Tekhelet: Color Perception or Apprehension?

torahmusings.com/2017/06/tekhelet-color-perception-apprehension/

June 8, 2017

by Efraim Vaynman

Tekhelet, most say it is blue, others argue it

is purple, and still others describe it as
green. Let us reexamine the subject anew
as we approach Parshat Shelah that
contains the mitzvah of tzitzit and tekhelet.

A Scottish eye care company recently commissioned a study to “demonstrate just how our
visual interpretations of the world around us can differ quite sharply, even on a very basic
level.” [1]https://www.opticalexpress.co.uk/magazine/dividing-a-nation-an-insight-into-
human-interpretation-through-colour-illusions Participants were shown a swatch and asked
to determine whether it was blue or green. While most respondents (64%) correctly identified
the color as green, almost a third (32%) identified the color of the swatch as blue. Much like
the viral meme #TheDress [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dress_(viral_phenomenon) ,
the study exposes that differences in the perception of color are much more prevalent than
people realize.

One can imagine that if in our modern globalized world there is such dissonance about the
perception of color among people of the same country, there was probably little unanimity
about color in the ancient world, especially amongst divergent countries, cultures, and
languages.

The very concept of color in our western world may not even have had an exact correlate in
ancient civilizations. We think of color in Newtonian terms, namely, as a mixture of base
colors which form a particular hue, but color does not inform us of the other visual percept
qualities such as depth, brightness, temperature, irradiance, opacity, and texture.

Color was not always so abstract. In ancient times colors were referred to by noting their
similarity to other items in nature with a known particular visual characteristic. This is similar
to the way the English language uses the word orange to refer to things that have the same
color as the fruit. If one were to say today that a particular thing is orange colored, we would
know that it’s hue is what we refer to as orange without imparting that it was similar to an
orange in any other way. However, in ancient times this was not necessarily true. The ancient
Greek term for color is khrôma (χρῶμα) which primarily meant surface, particularly the skin,
and only sometimes was it used to describe things of color such as paint or dyes. The Latin
word color had similar connotations. To describe the color was to describe the outside skin
or surface of something, including but not limited to its color hue. To say that something has
an orange-like color in ancient times could mean that this thing is similar to the skin or
outside of an orange in a number of ways, including color, smoothness, or shininess.

This different perception of color in the ancient world is something we must keep in mind
when trying to analyze and reconstruct colors based on the way they are described in
ancient sources. In an effort to better understand this mitzvah, this essay will address the
following pertinent question: what is the color of tekhelet and how did modern researchers
determine the color after being lost for over 1300 years?

The Rediscovery of Tekhelet

The quest for tekhelet started in 1888 when Rabbi Gershon Hanoch Leiner, the Radziner
Rebbe, stirred the European rabbinate with three books he authored in which he proposed to
find the hilazon, the source of tekhelet, based on inferences from Talmudic sources. His
search culminated with a visit to an aquarium in Italy where he identified a certain squid
(Sepia officinalis) as the source of tekhelet from which he managed to produce a Prussian
blue dye, which some Radziner and Breslover chassidim wear till this day. Rabbi Leiner’s
suggestion was never widely accepted, and it was later discovered that the Prussian blue
dye was a result of a chemical process rather something derived from the squid itself. He
did, however, manage to spark the search for tekhelet.

In 1914, Rabbi Isaac Herzog, later the first chief rabbi of Israel, defended his dissertation,
Semitic Porphyrology, [3]Porphyrology is the study of purple. about the search for tekhelet.
This excellent work is still the most comprehensive treatise on the subject. While Rabbi
Herzog did not come to a conclusive resolution for the source of tekhelet, he did feel that he
had firmly proven its original color. In Rabbi Herzog’s words: “I believe conclusively, that if not
actually so in the strictly scientific sense, the tekelet­-colour did not, at all events, appreciably
differ from a dark pure blue, the nuance assigned to it by tradition.” [4]“The Dyeing of Purple
in Ancient Israel”, Proceedings of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society 1919-
1920 pp. 21-33, reprinted by the Israel Malacological Society and the Municipal … Continue
reading Elsewhere he says it is what an English man calls “deep dark blue”. [5]“ha’Hillazon
Shel Tekhelet al pi haHakirot ha’Archiologiot b’Siyua Nisyonot Ma’assiyim.” Ha’Hed, 12
(1934), p. 17.

Though he very much longed to do so, Rabbi Herzog never did produce tekhelet from either
of the two snails he strongly considered in his dissertation. [6]Rabbi Herzog mentions in a
letter to Rabbi Yechiel Michel Tukachinsky that he plans to conduct tests on the coast of
Haifa to validate the “secret of the tekhelet snail” that he thinks he has … Continue reading
He had doubts about both possibilities but his questions were not enough to conclusively
dismiss either one as the source of the tekhelet. Problems with creating an actual dye were
more practical because at the time scientist had not found a way to create a color fast dye
from either snail. [7]I find this strange because already in 1810, The Belfast Monthly
Magazine reported that the dye of a similar Buccmum snail was extremely colorfast. See “On
the Tyrian, or Purple Dye”, The … Continue reading

Despite his assuredness about the true color of tekhelet, Rabbi Herzog was not absolutely
certain that tekhelet was a pure blue. He was willing to allow a degree of violet because
“there are very persuasive reasons to believe that the species known as Murex trunculus is
the hilazon of tekhelet. For one, the dye that it emits is sufficiently blue.” [8]ha’Hillazon Shel
Tekhelet, ibid. Many of the supporters of the Murex tekhelet deceitfully tell a different
narrative where R’ Herzog biggest problem was with the dye not being completely blue. …
Continue reading At the time it was not yet known how to produce a pure blue dye from the
Murex trunculus. Although Rabbi Herzog would tolerate a blueish violet color, he believed that
it was likely possible to create a pure blue dye from the Murex trunculus if we only knew the
precise sub-species and correct way of dyeing. [9]ha’Hillazon Shel Tekhelet ibid. This belief is
based on what he heard from Lacaz Duthiers who claims to have encountered through his
experiments a murex trunculus which yielded a blue dye but at … Continue reading

Eventually a method was found to create a pure blue dye from the Murex trunculus. [10]L. A.
Driessen, “Über eine charakteristische Reaktion des antiken Purpurs auf der Faser”, Melliand
Textilberichte, 1944, v. 25, pp. 66-69; J Van Alphen, “Remarks on the Action of Light on …
Continue reading In 1988 Rabbi Eliyahu Tavger managed to dye wool blue from the Murex
trunculus and tie his tallit with the strings. [11]The Rarest Blue p. 207. A few years later, in
1993, the Ptil Tekhelet organization was founded to manufacture and promote the wearing
of sky-blue [12]Sky-blue is the color of the sky at noon. Sterman even claims that this was the
view of Rabbi Herzog in an article in BAR. See “The Great Tekhelet Debate—Blue or Purple?”,
BAR, 39:05 … Continue reading tekhelet for the mitzvah of tzitzit.

The Question of Color

The question of the color of tekhelet is a modern one. From biblical times the colors of the
Torah were a living tradition mimetically transmitted from generation to generation. There
was no need to describe color because it was learned; if not as part of the language they
spoke then at the very least tekhelet was something with which they were intimately familiar
with from everyday religious life. When Jewish sources mention tekhelet they are almost
always speaking of its symbolism or relationship to other things and not of its color which
was well known and needed no description. It isn’t until tekhelet was lost or became too
scarce to be familiar to everybody that there was an attempt to describe its color. [13]For
example, Pesikta Rabati (circa 9th century), piska 20 (matan Torah) Ish Shalom edition.

Although a description of the color of tekhelet may not have been needed for Jews living
contemporaneous with tekhelet, non-Jews were not familiar with the word. The earliest
sources that describe tekhelet are translations of the Torah. The Septuagint, Aquila [14]Ex.
35:23,25; Ezekiel 27:24, Symmachus [15]Ex. 35:23; Ezekiel 23:6, Theodotion [16]Ex. 28:6,
35:23,25; Jeremiah 10:9; Ezekiel 23:6, and the Vulgate [17]Ex. 25:4, 26:1,31,36, 27:16,
28:5,6,8,15,33, 35:6,24,26; 36:37, 38:18,23, 39:1,2,8,22 Ezekiel 23:6, 27:7 were all translations
that were written at the time that tekhelet was still in use. The translations are unanimous
that the translation of tekhelet in Greek is ὑάκινθος [18]Alternatively, ὑακίνθινος. (hyákinthos);
the Latin equivalent hyacinthum [19]Jerome uses ianthinum (violet) in translation of ‫תחש‬.
This should probably be understood as the same as hyacinthum because his rendering of
tahash is dependent on the LXX which renders tahash the … Continue reading is found in the
Vulgate. The same translation for tekhelet is also found in Josephus’ [20]Antiquities 3:8; Wars
6:6 and Philo’s [21]de Vita Mosis 3:2 Greek writings.

The problem is that these translations are equally ambiguous to us. The word hyákinthos as
the name of a colored fabric rarely occurs outside of the translations of the Bible and when it
does it is still unclear the color intended. [22]Herzog, Semitic Porphyrology, p. 93-94, 161,
(manuscript edition) The color of hyákinthos fabric was probably similar to the flower and the
precious stone which both bear the same name. Rabbi Herzog argued that the translation
could not be used to determine the color of tekhelet because hyákinthos was variably used to
describe both violet and blue.

Rabbi Herzog instead argued that the most reliable sources attesting to the color of tekhelet
can be found in the Talmud, which in his opinion seem to clearly indicate that tekhelet was
blue.

The best proof from the Talmud according to Rabbi Herzog is that in several places it warns
against substituting dye from kla ilan (indigo)in place of tekhelet, which, according to Rabbi
Herzog, clearly demonstrates that the color from the two dyes were identical. [23]This is the
proof Rabbi Herzog cited when pressed by Rabbi Yechiel Michel Tukachinsky to provide a
definitive proof for the exact color of tekhelet. See Ir haKodesh v’haMikdash, ibid p. 59. The
Talmud even devises a test for one who is unsure if he has authentic tekhelet whereby
subjecting the material to a chemical process one can differentiate between authentic
tekhelet and imitation tekhelet made from kla ilan. [24]Menahot 42b The necessity to resort to
a chemical test and not just visually ascertain the color with one that is familiar with the
authentic tekhelet proves that kla ilan and tekhelet were the exact same color. Kla ilan was
invalid for sacramental use not because of its color but because of its source. [25]Tosefta
Menahot 9:6

To this end, Rabbi Herzog obtained a sample from the famous Manufacture des Gobelins of
authentic indigo which he planned to use as a representative template for the proper color of
tekhelet. [26]Ir haKodesh v’haMikdash idem. It is unclear to me if this was an actual swatch of
indigo or a photograph of a swatch. He uses the word “temunah” but it is unclear if he
intends it to mean a … Continue reading Rabbi Tukachinsky who saw this sample describes it
as being “stronger than blue, turning to green, and a little black mixed in”. [27]Idem. It seems
to me that Rabbi Tukachinsky’s remarks are not objective observations about the color he
saw but are rather his comments that the color he saw confirmed his expectations he had
based … Continue reading Rabbi Herzog himself remarked that “to the experienced eye a
slight reflex of violet or reddish is visible.” [28]Herzog, Semitic Porphyrology, p. 217

The problem with this argument is that indigo itself can be found in several color variations
ranging from purple [29]Ctesias seems to be referring to the indigo plant when he says, “Near
the sources of this river there grows a certain purple flower, which is used for dyeing purple,
and it is not inferior to the … Continue reading to violet to blue. Natural indigo can contain up
to 15% indirubin (red dye) as well as other impurities that can affect the color of the dye [30]J.
Merritt Matthews, Application of Dyestuffs to Textiles, Paper, Leather and Other Materials,
(John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1920), p. 410fn. Indirubin is reduced to a leuco in the same way as
indigo … Continue reading. Effectively, this proof suffers from the same ambiguity as the
linguistic argument that Rabbi Herzog rejected. Since it is unknown to which hue of indigo
the Talmud refers we still do not know the true color of tekhelet.

Talmudic Descriptions of Tekhelet

There are several other descriptions of tekhelet which Rabbi Herzog thought corroborated
that tekhelet was blue, though he admitted that they are inconclusive. Most famously the
Talmud states: “Rabbi Meir used to say; Why is tekhelet so different from all other colorants?
For tekhelet is like the sea, and the sea is like the sky, and the sky is like [Lapis lazuli
[31]
Missing in some texts. The Hebrew word ‫ ספיר‬is often translated as sapphire but sapphire
in ancient text most often refers not to the modern gem known under that name but to Lapis
lazuli. See … Continue reading, and Lapis lazuli is like] the heavenly throne.” [32]Menahot 43b,
Sotah 17a, Ḥulin 89a This statement at first seems to be describing the color of tekhelet, but
upon further consideration, Rabbi Herzog contends that the gradations of colors here is
actually more of symbolic significance. [33]Herzog, Semitic Porphyrology, p. 206, (manuscript
edition). “R. Meir’s object in this instance, be it duly emphasized, is not to give a definition of
tekelet but merely to explain its symbolic … Continue reading In fact, some versions of this
statement expound that the “sea is similar to grass and grass is similar to the sky”
[34]Jerusalem Talmud, Berachot 7b. Rabbi Herzog himself suggests that it still could be color

gradations and the “grasses” referred to are blue types of greenery such as the hyacinth
flower. See … Continue reading precluding the understanding that this a simple color
gradation. And why was a gradation necessary; was tekhelet itself not similar to sapphire?
[35]
Mishnat Rabbi Eliezer, ch. 14 states, “tekhelet resembles Lapis lazuli, and the Tablets were
of Lapis lazuli, to tell you that so long as the people of Israel gaze upon this tekhelet they
are … Continue reading Rabbi Herzog suggests that this long chain of associations was
meant to symbolize the similitude of the Throne of Glory throughout the universe. [36]Semitic
Porphyrology, ibid.
Other times it is implied that tekhelet is similar to the dark sky at night. The Talmud writes
that the silver hooks in the Tabernacle appeared like shining stars set against the loops
made of tekhelet. [37]Shabbat 99a. The word tekhelet is also homiletically explicated to be
semantically related to the Hebrew word for bereave (‫)תכל‬, because it was in middle of the
night that God smote the Egyptian firstborns. [38]Sifrei, Parshat Shelah. See the explanation
of R’ Moshe HaDarshan cited by Rashi in Bamidbar 15:41 s.v. ptil tekhelet.

Colors in Ancient Times

Throughout his dissertation Rabbi Herzog was quick to note that it is hard to be sure that the
colors described in ancient sources are the same colors as we now know them. Not only
have the names for the colors shifted along the color scale through history but ancient
societies often had a much narrower color vocabulary. Still, Rabbi Herzog believed that the
color descriptions were useful to broadly determine that a particularly described item was at
least within a certain reasonable range of colors. It is based on this assumption that he
analyzes much literature to best determine what the colors of argaman and tekhelet are
known as in contemporary times.

Modern anthropologists have pointed out that the issue is actually much more complex.
Whereas our own color system is primarily focused on hue, the ancients were sensitive
primarily to such things as luminosity, saturation and texture, or even subtler variables such
as smell, agitation and liquidity. [39]Mark Bradley, “Colour as Synaesthetic Experience in
Antiquity.” Synaesthesia and the Ancient Senses, edited by Shane Butler and Alex Purves,
Acumen Publishing, 2013, p. 127 Mark Bradley, a historian of Roman visual art, argues that
the ancient sense of color can be described as being somewhat “synaesthetic”, that is to say,
they experienced color not just though their visual sense but as an experience that involved
multiple sensory systems. For example, color was sometimes used by the ancient Greeks to
refer to other sensory experiences such as music’s chromatic scales. Much likes genuine
synaesthetes, Greek musicians experienced some correlation of visual and auditory senses
when playing music. It was because of this synaesthetic experience that ancients
sometimes describe colors in ways which seem very odd to us.

The corollary of this is that when a color is described seemingly inaccurately in ancient
sources it is not necessarily because the color scale has shifted or because they had an
insufficient vocabulary to accurately describe the color. It might just be that the strange way
in which the color is described is the experience that the color evoked or represented in the
ancient observers. Sometimes we may need to look beyond hue to understand what is really
being described.

Tekhelet is often described as being similar to the sky and sea. [40]Rabbi Meir above in
footnote 31. See also Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book III, 7:7, where tekhelet is
compared to the sky and the air. Cf. Midrash Raba Bamidbar, 4:13. Interestingly, the sky and
sea are reoccurring motifs in ancient literature. Most famously, Homer in several places
describes the sea as being wine-dark (oinops pontos). [41]Iliad 23.143; Odyssey 5.132; 5.221;
7.250; 12.388 Although there have been attempts to explain how the sea could have
appeared red in specific settings, [42]See the literature cited by Bradley, Colour as
Synaesthetic, on pp. 132-133. Michael Clark, professor of classics in the National University
of Ireland, suggests that it is more likely that Homer’s usage here reflects the conceptual
associations of wine, such as danger and frenzy, as well as the whole range of qualities
identified with Dionysos. [43]Michael Clark, “The Semantics of Colour in the Early Greek Word-
Hoard”, Colour in the Ancient Mediterranean World, ed. Liza Cleland and Karen Stears with
Glenys Davies, pp. 131-139; Oxford; 2004. … Continue reading Pliny the Elder actually
describes the color produced from the purpura, the purple producing Murex snails, in very
similar terms when he decries the “mad lust” for the dye. “But what is the cause of the prices
paid for purple-shells, which have an unhealthy odour when used for dye and a gloomy tinge
in their radiance resembling an angry sea?” [44]Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Book IX, Ch.
LX.

Homer in three places also describes the sea as the “purple-sea” (alipòrphuros [ali – sea,
porphura]). The sea’s color is described as being purple, a reference to the purple color
produced by the Murex snails. This description however seems to have more of an actual
visual component than the previous term since Homer uses the term porphura which refers
to a purple dye. According to Sandra Busatta, a Professor of Social Anthropology at the
University of Padua, “To Homer’s audience the word purphureos first referred to the play of
the light that produces brilliance on troubled water and by extension any play of sparkling,
glossy or shiny color, but it also referred to a negative sense of fear”. [45]Sandra Busatta, The
Perception of Color, p. 316. She suggests that it is for this very reason that Homer described
the sky as being bronze, an apparent reference to the glare and sparkling of the metal.
[46]
Iliad 5.504, 17.424-5; Busatta, idem. The early Greeks believed that the sky was a sort of
hemispherical dome made of metal that covered the earth, a view that is also found Rabbinic
literature. See … Continue reading

Arguments for a Violet Tekhelet

Thus far I have shown that the proof presented from the Talmud for the color of tekhelet is
inconclusive. Moreover, I have shown that it is difficult to ascertain the hue based off textual
evidence from archaic sources since they may be describing the other visual aspects.
Furthermore, in this particular case it seems that the Talmudic allusions to the color of
tekhelet are describing not its hue but its other visual qualities, namely the shine of fabrics
dyed with tekhelet, [47]Mark Bradley, writes that the purple sea dye “had unique physical
properties, sitting on the surface of garments rather than within the fabric and reflecting and
manipulating sunlight in a similar … Continue reading a description of the Murex dye
corroborated in many Greek sources. Is there any proof that can be adduced to prove the hue
of tekhelet?
There are several arguments that can be made for identifying violet as the color of tekhelet.

First, it must be noted, that without proof to the contrary, the Greek and Latin translations of
the Torah that translate tekhelet as hyacinth should be assumed to be referring to the well-
known violet colored flower that carries that name. Although the flowers from the hyacinth
family may occur in varying colors throughout the world, the dominant species Hyacinthus
orientalis L. found in Asia Minor [48]See A. Horovitz & A. Danin, “Relatives of Ornamental
Plants in The Flora of Israel”, Israel Journal of Botany, 32:2 (1983), p. 91. The Hyacinthus
orientalis is indigenous to Israel where it … Continue reading is violet. It can be fairly
assumed that ancient authors from the Mediterranean are referring to this well-known
species.

Secondly, there is a strong argument that tekhelet could not be blue. It is clear from Greek
historians that the purple and reddish-purple dyes produced from the Murex snails were
extremely expensive. The expensiveness tekhlet is also attested to in the Talmud [49]Menahot
44a which adds that non-Jews are not to trusted with transporting tekhelet because they are
suspected of stealing it and substituting the authentic tekhelet with a fake made of kla ilan
(indigo). [50]Avoda Zara 39a Imitation tekhelet was so rampant that the Talmud requires that
one only buy tekhelet from an expert to ensure its authenticity. [51]Menahot 42b Supporters
of blue tekhelet point to this halakhic decree as proof that tekhelet is the same color as
indigo. In fact, they claim that molecularly the two dyes are identical. Yet if they were exactly
the same, the superiority of the authentic tekhelet is not understood. While Jews can be
insistent that tekhelet they use for religious purposes come from the original Biblical dye
source, why would the non-Jews prefer the molluscan dye to the molecularly identical plant
sourced dye? If anything, we would expect that the blue dye from the indigo plant to be
preferred since it did not have a strong fishy smell adhering to it. It wouldn’t make financial
sense to use a Murex trunculus for blue dye when it could be used to create the more
expensive purple dyes. Although there were fake purple dyes, they were of inferior quality,
[52]
Pliny discusses the quality of different purples at length. whereas the indigo blue dye was
supposedly just as good as the blue tekhelet dye. [53]In footnote 30 I surmise that the ability
to use indigo as a vat dye may not have been well known. There is however evidence that
indigo was used for vat dyeing in the Stockholm Papyrus (recipe 105) … Continue reading
The Talmud’s statement that non-Jews are suspected of substituting authentic tekhelet with
imitation tekhelet made of kla ilan clearly suggests that the authentic tekhelet was vastly
superior and therefore much more expensive.

The more likely explanation is that the imitation tekhelet made of kla ilan was a mix of indigo
and some other red dyes, yielding an imitation violet dye. The Sifrei describes a deceitful
person as making fake tekhelet from “pigments” and kla ilan. [54]Sifrei, Parshat Shelah 73
Other sources which refer to imitation tekhelet simply as “kla ilan” possibly did so because
indigo was the predominant dye stuff or perhaps the imitation tekhelet was made of indigo
from which the red indogotin was not removed.
Perhaps the strongest argument against blue tekhelet is that the debromination process, the
process used to convert the Murex dye to a pure blue, would not have been performed in
antiquity. The process currently used at the tekhelet factories utilizes synthetic chemicals to
reduce the Murex dye to a water-soluble form so that the dye can adhere to the wool. After
the dye has been reduced, the debromination is effectuated by exposing the dye to either a
UV emitting light or to sunlight for over an hour. In antiquity, a more natural process was
required to the reduce the dye to a water-soluble form. Several attempts were made to
recreate this process, but it is likely that the ancients utilized the bacteria found in the snail
itself to ferment the dyestuff and ready it for dyeing. [55]See the history and citations in, Zvi
Koren, “The First Optimal All-Murex All-Natural Purple Dyeing in the Eastern Mediterranean in
a Millennium and a Half”, Dyes in History and Archaeology (20), … Continue reading

Zvi Koren, the director of The Edelstein Center for the Analysis of Ancient Artifacts, argues
that when using the natural fermentation process, it would not have been possible to create
a blue dye since this particular fermentation has to be done in an anaerobic environment.
Leaving the soluble dye exposed to the sun for considerable time by removing the lid would
have caused the dye to return it its insoluble form because of the exposure to oxygen. He
argues that the other attempts at natural dyeing were only able to succeed because they
used a glass beaker that was sealed and exposed the dye to light without opening it. In
ancient times, such glass would not have been used since the dye required large quantities
and was heated on a fire for days or weeks. [56]Zvi Koren, “New Chemical Insights into the
Ancient Molluskan Purple Dyeing Process”, Archaeological Chemistry VIII, ed. R. A. Armitage
& J. H. Burton, ACS Symposium Series 1147, American … Continue reading The Talmud itself
says that the process involved putting the dyestuff into a cauldron and heating it.
[57]
Menahot ibid

The color of tekhelet might be possible to discern from a comment by Epiphanius of Salamis,
one of the church fathers who lived during the 4th century in Israel when tekhelet was still
found. Epiphanius, commenting on a passage in Matthew in which Jesus criticizes the
Pharisees for making “their phylacteries wide and their craspeda long” [58]Matthew 23:5.
Craspeda appears in the Greek version. ; craspeda being the Aramaic word for Tzitzit.
Epiphanius explains that the Greek word phylacteries does not refer to amulets like many
believe, but to “purple woven”, which were purple strips woven into clothes in the Greek
period. [59]The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis: Book I (Sects 1-46), tran. Frank Williams,
Brill (2009), Ch. 15 1.4, p. 41-42 The strips to which Epiphanius refers are called clavi. These
were strips that the Greeks and Romans used to put on their himations which denoted the
rank and prestige of the wearer. It has been proposed that that these clavi are actually the
source for the black strips that Ashkenazic Jews print on their tallit and that the tallit itself
was originally a himation which the Jews living in lands of predominant Greek culture wore.
[60]
See Erwin Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period. Volume Nine:
Symbolism in the Dura Synagogue, p. 171 -174. For clavi as the source of the black strips on
the tallit see Daniel … Continue reading Epiphanius explains that the Pharisees were being
haughty by wearing wide clavi which denote a high rank and making their tzitzit long
(presumably because the more purple fabric was used, the greater the cost). The very fact
that he mentions both together seems to indicate they are of the same color, which he calls
purple. Historically clavi, of which there are many existent samples, are purple, thus implying
that tekhelet is purple.

Conclusion

Tekhelet was lost over one thousand years ago. Together with the loss of tekhelet we, as a
people, also lost our mimetic tradition of what tekhelet was. Through our written records we
preserved many details of what tekhelet is, where it comes from, and what it means to us,
but piecing together all of these details after a thousand years in a world vastly changed is
tricky business.

In this essay, I showed that what was assumed to be clear Talmudic descriptions of the color
hue tekhelet are not necessarily so. Color in the ancient world meant something different
than what it means in our modern western society. I attempted to demonstrate that the sea,
sky, the lapis lazuli stone, all of which are likened to tekhelet, and even the Murex dye itself,
were all chiefly known in the ancient world for their unique shine and glimmer and only
secondarily for their hue. When the ancients speak of colors sometimes they intend to
convey not how it is visually perceived but how the color is apprehended in the mind and
what it represents.

Accordingly, I suggest that if we are to attempt to recreate the biblical tekhelet we should
take the ancient biblical translations of tekhelet more seriously, since they are a translation
and not a description, and they all unanimously declare tekhelet as violet. I also attempted to
show that other proofs identifying tekhelet as blue are unconvincing and that there are
several reasons why tekhelet couldn’t be blue.