Jerusalem, Israel—An all-star lineup of scientists, academics, and rabbinic scholars from Israel and abroad took the stage at the Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem on Monday, December 30 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the late Chief Rabbi Dr. Isaac Halevi Herzog’s ground-breaking doctoral dissertation, The Dyeing of Purple in Ancient Israel, and explore the headway made in tekhelet research over the last century.

“100 Years of Tekhelet Research,” sponsored by the non-profit organization Ptil Tekhelet and co-sponsored by The Azrieli Foundation, Yad Harav Herzog, Yeshiva University, and Yeshiva University Israel Alumni, drew over 350 participants and kept the crowd engaged from morning until evening with lectures, presentations and roundtable discussions on topics ranging from “The Relationship Between Science and Torah in the Writings of Rav Herzog” to “Innovation in Halacha.”

Member of Knesset Isaac Herzog, Rabbi Dr. Herzog’s grandson, opened the conference with remarks about the importance of his grandfather’s legacy, noting that the late Chief Rabbi’s fusion of Torah study and scientific research remains a source of pride to the Herzog family so many years after his passing.

Later in the morning, Dr. Naama Sukenik, a researcher at the Israel Antiquities Authority, revealed that the first ancient tekhelet-dyed fragment of fabric originating in Israel was recently discovered in the stockpile of artifacts recovered from the Wadi Murbaat excavation over 60 years ago.

“Until now, our most important discovery had been the piles and piles of murex trunculus (hillazon snail) shells from the area, which served as a silent testimony to the presence of an ancient dyeing industry in Israel,” Dr. Sukenik explained during her presentation. But this newest finding from the times of Bar Kokhba—sky blue fabric from the Dead Sea region—is definitive proof of both a colored fabrics trade and strict adherence to the biblical commandment of tekhelet in ancient Israel.

In the afternoon, Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hirsch Weinreb, executive vice president emeritus of the Orthodox Union, offered a psychoanalytic interpretation of the resistance to tekhelet. “There is a power of resistance within us. We repress the evil within us, but we also repress the sublime, the power of good within us. We don’t want to be all that we could be or should be. It is too challenging, too difficult,” said Rabbi Weinreb. “But, we live in a time of the redemption, and our reaction to it should be to elevate ourselves to the most angelic and sublime form. We should see the fulfillment of the commandment of tekhelet, the mitzvah that is at the root of our being, as an integral part of that process.”

The conference’s impressive list of presenters also included Professor Rabbi Avraham Steinberg (Israel Prize Laureate and Director of Yad Harav Herzog); Supreme Court Justice Neal Hendel; Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Riskin (Chief Rabbi of Efrat and Chancellor of Ohr Torah Stone Institutions); and Rabbi Menachem Burshtein (Director of Machon Puah).

Former Yeshiva University Chancellor, Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, and famed lecturer and historian Rabbi Berel Wein were also recognized for their attendance and ardent support of Ptil Tekhelet.

Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik, Rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel, NY, and Director of Yeshiva University’s Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought, brought the conference to a close with an analysis of the symbolism of the contrasting white- and tekhelet-colored fringes of tzitzit.

“While the white strings represent that which we can simply understand, the tekhelet represents the mysterious and the limits of human understanding. For centuries, Jews wore purely white tzitzit. A Jew can fulfill the mitzvah with only white fringes, but only when the concrete and the mysterious are on display side by side are Torah and Judaism truly represented,” posited Rabbi Soloveichik. “Additionally, the union of blue and white fulfills a commandment as well as the dream of Zionism itself. Israel is simultaneously a modern democratic marvel and a symbol of the Jewish people as the Chosen People. This conference is not only a celebration of a scientific discovery and the furthering of Jewish Law, but an opportunity to ponder the symbolism of this combination and recognize our place in the enduring Jewish story.”

Ptil Tekhelet, established in 1991 by Rabbi Eliyahu Tevger, Dr. Baruch Sterman, Dr. Ari Greenspan, and Joel Guberman, is the world’s leading organization promoting, producing, and providing educational resources about tekhelet as the basis for fulfilling the biblical commandment of tzitzit. For more information, please visit www.tekhelet.com.