Daily Talk

The Rebellion of Blue Thread

The Rambam makes you do something staggering. He says you can wear tzitzit without the most sacred part of it—without techelet, the blue thread that the entire mitzvah is built around—and you have fulfilled the obligation completely. Wait. Blue is the entire point. The Talmud teaches that techelet exists to remind us of the sky, which reminds us of the Throne of Glory. We're commanded to gaze at it and remember all of God's commandments. And yet the Rambam says: no techelet? Fine. White strands alone will do. This seems backwards. If the crown jewel is missing, how is the mitzvah whole? This question opens a door to understanding something profound about how Judaism itself works.