 Based on a very famous passage in the book of Dvarim, Deuteronomy chapter 6 verses 4 through 9, Jews are commanded to proclaim God's oneness each morning and each evening. And our sages formalized this by reading this very passage, Deuteronomy chapter 6 verses 4 through 9, beginning with Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu Adonaiachad, Hero Israel, Hashem is our God, Hashem is one, and then including two other Biblical passages, Deuteronomy chapter 11 verses 13 to 21 and Numbers chapter 15 verses 37 to 41, which I'm now going to try to read. Hashem said to Moses saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them that they shall make themselves tzitzit on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and they shall place upon the tzitzit of each corner a thread of techelet. It shall constitute tzitzit for you that you may see it and remember all the commandments of Hashem and perform them and not explore and go astray after your heart and after your eyes, after which you stray so that you may remember and perform all of my commandments and be holy to your God, I am Hashem your God who has removed you from the land of Egypt to be a God to you, I am Hashem your God. Here we learn that tzitzit, ritual fringes, must be attached to the corners of our garments. The scriptures don't articulate exactly what these fringes are or how to make them, and we find this information in our oral Torah. A talit is a large shawl with tzitzit tied to the corners and it's worn during our morning prayer services. Now most modern clothing does not have four corners. So the custom developed to wear a pancho shaped small garment each day either beneath our shirts or some wear them on top of our shirts in order to be able to have tzitzit attached to the corners of this small garment. We call this garment a talit katan, a small talit. Now the Torah describes several ideas associated with these tzitzit, these fringes. Number one, that we should be sanctified to God. This special clothing distinguishes the wearer as a member of God's kingdom of priests and a holy nation, which is how God describes the Jewish people. Secondly, by looking at the tzitzit we are told that we will keep focused on God and prevent our hearts and our eyes from straying to inappropriate places. Number three, looking at tzitzit will remind us of God's commandments that we should fulfill them. Number four, the tzitzit are constructed with eight strings at each corner and five knots. Now eight and five, as you all know, is thirteen. Thirteen is a very special number. The Hebrew word echad, one, the letters in the word echad, alef, chet, and dalit are one, eight, and four, which adds up to thirteen. So thirteen equals the number echad, one, which is the oneness of God, the unity of God. Also thirteen is the numerical value of the word ahava, love. Ahava is spelled alef, hey, bet, hey, one, five, two, and five, which is thirteen, because you're supposed to love Hashem, you're supposed to love God. Also there are thirteen attributes of mercy in the Torah that describe God's essence, the way God relates to the world with love and with loving kindness and with mercy. And also the number thirteen, if you add it to the numerical value of the word tzitzit itself, tzitzit, when you add up the letters equals six hundred. So six hundred plus the thirteen of the strings and the knots is six hundred and thirteen, which are traditionally the number of commandments in the Torah. Now the Torah speaks of at least one of these strings being of techelet, which is a bluish color that resembles, according to our sages, the color of the sea, which resembles the color of the sky, which resembles the color of the divine throne. So therefore, by looking at these tzitzit, we are reminded of God and to stay loyal to His commandments and not to stray away from Him. Now techelet was produced from an aquatic creature that was known as the chelazon. It had a shell and it was found off the coast of northern Israel near Lebanon. Now back then, in ancient days, purple and blue dyes were prized by royalty and their production came under Roman imperial control about 2,000 years ago. And what happened once the Romans took control of the production of these dyes, Jewish production of techelet was driven underground and unfortunately, between the seventh and eighth centuries of the common era, the dying process for producing this techelet was eventually forgotten, largely due to the destabilization of Jewish life in Israel at the time, resulting from Byzantine and Islamic invasion. Eventually, only the white strings were used for people that wear tzitzit. Fast forward a few generations. In the year 1616, a scientist named Fabius Columna identified the use of a snail known as the murex trunculus in the ancient dying processes. And in 1858, a French zoologist, Henri Lacase Duthier, I'm not sure I pronounced his name properly, discovered this Mediterranean mollusk produced purple-blue dyes. This mollusk called the murex trunculus. And he believed that this snail was the source of the biblical techelet, the biblical color blue. In the late 1880s, Rabbi Gershen Henech Liner, who is the Radzina Rebbe, was seeking to restore the use of techelet. And he went in search of the chelazon. His studies took him to Italy. He was not aware of the research done by Lacase Duthier. So he ended up spending a year in Naples, Italy, at their extensive aquariums there. And he became convinced that the squid-like cuttlefish fit the rabbinic criteria for the chelazon. The problem with his cuttlefish was that its ink was black and not blue. So Rabbi Liner sought the help of an Italian chemist who showed how the black ink could be turned into blue. And finally satisfied, he returned to Poland. He published a booklet about his discovery of the chelazon. And he began producing techelet. And soon thousands of his chassidim, as well as many Breslov chassidim as well, began wearing tzitzit with Rabbi Liner's techelet. Most Torah authorities at the time didn't accept his findings. And Rabbi Liner ended up publishing two books to defend his research. In 1913, the chief rabbi of Ireland, Rabbi Isaac Herzog, who would later become the second chief rabbi of the State of Israel, wrote a doctoral dissertation on of all topics Biblical dyes. And he had the radzin techelet analyzed and discovered to his surprise that the color did not come from the cuttlefish itself. But Rabbi Herzog discovered that the blue color that was produced was a result of the non-organic ingredients that were added to the cuttlefish during the dyeing process. And therefore the fish that Rabbi Liner discovered had nothing to do with the blue color. And so Rabbi Herzog concluded that this cuttlefish was not the authentic chelazon, and therefore his techelet was also not authentic. Now Rabbi Herzog was familiar with the research of Lecaze Duthier, and he also believed that the murex trunculus could be the chelazon, but he had several reservations. The main one he had was that this snail produces a purple blue dye, and not a purely blue one. And that is what basically held him back from giving his imprimatur to this snail to be used for techelet. However, research that was done later on revealed that when this dye of the murex was exposed to sunlight, which by the way in the ancient Middle East in the land of Israel there was plenty of, it would turn from purple to blue. And that solved Rabbi Herzog's problem of the color of the dye. Further research over the next decades revealed other reasons for identifying the murex trunculus as the source for techelus. I'll just share a few of these. Number one, this particular snail, the murex, is found in the same area that historical sources give for the production of techelus in biblical and rabbinic times off the coast of northern Israel near Lebanon. And it's interesting that archaeologists working in this area have found mounds, piles of murex shells dating to the biblical period that were broken. The snails are broken in the very same place that was necessary to obtain the dye from these snails. Number two, the blue dye that's produced from the murex trunculus has the same molecular composition as the indigo plant. Now the Talmud reports that the Kala Ilan, the indigo plant, was actually used by counterfeiters back then to forge genuine or actually non-genuine techelus because the color was so similar. You have to remember that techelus was a very expensive dye and so there was a large business in counterfeiting fake techelus. And so the fact is that since we see that the Kala Ilan, the indigo plant, was used to forge genuine techelus because the color was so similar and we see that the molecular structure of the indigo plant is the same as the murex trunculus. It helps us to identify the murex as the source of techelus. And number three, the Talmud says that techelus is a very fast dye that doesn't fade easily. And this is the case with the techelus that's produced from the murex. And marine biological surveys today have revealed that actually the only snails in the Mediterranean area that produce stable dyes are from the murex family. However, even today when this new techelus is beginning to gain adherence, it is far from being a settled issue and many rabbinic authorities still have deep reservations about whether we should be using the techelus from the murex. Now it's clear that there are certainly messianic implications for the revival of techelus. The Kabbalists, the Nicobolim teach that techelus represents God's revealed presence that can be clearly felt in the world. The truth is that during our long exile, God's presence is more concealed so that the techelus appropriately fell out of use with the eclipsing of God's presence, the techelus which represents His revealed presence fell out of use. But now that we have that the Jewish people has now a growing presence in the land of Israel, the biblical land of Israel and God's presence is becoming more revealed there, it seems appropriate that the techelus is coming back now prior to the messianic age. And number two, the availability of techelus allows for the re-establishment of our Holy Temple in Jerusalem by facilitating the making of the Big Day Kachunah, the priestly clothing which required this color to techelus. And so I pray that we should see the coming of the messiah, the rebuilding of the temple speedily in our days.