Talmudic Source
The Talmud teaches that the source for the blue dye is a marine creature known as the khillazon (Hebrew: חילזון), translated as "snail" in Modern Hebrew. The Talmud also mentions a counterfeit dye from a plant called Kela-Ilan, known as Indigofera tinctoria, the ubiquitous source of blue dye in the ancient world. The Talmud explains that it is absolutely forbidden to use this counterfeit dye intentionally (i.e., if one was duped, the strings are still kosher, however they simply do not fulfill the religious requirement for tekhelet strings). The Tosefta explains that Kela Ilan is not the only invalid dye source. In fact, everything but the khillazon is unacceptable for making the blue dye.
Read more about this topic: Tekhelet
Famous quotes containing the word source:
“Man is a stream whose source is hidden. Our being is descending into us from we know not whence. The most exact calculator has no prescience that somewhat incalculable may not balk the very next moment. I am constrained every moment to acknowledge a higher origin for events than the will I call mine.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)