Reply To: Techeiles 🔵❎🐌☑️🐟

So on Shabbos I was perusing a certain sefer and I found that it had a small piece about Techeiles. The author mentioned that the Radzyner Rebbe claimed to have rediscovered Techeiles but all the contemporary gedolim, with R’ Yitzchak Elchanan Spector at their head, completely rejected it. He said that the Brisker Rav explained that we can’t identify it without a mesorah, based on the Bais Halevi’s response to the Radzyner Rebbe. He concluded by referring readers to the Radzyner Rebbe’s sefer to see the Bais Halevi’s Teshuva which is printed there.

I had two objections to this. I have no problem if people want to be against techeiles. Let them argue against it and marshal sources and halachic arguments. But it seems that this sefer was engaging in dishonest tactics (or the author simply hadn’t ever read the sources he was discussing). The claim that all the contemporary gedolim, with R’ Yitzchak Elchanan Spector at their head, completely rejected it is patently false. The Radzyner Rebbe printed in his sefer two letters from R’ Yitzchak Elchanan in which he very much supported the Radzyner Rebbe (although he didn’t wear it nor did he pasken that one should wear it for certain reasons which he mentions). As for other gedolim, the Maharsham, R’ Itzele Ponevezher, R’ Chaim Berlin, (according to some claims, R’ Chaim Ozer), and R’ Akiva Yosef Shlessinger actually wore the Techeiles, while various other gedolim such as R’ Shmuel Salant, R’ Yehoshua Leib Diskin, and R’ Yehuda Leib Eiger provided varying levels of support. In fact I have not seen any written work from any of the gedolim of the time which completely rejected it. The Yeshuos Malko came the closest in his three teshuvos but he merely didn’t support it.

My second objection is that the author was discussing a claim in the name of the Bais Halevi that Techeiles requires a mesorah and he sources the Teshuva in the Radzyner Rebbe’s sefer which says almost the exact opposite. Yes, there is a machlokes between the Briskers and the Radzyners as to what the Bais Halevi actually said, but you can’t only mention the Brisker side and then source it to the Radzyner version. That is lending very much credence to the Brisker position that should not be lent. It makes it seem as if the Radzyner Rebbe’s printed letter is reflective of the Brisker position when it most certainly is not.