Menachot 44a (מד.) — the Talmud in English

And he explains:

“Slave”!

Go;

he is more disgraced

than

a woman. Therefore, one must recite a separate blessing over this matter.

The Sages taught: The ḥilazon,

this is its description: the appearance of

its body resembles the sea, and its form [

the pattern of its image]

resembles

a fish, and

it rises

from the ground

once every seventy years, and with its blood they dye

the threads of

tekhelet. And therefore,

since it rises only once every seventy years,

its blood is expensive.

It was taught: Rabbi Natan said: There is no minor mitzva written in the Torah whose reward is not given in this world

and in the World-to-Come, but I do not know how great

its reward is.

Go and learn from the mitzva of tzitzit,

which is considered a minor mitzva, as it is merely a positive commandment. 61 .

There was an incident involving a certain man who was careful

with the mitzva of tzitzit.

It happened that

he heard

that

a certain man

there was a prostitute

who

was in one of the cities by the sea and charged four hundred gold coins for her services. He sent her four hundred gold coins and set a time

for him to come to her.

When

the appointed time arrived, he came and sat at the entrance. Her maidservant entered and told her: The man who sent you four hundred gold coins has come and is sitting at the entrance. She said: Let him enter! And he entered. She set up seven beds for him,

each higher than the next,

six of silver and one of gold, and between each one was a silver ladder, and beneath the

uppermost

bed there was a ladder

of gold.

She ascended and sat upon

the

uppermost bed while naked, and he too ascended to sit opposite her while naked.

A miracle occurred and

his four tzitzit came and slapped him in the face.

Immediately,

he slipped

from these beds

and sat upon the ground, and she too slipped down and sat upon the ground. She said to him: By the deity of Rome,

I swear by the life of the king, who is the deity of Rome,

I will not release you until you tell me what defect you saw

in me

that caused you to slip down and descend.

He said to her: By the Temple service [

I swear]

I have never seen a woman as beautiful as you. Rather,

there is

one mitzva

that

the Lord our God commanded us, called tzitzit, and it is written in it, “I am the Lord your God,” twice,

once at the beginning of the final verse of the passage and once at its end, to teach you:

I am the One who will punish

those who transgress My commandments,

and I am the One who will reward

those who observe My commandments.

And now,

when I ascended to you,

they appeared to me

as though my tzitzit, which slapped me in the face, were

four witnesses

testifying that the Lord will ultimately punish those who transgress His will.

She said to him: I will not release you until you tell me your name, the name of your city, the name of your rabbi, and the name of the

house

of study in which you study Torah!

He replied and

wrote

for her everything she had asked

and placed it in her hand.

That woman stood

and

divided all her property: a third

she gave

to the government

so that they would allow her to convert,

a third

of her property she distributed

to the poor, and a third

she sold and

took

the money

in her hand, except for those bedclothes

which she did not sell but took with her.

And she came to the house of study of Rabbi Hiyya,

and

said to him

to Rabbi Hiyya:

My teacher, instruct

your student and

have him make me a convert.

He said to her: My daughter, perhaps

you came to convert only because

you have set your eyes upon one of the students,

and converts are not accepted for the sake of marriage.

She took the letter from her hand [

the letter she had received from that man who studied in this academy],

and gave it to him,

telling him the entire incident, that she was converting for the sake of Heaven, since she had heard from that student about the great miracle of the special quality of the mitzva of tzitzit, whose four tzitzit had slapped him in the face. When he heard this,

he said to her: Go; may you enjoy your purchase!

The matter proceeded, and she converted and married that student.

And those bedclothes

of silver and gold

that she had spread out for him

at first

in violation of the prohibition—

she spread them out for him

now

with permission.

And

this

was

its reward in this world,

but as for the World-to-Come, I do not know how great

the reward of the mitzva is.

Rav Yehuda said: A borrowed garment is exempt from tzitzit for up to thirty days,

since the garment must be his, as we derive: “your garment,” and not that of others .

From that point onward,

even though it is borrowed,

it is obligated

in tzitzit, by rabbinic ordinance.

It was taught likewise

with regard to mezuzah:

One who resides in an inn [

a house in which passersby lodge]

in the Land of Israel, or one who rents a house outside the Land of Israel, for all

thirty days is exempt from mezuzah. From that point onward, he is obligated

in mezuzah.

But one who rents a house in the Land of Israel,

although it is not his house,

affixes a mezuzah immediately,

upon entering,

because

this causes the

settlement

of the Land of Israel

to increase. For once one has affixed a mezuzah, he may not remove it even when he leaves his dwelling, as we say in Bava Metzia [102a]. Therefore, if he affixes a mezuzah in his rented dwelling, he will leave it only with difficulty, since he will have to trouble himself to obtain new mezuzot for his other dwelling. And even if he leaves this dwelling, another Jew will rent it easily because it contains mezuzot. Thus, by obligating him to affix a mezuzah in his rented dwelling, the Land of Israel becomes settled. 67 .

We learned in the Mishna:

The arm-tefilla does not prevent

the head-tefilla from being worn, nor does the head-tefilla prevent the arm-tefilla from being worn. If one put on one of them, he fulfilled that mitzva independently.

Rav Hisda said: They taught

that the arm-tefilla and head-tefilla do not prevent one another

only when he has

both and put on one.

But if he does not have

both, but only one, and puts it on,

it prevents

the other, and he has fulfilled not even one mitzva.

They said to him:

But

did you say

that this was so—that he fulfilled not even one mitzva?

He said to them

Rav Hisda:

I did not

say that! He retracted the ruling he had initially stated. And he said: Would it enter your mind that

one who does not have two mitzvot

but only one

should not perform even one mitzva?!

Rather, certainly, when he has only one, he should put it on, for they do not prevent one another, contrary to what I initially thought.

And we raised a difficulty:

Initially,

when Rav Hisda said that if he had only one, they prevent one another and he should not put it on,

what did he hold?

And we answer: He held that one should not put on the one he has,

lest

he be negligent—for if you allow him to put on only one tefilla, he may be negligent and fail to acquire the other one that he lacks. Therefore, they decreed that he should not put on either one, since they prevent one another, and consequently he would acquire the other one in order to fulfill the mitzva of tefillin. Ultimately, Rav Hisda retracted his position and held that one should not be prohibited from putting on one, and that he should fulfill at least one mitzva.

Rav Sheshet said: Anyone who does not put on tefillin transgresses eight

positive

commandments,

since there are four passages in the tefillin, and concerning each passage two positive commandments are stated: “You shall bind them as a sign upon your arm” and “They shall be as frontlets between your eyes.” This makes eight.

And anyone who does not have tzitzit on his garment transgresses five

positive

commandments:

a. “They shall make for themselves tzitzit on the corners of their garments”; b. “They shall place upon the tzitzit of the corner a thread of tekhelet”; c. “It shall be for you as tzitzit”; d. “And you shall see it”; e. “You shall make yourself twisted threads.”

And every koen who does not ascend to the platform to bless the people with the Priestly Blessing transgresses

three

positive

commandments

stated in the Priestly Blessing: a. “So shall you bless the Children of Israel”; b. “Say”

to them: “May the Lord bless you and safeguard you,” and so on; c. “And they shall place My name upon the Children of Israel.”

commandments

stated concerning the Priestly Blessing: (1) “So shall you bless the children of Israel”; (2) “Speak” to them: “May the Lord bless you and safeguard you,” and so on; (3) “They shall place My name upon the children of Israel.”

And anyone who does not have a mezuzah on his doorway violates two

mitzvot

, positive commandments,

as it is written in the passage of Shema Yisrael

“and you shall write them

on the doorposts of your house,” and it is likewise written in the passage of Ve-haya im shamoa

“and you shall write them

on the doorposts of your house,” so there are here two positive commandments.