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Thought for the Day: Why I Do Not Wear a Blue Strand Among My ציצית

The issue of whether one had fulfilled his obligation for mishloach manos on Purim could be fulfilled even of the recipient refused the gift was once being discussed in beis medrash.  I, having moved to Chicago and by then having sat in R' Fuerst's Monday night shiur for a few weeks and having actually read the Mishna Brura on mishloach manos once , felt well prepared to offer an expert opinion.  (I hope you are catching the sarcasm; I was so arrogant in my ignorance!)  I stated quite matter-of-factly that of course one had fulfilled his obligation.  Someone who actually knew what he was talking about looked at me and said, "Oh... hiding behind a Rema, are you?"

To say the least, I was taken aback.  What do you mean, "hiding behind a Rema"?!?  We Ashkenazim follow the Rema, right?  "Did you look at the Mishna Brura on that Rema?"  Well... I had certainly read it... learn it?  Well... ahem... ummm.  Like a dog with his tail between his legs, I slinked off to look inside.  Sure enough, I had remembered the Rema and completely forgotten the Mishna Brura (695:4, s.k. 24) which states, but the Pri Chadash and Chasam Sofer disagree.  Which is to say, the Mishna Brura is paskening that we do not I follow this Rema l'halacha.  I learned a big lesson that day; you have to read all the words in the Mishna Brura and you need to remember the score card regarding who states the final word.  I also learned to soften my statements as not being quite so certain all the time; though that is still a work in progress.

The question of wearing a blue strang among my tzitzis comes up from time to time.  The question comes up because the Torah clearly mandates that we should wear a strand of תכלת among our ציצית.  We also know that תכלת is some shade of blue/purple.  However, תכלת is not any blue, but a particular blue dye made from the blood of a fish that we are no longer able to identify with certainty.  There are those, moreover, who claim to have been able to been able to discern the correct fish and the lost recipe for creating תכלת.  Given that, and the fact that the Torah does not specify any particular color for the ציצית, one may very well ask, "Since at worst it is a doubt and the rule is always to be stringent in Torah matters of doubt, shouldn't you wear one of their blue threads on at least the off chance that it really is תכלת?"

A perfectly reasonable question for which I have a perfectly reasonable answer.  The Rema (9:5) states unequivocally that Ashkenazim wear only white ציצית.  The Mishna Brura (who, as demonstrated above) is not shy about noting where normative practice differs from the p'sak of the Rema, makes no such emendation.  Moreover, the Mishna Brura (s.k. 16) adds a stringency that a precise person will therefore be sure to only attach ציצית to white garments.  (That is mostly white, as the black stripes are also part of the custom for Ashkenazim.)

That's one aspect of my answer.  However, the real reason that I wear only white ציצית is because R' Fuerst wears plain, white, wool ציצית .  If there were even a doubt in his mind that the blue threads available are actually תכלת, then -- based on safeik d'oraisa l'chumra -- R' Fuerst would certainly wear them and tell everyone else to do the same.  Since R' Fuerst obviously knows everything I do and much more about the topic, I defer to his opinion/p'sak.  In fact, I would consider it a chutzpah to conduct myself otherwise in the presence of my rav.

This is not "hiding behind R' Fuerst"; but affirming the halachic process by which we discern HaShem's Will... deferring to our sages in every generation from Moshe Rabbeinu who learned directly from HaShem, then transmitted that knowledge through the chain of accurate transmission from rav to talmid that starts from Har Sinai and continues till today.

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