Tag Archives: Ultra-Orthodoxy

The Tribes of Issachar & Zevulun

What do we know about the mysterious ancient Israelite tribes of Issachar and Zevulun? What is Zevulun’s connection to the Seven Heavens, and what exactly happens in each of those realms? What is the identity of the ‘hilazon’ that was used to make the holy blue dye techelet, and how did Zevulun produce it? How do we properly understand the famous teaching of Zevulun financing the scholarship of Issachar? Plus, eye-opening stories from my recent trip to Israel. 

For the class on the Tribe of Ephraim, see here.
See also ‘The Secret Power of Tzitzit’ and ‘Why Physical Labour is a Spiritual Necessity’ in Volume Two of Garments of Light, available here.

Is There a Jewish Way to Dress?

In this week’s parasha, Bo, the Israelites are finally freed from their subjugation in Egypt. We read that in their haste to leave, they bound up their unleavened dough in their garments (Exodus 12:34). Intriguingly, the very next verse says that the Israelites took from the Egyptians “silver items, gold items, and garments”. This is significant in light of the famous Midrash that the Israelites merited to be saved because they preserved three things throughout their long enslavement: their cuisine, their language, and their clothing (see Pesikta Zutrata on Ki Tavo, 46a).* In other words, the Israelites preserved their unique Hebrew foods (included in which is observing the mitzvah of not consuming the gid hanashe, which began with Jacob), their divine Hebrew language, and also their unique mode of dress. What was this dress, and how was it different from the garments of the Egyptians?

Egyptian tomb paintings at the Beni Hassan archaeological site depicting Semites migrating to Egypt.

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