01x12 - Return of the Hilazon

[bunniefuu]

[music]

I'm going on an adventure.

There's only one way to figure it out.

Unzip the archeology. Make it naked.

[music]

[FEMALE VOICE] Last week on the Naked Archeologist.

Wow, Look at that.

[SIMCHA] We're hot on the trail of a mystery.

A detective story.

One that starts under the sea...

a few thousand years before Jesus,

and ends with a small blue string...

...tied to the end of the world.

According to Jewish tradition...

...God commanded that these strings must be dyed blue

A sacred blue called tekhelet.

The blue string was to remind the Israelites of the sea,

the sea of the sky, and the sky of God's holy throne.

And the commandment say of a sea creature...

...called the hillazon.

But over a thousand years ago...

...the secret of the hillazon was lost.

And that, is the heart of our mystery:

Which animal is the hillazon?

We have just a few clues from ancient Hebrew texts.

[FEMALE VOICE] Its body, resembles the ocean.

It has bones and cartilage. It carries a shell.

[SIMCHA] And it has legs on it's head.

He sh**t them out and grabs them.

-and grabs his prey.

[SIMCHA] Over a thousand years ago...

...w*r wracked the Holy Land.

The secret guild that made the sacred blue d*ed out.

It was gone, faded, disappeared.

[SIMCHA] And the memory...

...of how to make this Biblical blue faded into history.

The trail lies cold until the s...

...when a man who was part cowboy,

part Sherlock Holmes, and all Polish Rabbi...

...rode out of the north on a quest for the hillazon.

He was called the Radzyner Rebbe.

The Rebbe was a great man of science...

...and he developed a recipe that brought blue,

the sacred tekhelet, from none other than-

[FEMALE VOICE] The cuttlefish.

And that's where we left off last time.

[SIMCHA] This might seem like a complicated tale.

But when I met Tel Aviv Rabbis Itzhak and Schlomo Englard,

I kept the question simple.

Why are these strings so important?

Now, why do we put tzitzit on the corner?

Because it says in Kabbalic books that a person...

...when he's going on the corner...

...when he's on the border, then he needs to be watched.

He needs a reminder of The One above.

Oh. When he's at the edge-

He's at the edge.

[SIMCHA] The edge, the border.

A place of mystery.

The edge of a garment is the border between us,

our flesh, our nakedness and the rest of the world.

The notion that tekhelet for instance has the blue edges...

...raises all sorts of interesting questions.

[SIMCHA] Simon Waegemaekers co-founded...

...the Canadian Textile Museum.

The center of the garment belonging to the spiritual...

...and the edge of this touching the realm of the physical.

But the edge is the connection...

...between you and the outside world.

Right.

I never understood that because...

...you actually have strings at the corners.

I noticed that in Minoan, in Egyptian...

...in many ancient cultures you have these strings at the hem.

The hem becomes the hem of a garment...

...becomes important right through history.

-It's everywhere in the world.

I mean the edges of garments are tremendously important.

Look at the tzitzit.

He remind himself, there's somebody above,

somebody watching you.

You connect yourself to God.

You look at the blue threads, you remind yourself of God.

[SIMCHA] The colour blue itself...

...lies near the border between visible and invisible.

The end of what our eyes can see.

Blue is visible just this side of ultraviolet...

...which is invisible.

-You have to do what God commanded you to do.

So that's why it's so important.

The tekhelet blue thread to be on the tallit.

It's connection. -It's connection.

[SIMCHA] Blue strings are a connection...

...between earth and heaven. The soul's borderlands.

And borders are often disputed. This one is.

Itzhak and Schlomo believe the sacred blue...

...comes from a cuttlefish. Others disagree.

[SIMCHA] We only know what the hillazon is...

...by a list of criteria. How does-

[FEMALE VOICE] The cuttlefish.

[SIMCHA] Add up.

[FEMALE VOICE] Its body resembles the ocean.

It has bones and cartilage. It carries a shell.

[SIMCHA] and it has legs in its head.

But there are other creatures that might fit this description.

[FEMALE VOICE] Murex trunculus. The snail.

[SIMCHA] Baruch Sterman believes...

...the hillazon is not a cuttlefish, but a snail.

But there's a problem if you're trying to get blue from a snail.

And it takes us back to chemistry

-You're left with a big problem.

It doesn't give you the right colour.

It gives you purple.

About thirty years ago, the answer...

...was found in a pretty serendipitous way.

By someone by the name of Otto Elsner.

Because of the smell...

...the wonderful smell of the snail dying,

He was asked to go and do his work outside,

not in the laboratory.

Nobody wanted him around.

Nobody wanted the snail or Otto Elsner to-

It smells like rotten eggs or something.

It smells very bad.

[SIMCHA] Archaeologists had long known...

...that the ancients used snails to make purple.

Not blue, purple.

Dyers stewed thousands of snails in giant vats over several days.

It stank to high heaven.

But that stink turned out to be one of the most...

...important clues for making the leap from purple to blue.

It stunk like anything.

[SIMCHA] Zvi Koren is a Tel Aviv chemist...

...specializing in ancient colours.

-I'm not joking at all.

What would it, like skunk-y? Or-

-Like garlic. Fermenting, rotting meat.

Think of it, these are sea snails.

These are living things, meat. Fleshy meat.

They're not living anymore but you have flesh...

...that is sitting in a pot of this size...

...letting it ferment, odors, gasses coming off.

This is disgusting. -Very disgusting.

Does the Talmud talk about the smell?

As a matter of fact the Talmud says that...

...if a woman marries a man who becomes a dyer,

after they're married, she may ask to be divorced from him...

...because of the smell.

That's how bad the smell was.

I mention that I use to do this...

...and come home to my wife when she was pregnant,

and I used to come home smelling of snails...

...and she used to go and throw up.

That was the way we had a year of our marriage.

Throughout the whole pregnancy it was that way.

I'd come home, she'd throw up.

[FEMALE VOICE] Stink.

[SIMCHA] Ancient Egyptian Papyrus records...

...that dyers stank of fish.

Okay, so Elsner, working on his stuff he's smelly.

All his co-workers say, "get out of here,"

He goes outside.

And he found an interesting fact that happened.

Oh. I can see it now.

On cloudy days, when he was doing his dye work,

he got this purple.

On sunny days, he got a perfect sky blue.

Cloudy days, purple.

-Sunny days blue. And he made the connection that the-

It's like penicillin here.

-Very much so.

If the dye is exposed to ultra-violet light...

...it will become blue as opposed to purple.

The main colour in here is called dye bromo indigo.

And as the name implies it's indigo...

...but with two bromine atoms attach to it.

When it's exposed to the sunlight...

...the two bromine atoms are knock out.

The sunlight can break a bond,

and the sunlight breaks the bond...

...between the indigo molecule and the bromine.

This is an atomic process.

-This is an atomic process, absolutely.

As they are knocked out of the colorant,

when you introduce your string or your fleece to dye,

what's left behind is mostly, not completely,

but mostly indigo which gives you blue.

Blue -That's right.

-So they had to split the atom to get the tekhelet.

You're very good. -Is that correct?

That's absolutely correct.

They knew how to split the atom.

Well before Einstein. -Before Einstein.

[SIMCHA] So I guess in the old days,

you could control the process by saying:

"I'm going to produce a vat of purple inside,

and I'm going to produce a vat of blue outside."

Right, right.

And they probably knew a lot more about this.

This is a dye, this was the major centre of the economy...

...in the Middle East and in the Mediterranean in general.

And they did this for thousands of years.

Are these guys crazy?

Modern day Don Quixotes', tilting at windmills.

Looking for some little animal called the hillazon...

...so they can extract some dye out of it and get Biblical blue.

So they can fulfill a Biblical commandment...

...that hasn't been fulfilled in over a thousand years.

I don't think so.

I actually think they're on to something.

[SIMCHA] Throughout history...

...what we wore said a lot about who we were.

And not just the clothing. The colour.

And it's not just the Biblical blue that we forgot.

Generally we've forgotten the power of colour.

Because of the invention...

...of synthetic dyes in the th century,

we're assaulted by all sorts of colours that previously-

There you are.

A guy like me can walk around.

Like look to me. We've actually lost a sense of-

We've lost our sensitivity to colour.

I mean in, in many societies as a person approached you,

you could tell from the colour that they were wearing,

how old they were.

You could tell by the combination of colours...

...that that they were wearing...

...what their status was in the society.

I challenge you to do that now. You can't.

You could still do it a little bit.

In the sense that mail uniforms and army uniforms...

...certainly tell you which branch of the forces.

Stuff like that.

And if a guy is wearing a red and white suit,

you know he's Santa Claus...

...and he's going to bring you good things.

I mean the most obvious things like that, still apply.

But generally most people that you encounter,

you can't tell anything from what they're wearing.

If, if you dress like this today, you can-

-Who cares.

You get mocked though.

-Oh yeah and you get more mocked.

It depends again the context because...

...you probably be worse off...

...if you were in small town Ontario.

Being in Kensington Market people will say, "oh, right, a local."

A local. [laughs] Here I'm a local. That's right.

[SIMCHA] They might not care...

...about your fashion sense in Kensington Market.

But as this quest has made clear,

there are still some people who believe...

...in the power of colour to literally change the world.

And now finally, it's time to get our hands dirty.

We're going to actually make blue from a snail.

Joel Guberman is our guide.

This is it. This, this is where tekhelet gets made.

This is indigo, royal blue.

This is royal purple, this is- I don't know.

I was expecting a bigger operation.

Right, right. Well you know...

...some of the most important things...

...come from very humble beginnings.

And this dye comes from a very humble snail.

The Talmud has a very brief description...

...of the dyeing of the tekhelet.

But that's where you have the secret formula...

...right in the Talmud of the -year-old Jewish text.

Right.

There it is. -That's it.

You've tracked it down.'

Two Rabbis are talking.

One Rabbi asked the other Rabbi:

"how do you make this tekhelet thing?"

And he gives you the secret answer.

Yeah. -The formula.

Yeah. He gives you a very cryptic formula.

[speaking in Hebrew.]

We bring the blood of the snail.

Assembling, assembling our chemicals,

the Talmud doesn't tell us which chemicals,

just says you use some sort of chemicals.

[speaking in Hebrew.] You put it into a vessel.

[speaking in Hebrew.]

And you boil it. That's the whole description.

-That's the recipe?

And that's the recipe. Right.

[FEMALE VOICE] Bring the blood of the snail.

Add some sort of chemicals.

Put it into a vessel. Boil it!

From that recipe,

I couldn't figure out how to make an apple pie.

Never mind tekhelet.

Okay, so you're separating the snails from the-

We're separating it. -From the plants.

You put it out in the sun and you dry them out.

Right. It actually becomes blocks...

...and we take those blocks...

...and grind them down into a powder.

This is hillazon, this is the blood of the snail.

The blood of a snail.

Okay. [speaks in Hebrew]

We put it into a vessel.

The first chemical we're going to use...

...is caustic soda.

It will help to dissolve the dye.

And we mention that we are going to boil it.

As the Talmud says. In here we add boiling water.

This next chemical we are going to use...

...is sodium dichloride.

This actually does the dissolving.

-You keep that separate...

...from where you keep the sugar for your coffee.

Yup. Yellow part means that it's dissolved.

The purple part is not dissolved.

We're going to do now is...

...we're going to take this dye that we process...

...and we'll expose it to sun, sunlight.

[SIMCHA] So how long do we have to leave it out here?

We're going to leave it out for to minutes.

That should be enough.

[SIMCHA] So in a few minutes...

...we'll have made Biblical blue, finally, tekhelet.

But, there's someone who says we've got it all wrong.

It shouldn't be blue at all.

[SIMCHA] Dr. Irving Ziderman is a Jerusalem chemist...

...specializing in the ancient textiles.

So you're saying, what the Bible calls "tekhelet"...

...must be this colour here?

[IRVING] The word "blue" as a translation for "tekhelet"...

...is just a modern thing invented when...

...the Bible was translated into English by King James.

And that was in something,

and there they translated "tekhelet" blue.

A few years before that in the previous translation,

he translate it, "hyacinth", because tekhelet's hyacinth.

You couldn't say that that's like the sky and like-

Yeah, but this is the colour of the sky.

If you examine the spectrum of the sky...

...you see it's not blue.

That it contains a certain amount of purple wavelengths.

And this is a concentrated version of the sky colour.

This is every colour.

When you're talking about colour you must realize...

...you're talking always about a range of colours ...

[SIMCHA] Wait a minute! Tekhelet isn't blue?

The sky isn't blue? I'm the naked archaeologist.

I've, I've got the swatches. I've got the people.

I'm going to ask them...

...whether the sky and the sea are ever purple?

What colour is the sky?

[Laughs] What colour is the sky?

With the snow coming down?

Well, generally.

Blue. -Blue.

Yeah. -Not purple?

No.

Big vote against purple.

Purple. Purple. Is it ever like this?

Sometimes. You know. -Purple?

It goes like this, between like this two over here.

It can get there yeah?

Okay, you seen it like that sometimes?

Yeah.

Oh boy. That's very interesting.

That's a vote for purple.

Apparently when people say blue...

...it's not so clear what they mean.

This is a guy with a bicycle,

he must know. You're outside a lot, right?

All the time.

Which one would you vote for?

I think that's a good question...

...cause a lot of people are in the dark if you ask me.

Okay. Ladies and gentlemen. Montana Sky.

Maybe I like this blue. [Laughs]

You like that one? -Yeah.

That one is more than that one.

Storms End right there.

So you don't buy the purple stuff?

No. I'm not a purple girl.

[laughs]

Obviously you're the right person to ask...

...because you're blue.

Would you say that's sky blue?

Would you wear it?

No? -That's not sky blue?

I'm looking more at Caribbean Sea blue.

Caribbean?

So I can see more like that one.

That one? -Yeah.

You see that too?

I guessed it might be like that.

I got to go to the Caribbean.

Yeah, that's right.

See? Vivid blue.

That's the Caribbean colours.

That's the Caribbean colour?

With the sea and the sky matching.

You can forget the purple.

Forget the purple? -Forget the purple.

There you have it folks.

The jury is still out but it looks bad for purple.

But I thought they were into Talmudic line,

which said it has to be the colour of the sky and the sea.

Now the sea doesn't look violet?

...between the tekhelet and the other colours?

Does he mention purple?

He says, the sea is a similar colour to the sky...

...and the sky is a similar colour to the trees...

...and the trees are a similar colour to lawns, to grass.

In other versions he compares it to the sun,

the colour of the moon These are all different colours.

He's not talking about a colour;

he's talking about an association of ideas.

In order to be able to understand...

...in order to renew something which...

...existed two thousand years ago...

...and disappeared from human knowledge...

...one thousand and three hundred years ago.

You have to rely on history, archaeology and on chemistry.

On real things which exist.

And not your interpretation of lines in the Talmud,

which can be interpreted in a thousand ways...

...according to what you want to prove.

[SIMCHA] Squids, snails, blue, hyacinth, violet,

we've been through the archaeology,

the chemistry and the arguments.

And you know what?

I shouldn't be the one who decide who's right.

But what I do know is it's not just a matter of cold chemistry.

It's a matter of faith as well.

And with that in mind...

...it's time to see if our strings are turning blue.

Now we have the dye that was expose to the sun.

And you see the bubbles on the top?

Wow. They look blue.

Yup. It's an area and space-

It's all looking bluish.

Yup. So I just want to get this going.

Now whenever we do the dyeing of the wool...

...in the factory for tekhelet,

in order to make sure we have the proper intention,

there's a Hebrew saying that we say.

Correct.

Intent is part of the recipe.

Correct.

You got to have the right state of mind,

not just the right science.

You got to have the dyeing and the spinning of the wool,

must be done with the right intention for the commandment.

We're going to put the wool in the dye...

...and this is going to be use for tzitzit. Okay.

And we'll say the [Hebrew]...

...for the purpose of the commandment of tzitzit.

And then we'll put this wool inside.

[Both repeating Hebrew]

Perfect.

An hour from now, we're going to pull it out...

...and now it's going to be tekhelet.

To think that for thirteen hundred years,

great, great Rabbis and Jews wanted this,

and didn't have the opportunity,

and now we do have the opportunity.

To think that I was able to have a part in that it,

it makes me very proud and humble.

Okay, I can do this?

Yeah.

I can do this?

Just be careful, don't splatter it all over yourself.

I just pull it out now?

Slowly pull it out.

This is exciting.

It looks like some kind of underwater sea thing.

So I just squeeze it out?

It's like magic. it turns blue right before your eyes.

It's literary running blue running through my fingers.

But it looks so beautiful.

It's amazing, actually to have it...

...actually turn blue in your hands.

It's pretty amazing. But now, there it is.

Yeah. Yeah. It looks nice.

I love it. -That's nice.

It's beautiful. -It's very special.

How old were you when you started?

About .

So you started dyeing when you were ?

I started helping the whole group of people doing it.

And now you're the only one?

He's the main one.

Yeah.

He is the main one, your brother.

He devoted himself to fulfill this commandment,

day and night.

I can say that there's sometimes...

...he dyes when I'm turning on the other side of the pillow.

Your sleeping-

I'm sleeping and dreaming...

...and he's the one that's fulfilling the dream.

He's making it come true. [Laughs.]

Now, there's a statement in the Talmud...

...that tekhelet reminds us of the sea,

which reminds us of the sky,

which reminds us of God's holy throne.

And what colour is the sea?

Blue.

Blue. And what colour is the sky?

Blue.

Right. But if we take a cup of the sea, what colour will it be?

A cup of seawater?

Clear. Right. A cup of seawater is clear.

If we take a cup of sky what colour will it be?

Air, it's clear right.

So really it depends on how we look at it.

We can look at the sea and the sky...

...and see endless beautiful blue, and remind us of God.

Or we can look at it and see nothing it all.

It depends on our perspective.

And one of the things that the [Hebrew] tekhelet...

...that the strand of the tekhelet will teach us...

...is to reminds us that if we look at the sea and the sky...

...and we don't see the blue,

we don't see God in everything that he's created.

Then we have the [Hebrew] tekhelet to remind us,

to get us back on track, to put us in the right way,

and remind us that God created the world...

...and gave us a purpose and gave us a meaning.

And gave us a way to live our lives...