Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Deuteronomio 22:11

Nothing is forbidden on account of kilayim except [a mixture of] wool and linen. Deuteronomy 22:11 defines “shatnez” as being wool and linen. Hence only a mixture of wool and linen is prohibited. Wool and cotton, for instance, is not prohibited.

Kilayim of clothing: is permitted in all respects, except that it is forbidden to wear them. Kilayim of clothing is a mixture of wool and linen, called shatnez (Leviticus 19:19 and Deuteronomy 22:11). It is permitted to derive benefit from such mixtures. It is also permitted to weave and sell or own these types of clothing. The only prohibition is to wear them.

Tanchuma goes on (on verse 7) that there are four pieces of Torah legislation which are targeted by the evil urge especially, all of which have been defined by the Torah as חקה, statute. They are: 1) the prohibition of marrying the wife of one’s brother (as a divorcee or widow with children, whereas she is to become the wife of that same brother-in-law if her husband had not sired children). 2) the prohibition of wearing wool and linen in one garment or sowing different species of seed in the same field. Seeing that it is permitted to make a talit of linen and attach woolen tzitziyot, the evil urge targets this legislation presenting it to us as illogical. 3) the law of the scapegoat which apparently carries the sins of the people as a gift to Satan. The Torah demands that the person accompanying said scape-goat purifies himself (as if the sins of these people “carried” by the beast had contaminated him whereas the scapegoat itself is killed while conferring life (forgiveness) on the sinners whose sins the beast “carries” (Leviticus 16,26). 4) The legislation of the red cow. What arouses the ire of the evil urge is the fact that all those who are involved in the ritual of the red cow, though of superior degree of ritual purity, are contaminated by it, whereas the ash of the same beast sprinkled on a ritually impure person has the power to purify such a person. According to that Midrash, Job 14,4 had this legislation in mind when he said: “Who can produce a clean thing out of an unclean one? No One!” (only G’d). Examples of G’d being able to produce the clean out of the unclean are 1) Avraham sired by an arch idolater such as his father Terach. 2) The king Chizkiyah of Yehudah whose father Achaz was a confirmed heretic. 3) Mordechai who was descended from Shimi of the tribe of Binyamin who had cursed David in the vilest terms. The people of Israel who emerged from amongst all the idolatrous Gentile nations are another example of the seemingly impossible becoming reality. So is the promise of the world of the future which will be the outcome of a transformation of this present world of lies and deceit. Job meant that the only one able to orchestrate such totally unlikely phenomena is the Unique One, the Lord! The Midrash adds the fact that the minimum size which makes an afflicted person subject to the tzoraat disease and contamination being the size of half a bean, while if the entire surface of the skin is covered by the eczema the person thus afflicted remains ritually pure.

כי תבנה בית חדש WHEN THOU BUILDEST A NEW HOUSE, [THEN THOU SHALT MAKE A BATTLEMENT FOR THY ROOF] — If thou hast fulfilled the command of שלוח הקן (of letting a mother bird go when the nest is rifled), you will in the end be privileged to build a new house and to fulfill the command of “making a guard-rail”, for one good deed brings another good deed in its train, and you will attain to a vineyard (v. 9), fields (v. 10) and fine garments (vv. 11—12). It is for this reason (to suggest this) that these sections are put in juxtaposition (Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Teitzei 1).

זכור — This word REMEMBER which opens this commandment here and שמור “observe” which opens it in Deuteronomy (5:12) were spoken in one utterance. Similar is, (Exodus 31:14) “Everyone that profaneth it (the Sabbath) shall surely be put to death”, which apparently is in contradiction with (Numbers 28:9) “And on the Sabbath day [ye shall offer] two lambs”, a command necessitating actions which, if done for any other purposes on the Sabbath, would involve a profanation of that day. Similar is, (Deuteronomy 22:11) “Thou shalt not wear a garment of two kinds, [as of woollen and linen together]” and (Deuteronomy 22:12) “Thou shalt make thee tassels”, for the performance of which command wool and linen may be employed in combination. Similar is, (Leviticus 18:16) “The nakedness of thy brother’s wife” (the prohibition of marriage with her), and (Deuteronomy 25:5) “her husband’s brother shall come unto her” (he shall marry her). — This is the meaning of what is said (Psalms 62:12) “One thing did God speak, these two things did we hear” (Mekhilta). זכור — This word expresses the verbal action without any reference to a particular time (the infinitive), similar to, (Isaiah 22:13) אכול ושתו “to eat and to drink”; (II Samuel 3:16) הלוך ובכה “to go and to weep”; and the following is its meaning: take care to remember always the Sabbath day — that if, for example, you come across a nice article of food during the week, put it by for the Sabbath (Beitzah 16a).