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The Comprehensive Tekhelet Tying Show sidebar

Guide
Tekhelet Tying FAQ
(1)           How many strings of tekhelet per corner are
to be used?
(a)    According to Tosafot (and Rashi), of the four strings placed on a corner, two
are to be blue and two are to be white (resulting in four blue and four white strings
when the strings are folded through the corner hole).

Rabeinu Tam – 2 long strings folded in half yields 4 strings after being tied

(b)    According to the Rambam, of the four strings placed on a corner, only one
half of one string is to be blue and the remaining three and a half strings are to be
white (resulting in one blue and seven white strings when the strings are folded
through the corner hole).

1 string folded in 1/2 yields only one string out of 8 as Tekhelet

(c)    The Raavad takes issue with this and holds that of the four strings placed on
a corner, one is to be blue and three are to be white (resulting in two blue and six

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white strings when the strings are folded through the corner hole).

1 string folded in 2 yields 2 string out of 8 as Tekhelet

 
Does One Opinion Prevent Ful llment Of The Mitzvah
According To The Other
Now given that Tosafot demands two full strings of tekhelet, by putting on less (as
per Rambam orRaavad), Tosafot would hold that one did not ful ll the mitzvah of
tekhelet.  On the other hand, the Rambam seems to be of the opinion that if there
are non-white strings in the core of the tzitzit (as per Raavad or Tosafot) then one
has not ful lled the mitzvah of white (according to speci c reading of the Rambam
– www.tekhelet.com/pdf/ra02.pdf).

There are a number of ways to deal with this makhloket.  The conservative

approach would be to follow the Rambam.  For if he is wrong then one still ful lls
the mitzvah of tzitzit but is just lacking in completing tekhelet; however, if he is
right and one put more than half a string of tekhelet, one may not ful ll the mitzvah
of tzitzit (as mentioned above).  Alternatively, one can follow his tradition, which is
what Rav Schachter of YU suggests in his article on the subject  Tekhelet:
Renaissance of a Mitzvah.  He explains that the vast majority of
Ashkenazi poskim hold like Tosafot and thus Ashkenazim should use two full blue
strings per corner.  Nevertheless, the Vilna Gaon holds like the Raavad and this
opinion has provided support for Ashkenazim to wear one blue string on each
corner.

And nally, many Ashkenazim nonetheless follow the Rambam due to the logic
behind his reasoning (see R. Rock, www.tekhelet.com/pdf/rak.pdf, and
R. Rappaport,www.tekhelet.com/pdf/ra02.pdf).  Furthermore R.
Dov Lior (Kiryat Arba) and R. Rabinovitch (Maale Adumim) explain that when there
is not a mesorah of a psak then we should follow the Rambam.

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What is the most popular “number of strings”

method: Rambam, Raavad,Tosafot?
According to our sales gures averaged over the past twelve months: 25% wear
Rambam; 73% wear Raavad; 2% wear Tosafot.  (The majority gure for Raavad is in
part due to the fact that this is the Amuta’s “default”.  The small percentage
of Tosafot sets could in part be due to the fact that they cost twice as much as the
other methods)

(2)           According to which method is one to tie?

This makhloket is far less charged than that of how many strings of tekhelet to use
[see FAQ (1)] because all the various methods ful ll the biblical requirements of a)
a kesher elyon – upper knot and  b) one “chulya” of three winds.

The

A chulya of 3 wrappings

Upper knot – kesher elyon

reason for all the various tying methods is due to the paucity of tying instruction in
the Gemara.  There are only about ve statements which describe speci cally how
to tie – and all of the methods answer to these descriptions (see  guide to
tying).  R. H. Schachter holds that everyone (Ashkenazim and Sefaradim) should
tie according to the Rambam because he has the oldest tradition.  Personally, I
believe in consistency of method (i.e., tying method should match number of blue
strings), for the method of tying gives expression to the logic behind the number of
strings of tekhelet used.  For example, the Rambam has all the winds blue because
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he held that the blue string played the functional role of wrapping.  Tosafot, on the
other hand, held that the blue and white were two equal parts of the one mitzvah
and were to be expressed equally – thus 2 strings of blue and 2 strings of white,
and thus the wrappings are basically distributed equally between blue and white.

(3)           Which tying method is preferred for

Ashkenazim?
If you have Tosafot strings (i.e., 2 blue, 2 white) you should tie like Tosafot.  If you
have the Raavad strings (i.e., 1 blue, three white) you can tie like the Vilna Gaon, or
like the Raavad, or like the Sefer HaHinuch (R. Tavger’s preference).

Opinion of the Chinuch

R. Shachter holds that Ashkenaimshould use two full strings (like Tosafot) and tie

according to the his combined methodology (see
Shachter’s method here).  Though it should be noted that R. Dov Lior issued a
written psak stating that both Ashkenazim and Sefaradim should use the method
of the Rambam (for number of strings and tying method shown here).

(4)           Which tying method is preferred

for Sefaradim?
R. Dov Lior gave a written psak that one should tie according to the Rambam, both
for Ashkenazim and Sefaradim

Opinion of the Rambam

 
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(5)           Is one tie method preferred for
a Talit Katan and different one for a Talit Gadol?
There is no preference of tying method with respect to the type of garment.  I have
seen people tie different garments with different methods; I have even seen
someone tie a different method on each corner of the same garment.  I prefer
consistency and so I would select one method for all garments.

(6)           I currently tie white tzitzit using the

“7,8,11,13” method, how should I tie tekhelet?
The way one ties tekhelet has really nothing to do with the way one ties
white.  There are many different ways to tie white only strings, and they are all
essentially based on the fact that tekhelet was lost.  The Gemara provides a
number of instructions on how to tie with tekhelet, and from these few remarks,
the poskim throughout the generations have derived various methods our  guide to
tying.  They all ful ll the words of the Gemara and they all ful ll the mitzvah as
required by the Torah.  If you would like to stay as close to the common white
method (7,8,11,13), I would suggest using the method of the Radzyner/Chabad.

(7)           Is there an “Arizal” method for tying tekhelet?

The Arizal provided a method for tying white strings which is the basis for the
popular “7,8,11,13” method of tying white strings.  He also mentions that there are
“chulyot”, upon which the BaalHaTanya derives the method of grouping the
7,8,11,13 wraps in to sets of three winds.  TheRadzyner Rebbi, adopted this
method when using tekhelet, by requiring that one make the rst wind and the last
wind white and all the rest blue (as per one reading of the Gemara inMenachot). 
As such, it can be said that the “Arizal” method (as interpreted by the
Baal Hatanyaand the Radzyner) is as shown in my diagram entitled
“Radzyn/Chabad“.

Opinion of the Ari used by Radzyn- similar in the number of wraps and knots

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(8)           How do you divide 7, 8, 11, 13 wraps into
groups of 3?
The method of tying 7,8,11,13 is one which was introduced after the loss of
tekhelet (i.e., there is no mention of it in the Gemara).  Many “reminders” were
introduced into tying tzitzit to compensate for the lack of tekhelet – what
the Ramban calls “the essential reminder”.  So for example, we have the 5 knots,
which is something introduced by the Midrash Tanhuma (closed circa 750 BCE –
approximately 200 years after the redaction of the Gemara which makes no
mention of 5 knots).  This Midrash is brought by Rashi on the Humash where he
explains that 5 knots, along with the 8 strings and the 600 gematria value of the
word “tzitzit” serves as a reminder of the 613 mitzvot (see also Tosafot [Men. 39a,
lo]).  (The Radvaz [6:2] explains the 5 knots along with the four strings add to 13,
which is gematria “echad”). Again this is something necessary when one doesn’t
have the color of God’s throne (kisa hakavod) – though others hold they are of
necessity even with tekhelet

( SEE PICTURES ABOVE)

(see Radzyner, Sifrei HaTekhelet, Ptil Tekhelet, pp. 130-2).  A similar argument can

be made for the method of winding.  The Gemara states that one must
make chulyot (groupings) of 3 winds each; and that one should make between 7
and 13 chulyot.  R. H. Schachter writes that the method of tying 7,8,11,13 was
merely a reminder of how we used to tie when we had tekhelet.  Also interesting to
note is that if one ties according to the Gemara – 13 chulyot of 3 winds each – one
arrives at 39 windings in total, precisely the same as tying 7+8+11+13 (=39).

The Radzyner believed that the requirement for 5 knots was of ancient origin as is

the requirement to wrap chulyot of three winds.  As such, he (as well as the
Baal HaTanya) integrated the two requirements which he states should be done
even without tekhelet.  What they did was to loop the shamash around (ideally)
every three winds, thus demarcating “chulyot”.  Of course one runs into a problem
when needing to tie a knot after 7 winds (seven not being evenly divisible by 3). 
Consequently the method requires one to break up the groupings of three winds
when going around one of the 5 knots.  (For simplicity’s sake we will discount the

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issue of wrapping the whiteshamash for the moment, which will be discussed in

the next paragraph).  As such, you start off with a double knot, you wrap 3 winds
and loop the shamash [1st chulya], then wrap another 3 winds and loop
the shamash [2nd chulya], then wrap 1 wind [to complete the requisite 7 winds]
and tie a double knot.  Now you wrap 2 winds [to complete the “3rd” chulya that
was started with the 1 wind before the double knot].  This continues for the reset
of the windings, breaking up the triplets around the double knots (as shown in the
“Radzyn/Chabad” diagram).

Another idiosyncrasy of the method is the use of white for the initial and nal
windings.  The Gemara states that one is to begin with white and end with white. 
This has been variously interpreted as can be seen from all the differing methods
of tying.  The Radzyner adopted the Rambam’s approach which calls for all the
windings to be tekhelet except for the very rst and very last winding.  Thus, after
the initial double knot, one make a single wind of white, looping this
white shamash though itself.  Then two winds of blue are made wrapping the
blue shamashthrough the loops.  These three winds together are considered the
rst “chulya”.  (See the “Radzyn/Chabad” diagram for details).

Ready to ful l the mitzvah of tekhelet?

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Technical Tying Complications
(9)           Why does a chulya look like two winds with a
half on the top and a half on the bottom?

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Two full winds and one half at the top and one half at the bottom is the way three
full winds will look – the alternative is to have 3 full winds with halves at the
bottom and top which would make a total of 4 winds.

The truth is that it is very di cult to get precisely three full winds when coming out
of a double knot or going into a double knot.  However, it is my opinion that,
the Gemara’s requirement that achulya be 3 winds is a directive for action to be
taken by the person wrapping and not necessarily a statement on how the nal
product is to appear.  That is to say, the tier is required to wrap
the shamash around the core strings three times, this may however result in
a chulya looking like two-and-a-half wraps or even three-and-a-half, depending on
where the string started or ended.  My understanding is based on the words of the
Gemara (Men. 39a) which are as follows: “And what is the measurement of
a chulya? We learned in a Braita, Rebbe says so that you wind once, then again,
and a third time.”   Note that Rebbe doesn’t say – “so that you have three winds”,
but rather directs the action of the tier “you wind…”.  Furthermore, the point is
emphasized by the laborious wording “wind once, and again, and a third time”,
instead of simply saying “wind three times.”

(10)       What if a chulya looks like one full wind with a

half on the top and a half on the bottom?
In the case where you have only one full wind with a half at the top and a half at the
bottom – thus making a total of two full winds, this would be not make a
full chulya (which according to the Gemara is 3 full winds).  Nevertheless it is not
critical to retie for a number of reasons:

(a)    According to the Gemara, to ful ll the biblical obligation of tzitzit (i.e., to be

“yotzei de’orayta) only one chulya of three winds is required – out of 13 chulyot you
will obviously have more than three winds in the total.

(b)    The braita states that the number of full chulyot is to be between 7 and

13.  This is considered a Rabbinic dictum for which you most likely ful ll the
minimum requirement of 7 full chulyot (out of the total 13 tied).

If either (a) or (b) is not ful lled, then you should retie your chulyot.

(11)       Is there a problem if the windings of

a chulya are not tightly abutting each other?
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There is no stated requirement on how tight the winds within a chulya must

be.  The only requirement is that one be able to distinguish between
one chulya and the next.  When using any of the methods which alternate colors
between chulyot (Gr”a, Hinuch, Tosafot, Amram Gaon), they are easily identi ed
because they alternate between white chulyot and blue chulyot.  For methods that
use only blue chulyot (Rambam, Radzyn) this is more problematic, however, given
that eachchulya is demarcated or knotted in itself, does provide some distinction.

(12)       How do you explain R. Schachter’s method?

R. Schachter holds that Ashkenazim should follow Tosafot with regard to
the Tosafot opinion of the number of strings – i.e., Ashkenazim, according to
R. Schachter, should use two blue and two white strings on each corner.  However,
when discussing the method of tying, he believes that everyone (Ashkenazim
and Sefaradim alike) should use the method put forth by the Rambam. Thus,
confusion number one is due to the fact that R. Schachter’s method is really the
combination of two methods for two separate issues concerning the one mitzvah
of tzitzit – i.e., number of strings like Tosafot, method of tying like Rambam.

Confusion number two arises from R. Schachter’s reading of the Rambam as

opposed to the tradition the Yemenites (Teimanim) carry.  The Rambam explains,
in very general terms, to make a hulya of three wraps, make a knot, give some
distance and make the next hulya, etc. (Hil. Tzitz. 1:7 – see here).  The Yemenites
have a tradition for tying according to the Rambam which they have preserved for
centuries, for they have used it even for tying only white (as prescribed by the
Rambam) – this method is shown in my diagram for the Rambam
(see here).  R. Schachter, on the other hand, read the Rambam and said, “‘knot’, the
simplest knot I know is a double knot, and that also produces the space
between hulyot de ned by the Rambam” – this I know from personal
conversations between R. Schachter and members of our Amuta (organization).

If you would like to follow R. Schachter I suggest you follow the diagram as I show
it here.
 

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Ptil Tekhelet was founded in 1991 and is a global provider of Tekhelet strings. It
promotes educational activities and publications relating to all aspects of the
mitzvah of Tekhelet.

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