Our Gemara on amud beis discusses the halachic status of changes in appearance, such as dyes.  This is known as חֲזוּתָא מִילְּתָא “A surface appearance has its own independent significance”. There are numerous halachic implications discussed in the poskim such as if the dye is stolen and is on an object, is returning the object like returning the dye?  Some even relate this discussion to if it is permissible to dye a lulav or schach green, or is the dye considered an alien object, and therefore a separation which interferes with the mitzvah.

 

There is a well-known principle that when it comes to sacred objects there is a higher standard. Thus while one may not consume pork, one indeed may use a pork derivative to dye their shoes. However, one is not allowed to use unkosher animal products in the manufacture of tefillin, mezuzos and a sefer Torah (Shulchan Aruch OC 32:12).  This leads to a discussion of how could techeles (the blue dye made from a chilazon) be used for the sacramental objects of the Mishkan, when it seems to be some kind of non-kosher sea urchin or snail?  (See Chida Kedoshim and Noda Beyehuda (II:3)).  One of the answers given is that we see from here that dye on the surface has no independent significance and therefore does not really exist.

 

Regardless of the halachic technicalities, one must wonder why would the Torah utilize a non-kosher animal for such sacred practices?  The blue dye, which must have been a deep and rich color, symbolically was supposed to remind one of the Divine Throne (Menachos 43b).  On a metaphysical level we simply cannot dismiss the significance of this.   

 

I would like to suggest a provocative idea, supported by sources which I will cite: Really, there is no such thing as something impure or non-kosher. It is all a matter of timing and place.  There is a Midrashic tradition that in the Messianic future, swine will be permitted to eat (see Ritva Kiddushin 49b, Midrash Tehilim 146, Ohr HaChayyim Vayikra 11:7, seemingly based on Koheles Rabbah 1:9 and Vayikra Rabbah 1:3).

 

Perhaps not coincidentally, our Gemara on amud aleph references the prohibition of Arlah, that is the ruke that first three years of a fruit bearing tree is taboo, and the fourth year is consecrated.  

 

Mei Hashiloach (Kedoshim) quotes the following Midrash (Vayikra Rabbah 25:2): “Adam could not wait for just one hour (to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil), yet your children wait for the Arlah fruit for three years.” He explains that all the forbidden foods are only considered as foods whose time is not yet proper to eat. This means that a person cannot accept them in this current state, but at their root, they also have sanctity since they were created by the Almighty. As stated in Niddah (61a), "Commandments are nullified in the future”  What is forbidden now because it is the wrong time. If Adam had waited, it would have been permissible for him to eat. This is as we have mentioned, for the essence of the prohibition is in that it occludes the heart of man and renders his mind and thoughts tied up, preventing him from returning to the Almighty as he did before consuming it. However, if he had waited, the Almighty would have granted him a broad understanding, allowing him to accept this matter without causing loss of connection to the Creator.

 

The Chilazon is not merely a forbidden material technically allowed in the Mishkan. Rather, it is an intrinsically valued material, which for some reason, at our point in time must be forbidden to us.

 

We can take this idea about techeles even further.  There is a famous Talmudic story (Menachos 44a) which describes a rabbi who was saved from sin due to his tzitzis:

 

There was an incident involving a certain man who was diligent about the mitzva of ritual fringes. This man heard that there was a prostitute in one of the cities overseas who took four hundred gold coins as her payment. He sent her four hundred gold coins and fixed a time to meet with her. 

 

When his time came, he came and sat at the entrance to her house. The maidservant of that prostitute entered and said to her: That man who sent you four hundred gold coins came and sat at the entrance. She said: Let him enter. He entered. She arranged seven beds for him, six of silver and one of gold. Between each and every one of them there was a ladder made of silver, and the top bed was the one that was made of gold. She went up and sat naked on the top bed, and he too went up in order to sit naked facing her. In the meantime, his four ritual fringes came and slapped him on his face. He dropped down and sat himself on the ground, and she also dropped down and sat on the ground. 

 

She said to him: I take an oath by the gappa of Rome that I will not allow you to go until you tell me what defect you saw in me. He said to her: I take an oath by the Temple service that I never saw a woman as beautiful as you. But there is one mitzvah that the Lord, our God, commanded us, and its name is ritual fringes, and in the passage where it is commanded, it is written twice: “I am the Lord your God” (Numbers 15:41). The doubling of this phrase indicates: I am the one who will punish those who transgress My mitzvot, and I am the one who will reward those who fulfill them. Now, said the man, the four sets of ritual fringes appeared to me as if they were four witnesses who will testify against me. She said to him: I will not allow you to go until you tell me: What is your name, and what is the name of your city, and what is the name of your teacher, and what is the name of the study hall in which you studied Torah? He wrote the information and placed it in her hand. She arose and divided all of her property, giving one-third as a bribe to the government, one-third to the poor, and she took one-third with her in her possession, in addition to those beds of gold and silver. 

 

She came to the study hall of Rabbi Ḥiyya and said to him: My teacher, instruct your students concerning me and have them make me a convert. Rabbi Ḥiyya said to her: My daughter, perhaps you set your sights on one of the students and that is why you want to convert? She took the note the student had given her from her hand and gave it to Rabbi Ḥiyya. He said to her: Go take possession of your purchase. 

 

Those beds that she had arranged for him in a prohibited fashion, she now arranged for him in a permitted fashion. The Gemara completes its point about the reward of mitzvot and points out how this story illustrates the concept: This is the reward given to him in this world, and with regard to the World-to-Come, I do not know how much reward he will be given.

 

Aside from the obvious lessons in this story, I suggest that there was a hint of the power of techeles, reminding this man that what is forbidden might eventually become permitted, in the right way at the right time, just as indeed occurred for him.