Reply To: Techeiles 🔵❎🐌☑️🐟

1)The Murex Trunculus is not rare and hard to aqcuire; it is expensive simply because of the minute amount of dye contained within each one. Thus it does fit into Rashi’s pshat.

2)Tosafos says that the chilazon flops on the ground hastening it’s death. I don’t know of any snail that does this.

3)The Gemara warned against kala ilan. Kala Ilan has the same chemical formula as the Murex Trunculus dye. It is plausible that the Murex Trunculus dye is included in the warning against kala ilan, considering that both dyes are the same thing just one comes from a plant and one comes from an animal.

4)The Ya’avetz never saw Pliny nor did he ever see a “real” chilazon so when he says that Pliny was talking aboout techeiles, that is an assumption not a halachic psak.

5)According to Rav Shlomo Miller’s pshat in Reb Chaim we would not apply the rule of safek d’oraisa l’chumra in a situation where acting l’chumra does not resolve anything. In the case of Lulav and shofar (which are brought as kashyas on Reb Chaim) by acting l’chumra there is nothing more that can be done hence we say safek d’oraisa l’chumra. But in our case, even after you don your Murex Trunculus dyed techeiles the safek has not been resolved, and there is still more that can be done namely using any of the other suggested possibilities(I know of two others). And obviously you can’t wear three different pairs of tzitzis because then two of them will vadai not be techeiles. Therefore in our case we would not say safek d’oraisa l’chumra.