A letter about the discovery of techeilet written by Rabbi Gershon Chanoch Leiner of Radzin.
A very rare letter from Rabbi Gershon Chanoch Leiner of Radzin in 1890 will be up for sale at the upcoming Winner’s Auctions “One Hundredth Sale.” The letter is handwritten with two added lines in the Rebbe’s hand and with his signature and has a start price of $30,000.
The letter discusses the Radziner Rebbe’s monumental quest to reinstitute the use of Techeillet on tzitzis strings. It was written in answer to questions he received from Rabbi Avraham Hoffenberg, av”d of Vaski, author of Kol BeRama and Ivkei Bracha. Interestingly, Rabbi Hoffenberg was a Litvish Rav – a student of Rabbi Eliezer of Telz, Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berliner and Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik – but he seems to be very interested in buying this techeilet from the Radziner Rebbe.
The Radziner Rebbe was a magnificent Torah figure with a wide range of special interests. His father was Rabbi Yaakov of Izhbitza and he learned by his grandfather, Rabbi Mordechai Yosef Leiner. In 1878, he succeeded his father as Admor of Izhbitza and thousands of chassidim flocked to him.
His first work, Sidrei Taharot, created a great impression, almost unparalleled in the world of rabbinic literature. His quest to reinstitute the use of Techeilet also created a storm in the rabbinic world.
Techeilet is made from the blood of snails, but the identification of the snail and the way extract the techeilet was lost during the time of the Geonim. First the Radziner Rebbe discussed the halachic impetus to reinstitute Techeilet. Then he travelled to Italy, the islands in the area and an underwater observatory in Naples until he identified the techeilet snail.
On his return, he performed chemical experiments until he succeeded in extracting blue blood from these snails. The first batch of techeilet that he prepared in 1889 was an absolute success. Twelve-thousand of his chassidim colored their tzitzit during Chanuka of that year. The color and the secret of the revelation was kept in a safe in a bank in Warsaw and passed down through the Radzin dynasty.
The Radziner Rebbe published three books on the topic of techeilet. His book Shefunei Temunei Chol explains the fundamental concepts of the techeilet, his second book, Petil Techeilet, reports about his scientific and chemical experiments to extract techeilet and his third book, Ein Hatechelet, responds to his opponents’ claims against the validity of his techeilet.
In the upcoming, June 20 th Judaica auction Winner’s is auctioning rare and special items in honor of their 100 th Sale, including a manuscript written by the Chasam Sofer; halachic response from the patriarch of the Abuchatzeira family – Rabbi Yaakov Abuchatzeira; letters from the Halberstam family and the Chernobyl dynasty; prominent Chassidic works; Personal copy of Rabbi Shmuel Vital, son of Rabbi Chaim Vital and letters from Albert Einstein.
Winner’s Auction House has been conducting public auctions for over 30 years and is one of the leading companies in the world in the fields of ancient Hebrew books, manuscripts and Judaica objects.
The auction catalog along with the results of previous auctions, can be viewed on the website: winners-auctions.com.
The auction will be broadcast in real-time on the website and needs pre- registration on the website to participate. Good luck.
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2 Responses
The Radziner did not identify a snail at all. He identified the “cuttlefish” as the chilazon. In spite of his monumental research, we now know the Rebbe was fooled by the dye makers who added iron filings to make the ink turn blue.
The true Chilazon – the murex trunculus snail – turns blue in sunlight with no additives.
Still the Radziner did much to advance our knowledge of techelit.
rebtsvi – you have to know that there is a big machloket on the status of the murex trunculus – no less than the cuttlefish. The main reason being that it matches absolutely none of the simanim listed by the Gemara and the Rambam unless you do a creative reading of each one – but if you had a list of the simanim and several random aquatic animals lined up in front of you, you wouldn’t have any greater chance of picking it out over another animal.
Chilazon doesn’t necessarily mean a snail – it means a “chilazon” The fact that in modern hebrew the word has come to mean snail doesn’t mean that that’s what it originally meant, or that it solely meant snail.
True the fluid of the cuttlefish doesn’t turn blue, but neither does the murex trunculus unless exposed to enough sunlight which the Rambam doesn’t mention anywhere in his halachot of techeilet – one would think that would be an important fact to include.
The odds are that neither animal is chilazon of techeilet – an opinion held by the majority of gedolim.