Ep. 55: Techeiles: The History of the Mysterious Blue Dye and its Fringe Benefits

The word “Techeiles” is mentioned dozens of times in the Torah, and is a subject that appears in many places in the Talmud and associated literature. Techeiles is both a color and a material, namely wool dyed with this color, but to fulfill the Torah’s requirement for this particular color it can only be derived from the blood of a mysterious aquatic creature called a chilazon. The identity of the chilazon and the process of extracting and priming the dye for Techeiles was lost for about 1500 years. In the past 150 years, the subject of Techeiles had a resurgence and has aroused much interest and debate due to several claims of the rediscovery of the chilazon and the process of converting it into Techeiles. What is Techeiles, why is it relevant, and what do we know about its alleged rediscovery?

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