Reply To: Techeiles 🔵❎🐌☑️🐟

First of all, Pliny was most definitely not discussing techeiles. He was discussing the Murex Trunculus and was in no way soseir the chachmei yisrael.

I don’t quite understand your raya from Rosh Hashana, although Rav Shlomo Miller Shlita has a teshuva where he explains why the Ran in Succa is not a raya(It is way beyond the scope of this forum, however you can easily find it by googling Rav Shlomo Miller techeiles teshuva).

And once we’re hocking on lashon, I would point out that the braisa says Gufo Domeh L’yam meaning its body. Had the braisa been referring to the shell, it would have used a word that means shell such as nartik. (I assume that you are maskim that it is only the shell which even has a hava amina of being domeh l’yam, and not the actual body of the Murex.)

And finally, there are other descriptions of the chilazon which Murex does not meet such as the fact that the chilazon is supposed to have “tentacles bent like hooks” and “snake like extensions” (the Rahdzyner Rebbe himself was maskim)