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Talmud: Menahot 44a
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Maimonides: Zizit 2:2
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This snail [hilazon]:
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This snail [hilazon]
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1. its body resembles the sea
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1. is a fish
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2. and its formation resembles a fish
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2. whose coloration resembles
the coloration of the sea
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3. and it ascends* once in 70 years**
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3. and its blood is as black as ink
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4. and with its blood tekhelet is dyed.
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4. and it is to be found in the Salt Sea.
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Therefore its value is expensive.
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* “Ascends” - from the sea, since they are fished with nets:
Talmud Shabbat 74b – Hunters of shellfish knot and unknot.
Rashi’s Commentary - Hunters of shellfish, in order to dye the tekhelet with its blood.
Knot and unknot; since all nets are made of multiple knottings … and sometimes cords need to be taken from one net and added to another, unknotting from one and knotting to the other.
** “Once in seventy years” - once in a blue moon
Mishna Makkot 1:10 – A Supreme Court [Sanhedrin] that metes out capital punishment once in seven years is called destructive. Rabbi Elazar son of Azarya says: once in seventy years.