| { | |
| "title": "Tractate Tzitzit", | |
| "language": "en", | |
| "versionTitle": "merged", | |
| "versionSource": "https://www.sefaria.org/Tractate_Tzitzit", | |
| "text": [ | |
| [ | |
| "All<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">1</sup><i class=\"footnote\">Even women.</i> are subject to the obligation of <i>zizith</i>. R. Simeon exempts women since [the commandment of <i>zizith</i>] is a positive commandment which is dependent on a fixed time.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">2</sup><i class=\"footnote\">From which women are exempt. The duty of wearing <i>zizith</i> is restricted to day-time.</i> Any minor who knows how to wrap himself with a <i>ṭallith</i><sup class=\"footnote-marker\">3</sup><i class=\"footnote\">lit. <i>zizith</i>, but applied to the shawl to which it is attached. [Cf. the wording of the benediction connected with the performance of the commandment in P.B., p. 14, where ‘fringed garment’ is simply <i>zizith</i> in the Heb.]</i> should be provided with it by his father. A <i>ṭallith</i> which is [long enough to] cover one’s head and the greater part of the body is subject to <i>zizith</i>.", | |
| "As regards a [linen] sheer, Beth Shammai exempt it [from <i>zizith</i>],<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">4</sup><i class=\"footnote\">Because woollen <i>zizith</i> in a linen garment are forbidden as <i>mingled stuff, wool and linen together</i> (Deut. 22, 11).</i> but Beth Hillel declare it liable.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">5</sup><i class=\"footnote\">In their view the prohibition of wearing <i>mingled stuff</i> is superseded by the commandment of <i>zizith</i>, since the prohibition in Deut. is immediately followed (in verse 12) by the commandment of <i>twisted cords</i> or <i>zizith</i>. The juxtaposition of the two commandments indicates that the latter supersedes the former.</i> An undergarment is exempt, but R. ‘Aḳiba holds that it is liable. A [double-sized] <i>ṭallith</i> that is folded over is subject to <i>zizith</i>, but R. Simeon exempts it.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">6</sup><i class=\"footnote\">Since if it should happen to be unfolded, the <i>zizith</i> would not be in their proper place, in the four corners, but in the middle of the sheet.</i> A <i>ṭallith</i> consisting entirely of blue wool is subject to <i>zizith</i>.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">7</sup><i class=\"footnote\">The blue texture of the <i>ṭallith</i> does not exempt it from <i>zizith</i> although one <i>thread of blue</i> (Num. 25, 39) in each of the four <i>zizith</i> is sufficient.</i> A bolster converted into a sheet or a sheet converted into a <i>ṭallith</i> is subject to <i>zizith</i>. A night garment and bed-curtains<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">8</sup><i class=\"footnote\">Or, ‘covers’.</i> are exempt from <i>zizith</i>.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">9</sup><i class=\"footnote\">In the commandment it is stated, <i>That ye may look upon it</i> (<i>ibid.</i>), which rules out garments worn during the night.</i> A toga,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">10</sup><i class=\"footnote\">Reading <i>ṭoga’</i> with Jastrow. V has <i>ṭrigon</i> which means ‘a triangular [cloak]’. [It was oval in shape and therefore did not require <i>zizith;</i> cf. Krauss, <i>Talmudische Archäologie</i>, I, p. 611, n. 589.]</i> a travelling cloak,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">11</sup><i class=\"footnote\">In V <i>pilgas</i> which Jastrow emends to <i>pinolës</i> (the Greek <i>phainoles</i>). [It is the <i>paenula</i> worn by Roman slaves; Krauss, <i>op. cit.</i> I, p. 170.]</i> shawls fastened at the shoulder,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">12</sup><i class=\"footnote\">In V <i>pokaltorin</i>, which Jastrow reads as <i>pibolaṭorin</i>, the Latin <i>fibulatorium</i>.</i> a cloak worn on the head,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">13</sup><i class=\"footnote\">In V <i>’arbiḳwah</i>. [Krauss <i>loc. cit.</i> identifies it with <i>saga Nervica</i>, a garment of various materials and in different colours.)</i> and an <i>’anṭenah</i><sup class=\"footnote-marker\">14</sup><i class=\"footnote\">According to Jastrow possibly a corruption of the Greek <i>tebenna</i>, a kind of Roman toga.</i> are exempt. This is the general rule: Any [garment] that is without four corners is exempt from <i>zizith</i>.", | |
| "As for the commandment of <i>zizith</i>, Beth Shammai say: [It requires that there shall be] four threads, [each] of four finger-[breadths in length]; but Beth Hillel say: Three threads [each] of three finger-[breadths in length]. R. Jose b. Judah remarked: Although Beth Hillel said, ‘Three [threads, each] of three [finger-breadths in length]’, their ruling is practically identical with that of the other.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">15</sup><i class=\"footnote\">lit. ‘the words of these are near to be like the words of those’; i.e. of Beth Hillel, who refer to the fingers of a larger hand, and Beth Shammai to those of a smaller hand.</i>", | |
| "Leaving out [from the <i>zizith</i>] the blue threads though not the white ones, or the white threads though not the blue ones, invalidates them because [the absence of] either the blue or the white invalidates the other. R. [Ishmael]<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">16</sup><i class=\"footnote\">The name is added in H.</i> maintains: The absence of one does not invalidate the other.", | |
| "[The absence of one] of the four <i>zizith</i> invalidates the others, because all of them [constitute] a single religious observance. R. Ishmael says: They are four independent observances.", | |
| "[Each] <i>zizith</i> is inserted [in a hole] within three finger-[breadths] of [each] corner; farther away than this is invalid If it was inserted in the border, it is invalid; if between a handbreadth [from the edge] and the border, it is valid. R. Eliezer b. Jacob declares it to be invalid. [If a strip less than three finger-breadths in length]<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">17</sup><i class=\"footnote\">So according to Men. 41a (Sonc. ed., pp. 247f.).</i> was cut off [from a <i>ṭallith</i>]<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">18</sup><i class=\"footnote\">That had no <i>zizith</i> (Rashi <i>ad loc.</i>).</i> and then rejoined to it, [the <i>ṭallith</i>] is valid. R. Meir declares it to be invalid.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">19</sup><i class=\"footnote\">His reason being that, as it is proper to insert <i>zizith</i> within three finger-breadths from the corner, one might use a hanging thread left from the sewing as one of the four threads required for the <i>zizith</i>. But that would render the entire fringe invalid, since all the threads have to be made specifically for the purpose of the commandment, whereas the hanging thread was one ready made (cf. Men. Sonc. ed., p. 248, nn. 1f.).</i> [If the detached part] was made into [a smaller <i>ṭallith</i>] on its own, it is valid.", | |
| "If one buys a <i>ṭallith</i> from an idolater or a Samaritan and found blue threads in it, it is invalid;<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">20</sup><i class=\"footnote\">The colour might not be that of the <i>ḥillazon</i> blue, which is the only colour that is recognized.</i> but [if a <i>ṭallith</i> is bought] from an Israelite, it is presumed to be valid.", | |
| "A <i>ṭallith</i>, one of whose <i>zizith</i> is missing,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">21</sup><i class=\"footnote\">lit. ‘taken’.</i> may be worn in public.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">22</sup><i class=\"footnote\">lit. ‘one takes hold of it and goes out’.</i> If two <i>zizith</i> are missing it may be folded into triangular shape.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">23</sup><i class=\"footnote\">So covering the missing <i>zizith</i>.</i> If three <i>zizith</i> are missing, it may not be worn in public.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">24</sup><i class=\"footnote\">lit. ‘to go out with it’.</i>", | |
| "<i>Ẓizith</i> [of a <i>ṭallith</i> used as a shroud] upon a corpse should not be undone.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">25</sup><i class=\"footnote\">The removal of the <i>zizith</i> would be an insult to the dead, which is condemned in Prov. 17, 5, <i>Whoso mocketh the poor blasphemeth his Maker</i>, and a dead man is the poorest of all.</i> Abba Saul b. Boṭhnith said, ‘My father told me, “When I die, undo the <i>zizith</i> [in my <i>ṭallith</i>] because they come within the category of holiness”‘.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">26</sup><i class=\"footnote\">And should be undone before the <i>ṭallith</i> is used as a shroud.</i> The Sages said: It does not come within the category of holiness, so one may use it as a shroud for the dead or as a pack-saddle for an ass.", | |
| "Should a man dye [the <i>zizith</i> of] a <i>ṭallith</i> for himself, they are invalid for religious use if he intended to test [the dye].<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">27</sup><i class=\"footnote\">The dyeing of <i>zizith</i> must be for the specified purpose of the commandment. The reading ‘to test’ [<i>lenassoth</i>] is preferable to the variant ‘to cover himself’ [<i>lekassoth</i>].</i> If he dyed them [with an ordinary dye], even four or five times, they are invalid, since the blue [of the <i>zizith</i>] must be dyed only with that of <i>ḥillazon</i>.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">28</sup><i class=\"footnote\">A species of mollusc.</i> What does the <i>ḥillazon</i> resemble? In its formation it resembles a fish and [the colour of] its body resembles [the blueness of] the sky. Its appearance is a very rare occurrence<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">29</sup><i class=\"footnote\">lit. ‘it only rises [from the sea] in seventy years’.</i> and consequently it is very costly.", | |
| "If one finds blue [threads], even though they are twined,<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">30</sup><i class=\"footnote\">As <i>zizith</i> are.</i> they are invalid, since the blue [for <i>zizith</i>] may be bought only from a reliable person.<sup class=\"footnote-marker\">31</sup><i class=\"footnote\">Or, ‘expert’, who knows that only <i>ḥillazon</i> blue may be used.</i>" | |
| ] | |
| ], | |
| "versions": [ | |
| [ | |
| "The Minor Tractates of the Talmud, trans. A. Cohen, London: Soncino Press, 1965", | |
| "https://www.nli.org.il/he/books/NNL_ALEPH002035163/NLI" | |
| ] | |
| ], | |
| "heTitle": "מסכת ציצית", | |
| "categories": [ | |
| "Talmud", | |
| "Bavli", | |
| "Minor Tractates" | |
| ], | |
| "sectionNames": [ | |
| "Chapter", | |
| "Halakhah" | |
| ] | |
| } |