Why is there a specific fixation on four colors?
1) Techelet - wool dyed blue
2) Argaman - wool dyed purple
3) Tola'at Shani - wool dyed scarlet red
4) Shesh - linen (white)
All four fabrics woven together to make:
Relationship between White Linen flax and Scarlet, Purple, and Blue Wool
1) Techelet - wool dyed blue
2) Argaman - wool dyed purple
3) Tola'at Shani - wool dyed scarlet red
4) Shesh - linen (white)
All four fabrics woven together to make:
- Screen of the gate of the courtyard
- the door of the Ohel Mo'ed
- the parokhet dividing between the Holy and the Holy of Holies
- Most of Kohen Gadol's clothes
Relationship between White Linen flax and Scarlet, Purple, and Blue Wool
Linen, which represents the vegetative dimension.
Scarlet, which represents the animated dimension.
Purple, which represents the human dimension.
Blue, which represents the Divine dimension.
Both shani and argaman are reds, and so these are merely two shades of the same level.
Both are wool, and the color of both shades is derived from a living creature… Having seen that linen symbolizes the vegetative dimension, we can now say that the shades of wool symbolize the life of that which has an animated spirit.
Tola'at Shani - refers to fabrics, materials, or thread dyed red – shani.
Scarlet is the baseness of man - like Adam - Dam - blood.
Argaman - Purple is a higher, richer form of red mixed with blue, so it has a higher status.
Scarlet, which represents the animated dimension.
Purple, which represents the human dimension.
Blue, which represents the Divine dimension.
Both shani and argaman are reds, and so these are merely two shades of the same level.
Both are wool, and the color of both shades is derived from a living creature… Having seen that linen symbolizes the vegetative dimension, we can now say that the shades of wool symbolize the life of that which has an animated spirit.
Tola'at Shani - refers to fabrics, materials, or thread dyed red – shani.
Scarlet is the baseness of man - like Adam - Dam - blood.
Argaman - Purple is a higher, richer form of red mixed with blue, so it has a higher status.
Argaman is mentioned only in connection with the mitzvah of building the Mikdash, the priestly garments, the various screens, and the cover of the burnt-offering altar.
Techelet - Blue is the fundamental color of the Mikdash and of the High Priest's garments
Blue symbolizes heaven and that which Israel received from heaven.
As Chazal said: "How is blue different from all the colors?
Because blue resembles the sea, and the sea resembles heaven, and heaven resembles the Throne of Glory
(with thanks to Claude Vecht-Wolf for this shiur)
The History of "Imperial Purple"/ Tyrian Purple/ Argaman
It was a color only used in the service of the most powerful and the most regal- the color of an emperor’s toga, a king’s robe, a priest’s vestments, and it decorated the Ark of the Covenant.
The dye takes its name from the best known of its sources- the ancient Phoenician seaport of Tyre, along the coastline of contemporary Lebanon. Tyre was the biggest and best exporter of the dye and the products made with it, supplying the entirety of the Near East. Though Tyrian purple was made famous here it was likely discovered much earlier, since Nuzi texts indicate that the dye was processed as early as 1500 BCE. The color had such a great effect on the surrounding populations, the Hebrew term for that specific shade of argaman developed the connotation in both Ugaritic and Hittite of “tribute”-- so often was the purple used as a gift to clothe sometimes the entirety of the imperial court.
From the “royal blue” of Morocco, to the Greek isle of Crete, to the tropical eastern Pacific, and even extending to ancient Japan and China; each civilization created a technique with which to harvest some sort of oceanic dye in the indigo family. Jews regard one end of this color spectrum to represent holiness, tying a deep blue strand of tehkelet to the corners of their prayer shawls, representing both heaven and sea. Catholics are more enamored with its spectral opposite, prostrating themselves before the vermillion cloaks of their cardinals and popes.
Technically and biologically speaking, the primary ingredient of the Tyrian purple dye is produced by a secretion of the chromogenic hypobranchial gland of the Murex brandaris, a small shelled sea mollusk. It can take as many as 10,000 of these creatures to produce just one gram of the Tyrian purple dye. This mucoid fluid is initially colorless, but turns purple when extracted from the gland and exposed to sunlight.
Roman mythographer Julius Pollux wrote in the second century BCE that the idea of purple dying came from the Tyrian god Melqart who was a sort of Heracles figure that served as the protector of Phoenician migrations. Melqart was returning from a beach-side walk one evening with his dog after having visited the lovely nymph Tyros, when he noticed that the canine’s mouth was stained a bright violet. He removed from between the dog’s jaws a severely chewed mollusk that was the source of this mystery. He was then inspired to create a tunic for the nymph dyed that shade of purple- and so Tyrian purple was born. It is also written that as a political gesture to show his lack of hubris, when Alexander conquered Tyre he purposefully entered the city dressed completely in white to the astonishment of King Darius of Persia.
But no one- past, present, or future- was ever as mad for this violet shade as the Romans. They even had a term to describe their infatuation: “purpurae insania” or the purple mania. This “purple fever” reached its peak in the 2nd century CE, where no one of the upper classes could resist goods dyed this Tyrian shade- not even Julius Caesar who chose his imperial robes in this hue. It was at this point in time that the value of the Tyrian dye was so costly, it was worth up to ten or twenty times its weight in gold.
Blue symbolizes heaven and that which Israel received from heaven.
As Chazal said: "How is blue different from all the colors?
Because blue resembles the sea, and the sea resembles heaven, and heaven resembles the Throne of Glory
(with thanks to Claude Vecht-Wolf for this shiur)
The History of "Imperial Purple"/ Tyrian Purple/ Argaman
It was a color only used in the service of the most powerful and the most regal- the color of an emperor’s toga, a king’s robe, a priest’s vestments, and it decorated the Ark of the Covenant.
The dye takes its name from the best known of its sources- the ancient Phoenician seaport of Tyre, along the coastline of contemporary Lebanon. Tyre was the biggest and best exporter of the dye and the products made with it, supplying the entirety of the Near East. Though Tyrian purple was made famous here it was likely discovered much earlier, since Nuzi texts indicate that the dye was processed as early as 1500 BCE. The color had such a great effect on the surrounding populations, the Hebrew term for that specific shade of argaman developed the connotation in both Ugaritic and Hittite of “tribute”-- so often was the purple used as a gift to clothe sometimes the entirety of the imperial court.
From the “royal blue” of Morocco, to the Greek isle of Crete, to the tropical eastern Pacific, and even extending to ancient Japan and China; each civilization created a technique with which to harvest some sort of oceanic dye in the indigo family. Jews regard one end of this color spectrum to represent holiness, tying a deep blue strand of tehkelet to the corners of their prayer shawls, representing both heaven and sea. Catholics are more enamored with its spectral opposite, prostrating themselves before the vermillion cloaks of their cardinals and popes.
Technically and biologically speaking, the primary ingredient of the Tyrian purple dye is produced by a secretion of the chromogenic hypobranchial gland of the Murex brandaris, a small shelled sea mollusk. It can take as many as 10,000 of these creatures to produce just one gram of the Tyrian purple dye. This mucoid fluid is initially colorless, but turns purple when extracted from the gland and exposed to sunlight.
Roman mythographer Julius Pollux wrote in the second century BCE that the idea of purple dying came from the Tyrian god Melqart who was a sort of Heracles figure that served as the protector of Phoenician migrations. Melqart was returning from a beach-side walk one evening with his dog after having visited the lovely nymph Tyros, when he noticed that the canine’s mouth was stained a bright violet. He removed from between the dog’s jaws a severely chewed mollusk that was the source of this mystery. He was then inspired to create a tunic for the nymph dyed that shade of purple- and so Tyrian purple was born. It is also written that as a political gesture to show his lack of hubris, when Alexander conquered Tyre he purposefully entered the city dressed completely in white to the astonishment of King Darius of Persia.
But no one- past, present, or future- was ever as mad for this violet shade as the Romans. They even had a term to describe their infatuation: “purpurae insania” or the purple mania. This “purple fever” reached its peak in the 2nd century CE, where no one of the upper classes could resist goods dyed this Tyrian shade- not even Julius Caesar who chose his imperial robes in this hue. It was at this point in time that the value of the Tyrian dye was so costly, it was worth up to ten or twenty times its weight in gold.