לֹ֤א תִלְבַּשׁ֙ שַֽׁעַטְנֵ֔ז צֶ֥מֶר וּפִשְׁתִּ֖ים יַחְדָּֽו׃
You shall not wear cloth combining wool and linen.
Deut. 22:11 gives us the commandment to not wear clothing made of both linen and wool. This forbidden blend is known as שַׁעַטְנֵז (shaatnez), and it is known in Jewish law as a חוֹק (ḥok), an ordinance that has no logical basis.
We obey these ordinances not because they make sense but merely because we are commanded to do so. Our dietary laws are also examples of ḥukkim; there is no logical reason why the pig is forbidden or why we don’t mix milk and meat.
Although the prohibition of shaatnez has no obvious, rational explanation, I found an explanation that I did not previously know in Hizkuni’s commentary, which is a quotation of an earlier midrash:
צֶמֶר וּפִשְׁתִּים יַחְדָּו, “WOOL AND LINEN TOGETHER” The reason why only these two categories of yarns are forbidden to be mixed is that the two were involved in the first murder. Cain’s offering to G-d had consisted of leftover flax that he had grown, while Abel had offered sheep which grow wool. Seeing that these two species had been indirectly responsible for the first disagreement between two human beings ending in the death of one, we are to be forever mindful of this.
According to this interpretation, mixtures of wool and linen are forbidden because they bring to mind Cain’s murder of Abel. That’s not exactly the kind of thing we want to commemorate with our clothes.
Questions for thought:
What other kinds of clothes are tainted with Cain’s murder of Abel?
What else could we do to distance ourselves from humanity’s first murder?
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