Mitzvah – The Concept

Given that Tzitzit & Tekhelet ‘together’ are the definitive-paradigm Torat Moshe Mitzvah – please ‘Come & See’ them: as a physical problem’s BEST solution & as a superior chronometer, as educational for young children & as pedestrian protection (today), and as the Halacha ‘Gold Standard’ for Mitzvot; also (a tiny note about) The Instant-Now Milḥemet Mitzvah! 

NOW, there is Neither record Nor memory of Avrahum Avinu A”H Inventing the physical mitzvot components. He is nowhere credited as Inventor of the Essential Pesach component ‘Matzot’ … nor bread, nor wine, nor Tzitzit, nor Tekhelet, nor any other Physical Mitzvah ‘accessory’. Thus, a very ‘peculiar’ implication arises from our basic quatra-millennial acknowledgement: (Mishnah Kiddushin 4.14) “We found that Avrahum Avinu fulfilled the Entire Torah [observed all the Mitzvot of his own accord] Before it was given” , as it is stated: ⇒ (Bereshis 26.5) [by virtue of the fact that] “Avrahum listened to My voice and kept My watch, My commandments, My laws, and My teachings.” Recall: Matan Torah (at Sinai) was in the Late Bronze Age, while Avrahum Avinu lived about 400 years earlier – in the Middle Bronze Age. Apparently, the physical ‘mitzvot accessories’ had already been invented, spun-off into numerous variations, and perfected; both according to ‘enlightened’ Middle Bronze Age standards -and- according to HIS ‘enlightened’ analysis of Life Consistent activities.

More specifically, wondering HOW he was able to accomplish the entire Torah and observe ALL the Mitzvot: according to Everyone’s recorded histories – he was an extremely unusual person -and- WE are taught that He had a most remarkable grasp of Kedusha & Taharah; normally translated Holiness & Sanctity → much more precisely (clinically) rendered – Kedusha: appreciating the significance of Action(s) in the Instant-Present NOW -and- Taharah: Respectfully maintaining a Thoughtful noise-free MIND.

Accordingly, from Avrahum’s perspective, we must try to understand: [baMiDBaR 15:37-41] …and G?D? spoke to Moses, telling: Explain to Israelites – telling them: Make Tzitzit on the corners of your garments, for all generations; giving (each Tzitzit) ‘corner’ [Tekhelet] ‘a twist of sky-blue’. These shall be your Tzitzit: when you see them <Tzitzit -with- Tekhelet>, you shall remember all of G?D?’s ‘Commandments’ so as to keep them; and not stray after your heart(s) & eyes, which [in the past] led you to immorality; (so that) You will remember, and ‘keep’ (follow) all MY ‘commandments’, and be [in the instant-present NOW] ‘Kodesh’ to your Lord (nature). I am G?D? your Lord (nature), who brought you out of Egypt (the closed place – ‘the womb’) to be Your (pl) Lord. I am G?D? your Lord (nature). -AND- [DVoRiM 22:12] (‘bound tassels’) knots (Tzitzit?) Make for yourself, on the four corners of the garment – with which you cover yourself.

Today, Tzitzit are ‘specially knotted ritual fringes, or tassels’ (tied) on the corners of a four cornered woven ‘garment’, which ‘Tradition Contemporaries’ also accept as The template-paradyme-example of a Mitzvah; given its Torat Moshe status as Fundamentally encompassing the Entire Mitzvot package-perspective (of Halacha’s consistent Logic?). How?

Contemporaries ‘supposedly’ derive this grand all-encompassing presumption by assigning numbers to tasseled fringe threads, knots, and windings (to arrive at The Number of Torat Moshe Mitzvot – NOT their 613 ‘different’ specifications) – Except various regional traditions have different knotting & winding configurations → thus respectively different ‘explanations’ regarding how ‘their’ Tzitzit IMPLY 613 (not a consistent Halacha perspective). However, IF one imagines back to Pre-Bronze Age days – when weaving Hand-Spun fiber Yarn [Wool ‘xor’ /or-but-never-with/ Flax] was just being invented & perfected (Without any machines!), THEN one would realize how incredibly-cumulatively labor intensive – manually spinning ANY long hand-spun yarn was, and much more so how  labor intensive – manually weaving ANY length-&-breadth of woven fabric actually was. Therefore, how traumatic & problematic it was if/when An Edge Thread (of this fabric) became unwoven, detached, and lost. 

To fix this ‘edge thread loss’ design defect, the Lowest Cost Solution (of labour & materials) is to tie a respective knot on each of the four corners; since: firstly – this knotting all four corner solution only requires leaving the outer three threads on each side to be longer than the threads for the rest of the fabric – regardless of how large the fabric length-&-breadth was -and- secondly – this binds the threads of each edge with the threads of the respective intersecting edge – HOWEVER this ‘FIX’ leaves a Sub-Problem: a Detachment Event (any breaking of these three threads – on one edge) would now include loss of the entire fabric hem! [Hint: This is solved by Tekhelet.]

(Torat Moshe) Tekhelet – apparently an Early Bronze Age technology – became the crowning resolution for this most bothersome residual problem; outstanding from the Tzitzit corner-tieing solution. → IF any edge thread would wear through – breaking, THEN the respective corner knots would/should still hold it as part of the garment – however – IF a corner knot would wear through -or- IF three same edge threads would wear through – (breaking), THEN it would be likely that The Entire Hem could detach and become lost. The crowning solution to this Hem-Loss catastrophe problem was to add four threads of Tekhelet – tying one around each knot. Why?

Tekhelet refers to a color-fast fabric-fiber dye (actual origin & processing speculative-to-unknown), appearing deep blue-violet; archaeologically reconstructed to have been composed of two chemical dye components – one component (indigotin) being chemically identical to vegetable Indigo dye (which is ‘near’ the Visual Color Perception boundary blue-violet…ultraviolet) and the other component (6,6’-dibromoindigotin) being chemically similar to once-famous Tyre(Lebanon)-Red-(argaman) dye which is a very dark-deep red color (which is near the Visual Color Perception boundary purple-red…infrared); albeit the (perhaps lost technology knowledge) origin of the actual Tekhelet dye was from an apparently seasonally-occurring local marine creature. [for further details – see Dr. Israel HaCohen Zinderman’s studies- Israel Fiber Institute: ©1986 American Chemical Society] (Although, I suspect some aquaculture of that ‘marine creature’ permitted Larger Scale exploitation; than is suggested in the current literature.) Halacha Curiosity: Optical validation for the different ‘versions’ of Tekhelet – that are currently being worn – ONLY requires spectroscopic verification.

Physiological NOTE: Having a sample combining these narrow visual color perception boundary dyes would allow a person to distinguish the flip-on of the color perception differentiation (of his human retina) with greater temporal precision than any opinion which defines dawn – according to horizon illumination; since components of the chemical dye combination change ‘perceived color’ upon reaching adequate illumination threshold solar Horizon-Atmosphere filtered ultraviolet radiation → To remind the reader: The dawning sun (absent of today’s electric lighting ‘noise’) brings a sequential chromatic-scale of lights before these colors merge to provide normal daylight. [Long ago, while amidst the ‘endless’ Saskatchewan prairie, I merited to observe these ‘breathtaking’ transitions.]

Now, because the Tekhelet dye was The MOST Expensive dye in the ancient world, it would only be prudently used to dye the highest quality yarn; which thus give the use of the Tekhelet thread ‘reinforced’ Tzitzit knots: three (or four) unique advantages. (1) The Tekhelet dyed thread would be the last thread to wear through; as a Best Practices safety attachment between the corner-knotted-hem and the garment. (2) The Tekhelet dyed thread gave the user a best practices (totally better-than-analog and better-than-digital) clock, allowing most precise knowledge of the Local Now-Moment of Dawn; an aspect having significance for contract-labor -AND- for personal/spiritual awareness practices. (3) The Tekhelet dyed thread gave the wearer a Sense of Prestige – even of Royalty, since it would normally Only be affordable by ‘high-net-worth individuals’. AND (4) Today, the contrast between a pedestrian’s low spatial-frequency and the high spatial-frequency of Tzitzit → decreases a vehicle driver’s recognition & response time – THUS helping avoid some Traffic Accidents!

Summarizing, Tekhelet was a solution to the ‘side problem’ left over from the Tzitzit solution to the ‘How Best to Finish’ a woven garment. Together, Tzitzit & Techelet form a template of how (a major aspect of) Halacha tries to work (the Logic of which – even an ordinary child of those times could easily appreciate), wherein: an Ordinary Life Problem is identified, an ordinary human-accessible Lowest-cost Lowest-labor (best practices) solution is found, then the side problem(s) from that solution is/are addressed → albeit with incentives which may not fall within the lowest-cost lowest-labor specification – leaving the side problem solution as a separable item of best practices advice ⇒ since the solution which left the side problem was in-fact (already) a best practices advice solution; albeit not a complete solution to the ‘how best to finish a woven garment’. 

So, this four corner ‘Knotting plus Techelet’ is a ‘Best Life Practices Solution’ (hence: mitzvah definition model) to the detaching edge-thread problem – and, as a pedagogical paradigm, was an easiest-to-understand example for the ordinary child → who was occupied with observing, imitating, helping-with, and working the very same labor intensive manual steps as were required to collect fiber materials, separate the fibers, roll the fibers into yarn, arrange the yarn into cloth (even before anything resembling a loom was invented), and tie the corner-most ends of the longer fiber edges of the cloth ⇒ THUS: Since receiving his first Tzitzit ‘garment’ tells the world ‘He is A BIG BOY’ (toilet trained), and answering his curiosity about the knots on the corners increases his excitement in having a Royal Tekhelet thread – the ‘explanation’ for this ‘garment’ is his first Deep Listening journey into (thinking about) the existence of external causality (preventing loss of value) & personal responsibility (representing Royalty).

NOTE: Currently 13 of the 39 categories of Shabbat prohibited activities relate to the animal/wool fiber-to-fabric production process – while others of the 39 categories intersect substitutes-for vegetable-fiber, silk, or modern-synthetic fiber based fabrics. 

⇒ [Nevertheless, Do Not EVER accept this (elongated edge fibers) method of corner knotting constitutes the Mitzvah of Tzitzit according to Halacha IN Our Day ⇒ Please (PLEASE) consult/ask your personal Rabbinic-Scholar for its definitive Refutation!]

Summarizing, Tzitzit & Tekhelet ‘together’ was an early-epoch solution to the problem of how BEST to finish a woven garment.

In general, ‘Best Practices’ (proven-efficient methods consistently delivering optimal results in respective situations) are adopted as standards by Professionals, Parents, Teachers, etc. – since they are more effective than other approaches. Now, just as Avruhum was an extremely unusual person, and his descendants always include an unusually high percentage of Insightful & Innovative more-than-self actualizing ‘National Treasures’ (Mature, Righteous, Scholarly, and Inventive ‘personalities’); Please appreciate that The Halacha LOGIC of Tzitzit & Tekhelet ‘together’ are still the ‘Gold Standard’ for Mitzvot -AND- that Our Ethical-Best Intellectually-Brightest -collectively- keep Halacha ‘current’ – as Technology changes while People do not change. (for a more detailed discussion of Halacha – see https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/mishnah-tehillim-gd-and-our-now/)

Addressing Life Significant problems – Paradigm-Definitive Halacha logic first specifies respectively required levels of Best; then Halacha deals with conundrum problems – by establishing arbitrary compromise solution(s) to equitably distribute unsolved aspects among all parties – allowing the parties to continue their respective self-actualizing progress. Halacha deals with common ordinary life-experience problems (which simultaneously impact on physical health or mental health) wherein a Best Life Practices Advice solution is given -AND- an incentive Best Life Practices Advice solution (if known) to Completely Finish any residual side problems. Because side problems are onerous to Halacha, the best solution strives to be most easily accessible & affordable to the most ordinary persons.

‘BACKGROUND’ NOTICE: All Mitzvot (obligatory Actions) are Good Deeds – while many Good Deeds are not Mitzvot -and- some Good Deeds would NOT be classified as ‘Best Life Practices Advice’ (Halacha); THUS being a Jew intersects with Being a Good Person – While being a Good Person does NOT mean being Jewish ⇒ AND – in this moment (while I am writing this) Milḥemet Mitzvah is More than ‘just’ a Good Deed; more particularly, since we understand that the focus of Torah is LIFE; Halacha strives to embody ‘Best LIFE Practices Advice’ ⇒ and Why is Mitzvah acknowledged as ‘commandment’ → because one would be quite foolish to ignore any ‘Life Practices Advice’ that acquires the status of BEST.