In other words, the Sages decreed that one should not attach ritual fringes to a linen garment because of the concern that people might make the tekhelet threads from kela ilan, which is merely a white thread dyed with a dye that is not tekhelet and does not override sha'atnez, since the mitzva of the white threads can be fulfilled even when they are made of linen, and there is no need to override sha'atnez for them. And we challenge: Why did they issue a decree, because of this concern, not to fulfill the mitzva of ritual fringes? Let them institute a remedy —

and examine

all those vats in which the tekhelet is dyed, to determine whether they contain genuine tekhelet or kela ilan!?

And we answer:

Rather,

the Gemara retracts its explanation that the decree was because of kela ilan. Instead, it was

a decree because of testing,

lest the dyeing of the tekhelet had been done for the purpose of testing, to test whether the tekhelet dye was already fit for dyeing. Dyeing performed for testing is invalid for the mitzva of ritual fringes [as will be explained at the end of page 42b], and this cannot be examined, since there is no way to determine whether the thread was dyed for testing or for the dyeing itself.

And we challenge: There is still a way to prevent the concern of testing the dye:

Let them write it in letters,

writing the prohibition against testing in letters and publicizing them everywhere, and announcing that one must take a little dye from the vat and test the dye with it, and then burn that wool!? And we answer:

Can letters stand up and be relied upon?!

To prevent concern about a prohibition, it is possible that not everyone will see these letters, and it is also possible that they will not comply with what is written in them.

And concerning this answer,

Rava said:

How could you say that sending letters is of no benefit because people will not obey them?

как ты мог сказать, что рассылка писем бесполезна, поскольку люди не будут им подчиняться?