Q&A: Inquiry and Investigation to Understand the Halakha Given to Moses at Sinai Regarding the Black Color of Tefillin
Inquiry and Investigation to Understand the Halakha Given to Moses at Sinai Regarding the Black Color of Tefillin
Question
Hello Rabbi Michi, may his glory be exalted and may his light shine,
Question:
In one place you wrote to me that there is a difference between the blue dye added to the tzitzit as a separate component, which is not a halakha given to Moses at Sinai, and regarding the color of tefillin as black you said that it is a halakha given to Moses at Sinai because it is not a separate component, and therefore it is a halakha given to Moses at Sinai.
So I wanted to understand: why should it make any difference to the Giver of the Torah whether it is a separate component or not?
Why should it make any difference to the Giver of the Torah whether this is a halakha given to Moses at Sinai or part of the Written Torah, which was also given from Heaven?
Broadly speaking, I am asking: why are there laws given to Moses at Sinai that are outside both the Oral Torah and the Written Torah? (Why is that good? Why separate them? What possible harm or benefit is there…)
Thank you
Answer
You are asking about distinctions that are the bread and butter of learning. By the same token, you could ask what the difference is between a law pertaining to the object and a law pertaining to the person. Why distinguish between an action and a result, or between a sign and a cause? These are different laws that demand different things of us, and that is that.
Once you explain to me why we need tzitzit at all and why we make it specifically this way, I can try to think about why it is important to the Holy One, blessed be He, that the blue dye is a separate component and not just a detail within tzitzit. And about this our sages already said: what does the Holy One, blessed be He, care whether one slaughters from the neck or from the nape?
Before you ask me why some things were given in the Written Torah and some were given orally, ask why the Torah was given at all, whether written or oral.
In short, you are asking me about level D when we do not even understand level A. Strange.
By the way, it is preferable to post such a question as a continuation of the thread it relates to. If you put in a link here, I will do it myself.