‘Orthodox Jew’: An Oxymoron
Two excerpts from My Western Wall discussing the “meta” of mitzvas Techeiles:
Judaism as a culture and religion is admittedly reactive by nature. One example, in terms of Halacha, Jews blow the Shofar on Mussaf rather than Shacharis, since the Romans got scared of battle calls against them and in response they killed many Jews *. Another example is the customs Jews have during Pesach regarding what foods to eat and not eat – many non-Chometz items were made taboo when there was a fear that Chometz might seep in (which goes way beyond the scope of this piece). Therefore, to make a proactive change to reconstruct something that has been lost for a long time is something that goes against this trend and naturally therefore is met with resistance.
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Orthodox is a term not inherently Jewish. In fact, Ortho is a Greek prefix meaning “straight,” “upright,” “right,” or “correct”. Dox means opinion, praise. Therefore, it means the “straight/correct opinion,” and is a term more used in Christianity (Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox in Germany, etc.). Torah observant Jews assumed the name Orthodox in response to other Jews calling themselves Reform (sort of a nod to the protestant reformation in Christianity) and, whether the Torah observant Jews said “we’re Orthodox” or the Reformed Jews said, “you’re Orthodox,” the name stuck. To be Orthodox implies not changing a single thing from what’s been going “straight” for centuries. It’s to keep things status quo until Moshiach comes.
The reason Tekhelet and Orthodox thinking don’t mix is because a major change such as color on a garment is something that “hasn’t been done before.” Tekhelet therefore is supposed to meet the same pushback as:
Quinoa on Pesach,
Using horseradish as Maror on Pesach,
Expensive/lavish Bar Mitzvahs (as opposed to schnapps and sponge cake mit ah bissel herring),
Super-light Sifrei Torah (due to the super-thin parchment used now thanks to modern technology, as opposed to pre-war ones that weigh generally 25-30 pounds),
Tefillin that’s “gassos” (gassos means it’s made from a cow hide which is much thicker, making it much harder to become Pasul, but is only available thanks to modern technology) as opposed to a much thinner piece of leather, made from goat/sheep leather and referred to as “dakkos”,
Saying “SheHem Mishtachavim” during Aleinu when “it wasn’t done” for hundreds of years,
And more.