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  "title": "Shaatnez (Wool & Linen)",
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    "article": {
      "slug": "editors-desk-halacha-shaatnez-wool-and-linen",
      "title": "Shaatnez (Wool & Linen)",
      "deck": null,
      "summary": "",
      "level": "deeper",
      "sectionSlug": "editors-desk",
      "tags": [
        "shaatnez",
        "chukim",
        "korach",
        "tzitzit"
      ],
      "publishedAt": "2026-07-06T02:19:03.001Z",
      "wordCount": 1027,
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      "slug": "jewish-living",
      "title": "Jewish Living"
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      {
        "type": "lede",
        "body": "A response to a Christian article on the wool-linen prohibition — clarifying its halachic scope, the major rabbinic readings, and the importance of not casually dismissing ancient Jewish law.",
        "text": "A response to a Christian article on the wool-linen prohibition — clarifying its halachic scope, the major rabbinic readings, and the importance of not casually dismissing ancient Jewish law."
      },
      {
        "type": "summary",
        "body": "Summary. The [shaatnez](/glossary.json#letter-S) prohibition ([Vayikra 19:19](https://www.sefaria.org/Leviticus.19.19), [Devarim 22:11](https://www.sefaria.org/Deuteronomy.22.11)) forbids the weaving of wool and linen together. The article works through [Rashi](/glossary.json#letter-R)'s pure-obedience reading, [Rambam](/glossary.json#letter-R)'s rationalist account of shaatnez as marked priestly attire transposed away from pagan use, and the [Ramban](/glossary.json#letter-R)'s mystical hybrid view. The author corrects the framing of \"giving lay people access to priestly symbology\" — it is rather that all Israel is a nation of priests with varying access to divine symbology — and pushes back on a Christian author's casual dismissal of the law.",
        "text": "Summary. The shaatnez prohibition (Vayikra 19:19, Devarim 22:11) forbids the weaving of wool and linen together. The article works through Rashi's pure-obedience reading, Rambam's rationalist account of shaatnez as marked priestly attire transposed away from pagan use, and the Ramban's mystical hybrid view. The author corrects the framing of \"giving lay people access to priestly symbology\" — it is rather that all Israel is a nation of priests with varying access to divine symbology — and pushes back on a Christian author's casual dismissal of the law."
      },
      {
        "type": "heading",
        "body": "The Article (Verbatim)",
        "text": "The Article (Verbatim)"
      },
      {
        "type": "paragraph",
        "body": "I ran across your article: What's So Wrong with Mixing Wool & Linen?",
        "text": "I ran across your article: What's So Wrong with Mixing Wool & Linen?"
      },
      {
        "type": "heading",
        "body": "It's good reading. A few things I might add, through the lens of Jewish Orthodoxy:",
        "text": "It's good reading. A few things I might add, through the lens of Jewish Orthodoxy:"
      },
      {
        "type": "paragraph",
        "body": "First, a practical note: \"wool\", here, only applies to sheep wool, and no other variant. And, the wearing of wool over linen is not proscribed. Only combining them — by weaving, spinning, felting, or sewing — within a single garment is.",
        "text": "First, a practical note: \"wool\", here, only applies to sheep wool, and no other variant. And, the wearing of wool over linen is not proscribed. Only combining them — by weaving, spinning, felting, or sewing — within a single garment is."
      },
      {
        "type": "paragraph",
        "body": "It's true that shaatnez (the wool-linen prohibition) and [tzitzit](/glossary.json#letter-T) are connected through priestly symbolism. But the shaatnez is also classified as a \"[chok](/glossary.json#letter-C)\" [mitzvah](/glossary.json#letter-M), a law/righteous-act that was given without explanation. The canonical literature ([Tanakh](/glossary.json#letter-T)/Bible, [Oral Torah](/glossary.json#letter-O)/[Talmud](/glossary.json#letter-T), [Midrash](/glossary.json#letter-M), Commentaries, [Halachic](/glossary.json#letter-H) literature, [Machshava](/glossary.json#letter-M), [Kabbalah](/glossary.json#letter-K), [Mussar](/glossary.json#letter-M)) on the chukim is deep and engaging reading, and varies widely. On the one hand, the medieval French scholar Rashi, says these laws are for the sake of binding ourselves to G-d only, and for no other reason (\"obedience\" if you will). G-d asked it, and we do it. To question why is a category error.",
        "text": "It's true that shaatnez (the wool-linen prohibition) and tzitzit are connected through priestly symbolism. But the shaatnez is also classified as a \"chok\" mitzvah, a law/righteous-act that was given without explanation. The canonical literature (Tanakh/Bible, Oral Torah/Talmud, Midrash, Commentaries, Halachic literature, Machshava, Kabbalah, Mussar) on the chukim is deep and engaging reading, and varies widely. On the one hand, the medieval French scholar Rashi, says these laws are for the sake of binding ourselves to G-d only, and for no other reason (\"obedience\" if you will). G-d asked it, and we do it. To question why is a category error."
      },
      {
        "type": "paragraph",
        "body": "Opposite Rashi and two centuries later comes Maimonides (Rambam with an \"m\"). Being a rationalist, he argued that every law had a reason in historical context, and that shaatnez was forbidden to lay people because it was part of a triumvirate (animal wool, plant product, and metal) that pagan Canaanite priests wore. He then argued that it was transposed onto Levite priests for the same reason that animal sacrifice was instituted (and even the [mishkan](/glossary.json#letter-M)/tabernacle) as a compromise between G-d and the people, to allow them some of the familiar mechanics of pagan practice, but realigned to the worship of [Hashem](/glossary.json#letter-H), and (as your article states) strictly scoped to the priestly class as part of the compromise (surely to prevent fractious adventurism of the kind we saw in 19th Century Christianity, where the opinion of any person was as good as anyone else's, and competing sects multiplied).",
        "text": "Opposite Rashi and two centuries later comes Maimonides (Rambam with an \"m\"). Being a rationalist, he argued that every law had a reason in historical context, and that shaatnez was forbidden to lay people because it was part of a triumvirate (animal wool, plant product, and metal) that pagan Canaanite priests wore. He then argued that it was transposed onto Levite priests for the same reason that animal sacrifice was instituted (and even the mishkan/tabernacle) as a compromise between G-d and the people, to allow them some of the familiar mechanics of pagan practice, but realigned to the worship of Hashem, and (as your article states) strictly scoped to the priestly class as part of the compromise (surely to prevent fractious adventurism of the kind we saw in 19th Century Christianity, where the opinion of any person was as good as anyone else's, and competing sects multiplied)."
      },
      {
        "type": "paragraph",
        "body": "Then we have Nachmanides (Ramban with an \"n\") aligning with Rambam that chukim do all have reasons—but that they are mystical and metaphysical.",
        "text": "Then we have Nachmanides (Ramban with an \"n\") aligning with Rambam that chukim do all have reasons—but that they are mystical and metaphysical."
      },
      {
        "type": "paragraph",
        "body": "There are other hybrid views along this spectrum.",
        "text": "There are other hybrid views along this spectrum."
      },
      {
        "type": "paragraph",
        "body": "This may seem like splitting hairs, but it's an important distinction: \"Giving the lay people access to priestly symbology\" is an incorrect framing. It is, rather, giving the lay people, and the priests, varying degrees of access to divine symbology.",
        "text": "This may seem like splitting hairs, but it's an important distinction: \"Giving the lay people access to priestly symbology\" is an incorrect framing. It is, rather, giving the lay people, and the priests, varying degrees of access to divine symbology."
      },
      {
        "type": "paragraph",
        "body": "Your reading of Korach is, by the lights of most all rabbinic commentary, off the mark. One of my favorite modern scholars, [Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks](/glossary.json#letter-J) of blessed memory (former Chief Rabbi to the UK), is representative of the consensus view: Korach was not being genuine, but instead was building a straw man. (A straw-man example unfortunately replicated over and over in the New Testament, ascribed to the [Pharisees](/glossary.json#letter-P), in one of several antisemitic tropes that have bathed the New Testament in so much Jewish blood.) Because this mitzvah is a chok, there is no deeper halachic answer for Korach. Why doesn't a purely blue cloak satisfy the blue strand in the tzitzit? Because, simply, G-d did not command us to wear blue cloaks, but he did command us to wear tzitzit.",
        "text": "Your reading of Korach is, by the lights of most all rabbinic commentary, off the mark. One of my favorite modern scholars, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks of blessed memory (former Chief Rabbi to the UK), is representative of the consensus view: Korach was not being genuine, but instead was building a straw man. (A straw-man example unfortunately replicated over and over in the New Testament, ascribed to the Pharisees, in one of several antisemitic tropes that have bathed the New Testament in so much Jewish blood.) Because this mitzvah is a chok, there is no deeper halachic answer for Korach. Why doesn't a purely blue cloak satisfy the blue strand in the tzitzit? Because, simply, G-d did not command us to wear blue cloaks, but he did command us to wear tzitzit."
      },
      {
        "type": "paragraph",
        "body": "The framing of Israel being a nation of priests is accurate, foundational, and apparent in the number of mitzvot given to the lay people, and indeed, allusions to divine holiness in symbols like the tzitzit. It emerges even more powerfully in Kabbalah. It is (adding my own commentary) surely a weighty reason the Jews have survived for 3K years while every other people and nation (excepting, with caveats, the Hindus) has died, been subsumed, or transformed beyond recognition.",
        "text": "The framing of Israel being a nation of priests is accurate, foundational, and apparent in the number of mitzvot given to the lay people, and indeed, allusions to divine holiness in symbols like the tzitzit. It emerges even more powerfully in Kabbalah. It is (adding my own commentary) surely a weighty reason the Jews have survived for 3K years while every other people and nation (excepting, with caveats, the Hindus) has died, been subsumed, or transformed beyond recognition."
      },
      {
        "type": "paragraph",
        "body": "I will say, gently and respectfully, that I don't think you do yourself or Christianity any favors by rolling your eyes at any ancient Jewish law. Christianity—universally and unequivocally—appropriates its doctrinal foundations and its legitimacy from Judaism. That means that: to interpret the Old Testament without the benefit of at least that oral tradition and literature present around 30 CE is to have only a sliver of the full picture, and thus be ignorant of what Christianity claims its own heritage to truly be; and even believing that Jesus was the [Mashiach](/glossary.json#letter-M) and that he (in an innovative and un-prophesied move, it should be said) deprecated most of the original law, the claim is still that the original law was given by G-d, and so to roll one's eyes at it is to either roll one's eyes at G-d, or to undermine Christianity's central claim to legitimacy.",
        "text": "I will say, gently and respectfully, that I don't think you do yourself or Christianity any favors by rolling your eyes at any ancient Jewish law. Christianity—universally and unequivocally—appropriates its doctrinal foundations and its legitimacy from Judaism. That means that: to interpret the Old Testament without the benefit of at least that oral tradition and literature present around 30 CE is to have only a sliver of the full picture, and thus be ignorant of what Christianity claims its own heritage to truly be; and even believing that Jesus was the Mashiach and that he (in an innovative and un-prophesied move, it should be said) deprecated most of the original law, the claim is still that the original law was given by G-d, and so to roll one's eyes at it is to either roll one's eyes at G-d, or to undermine Christianity's central claim to legitimacy."
      },
      {
        "type": "paragraph",
        "body": "But, these are productive discussions, and I thank you for your efforts.",
        "text": "But, these are productive discussions, and I thank you for your efforts."
      },
      {
        "type": "heading",
        "body": "Where Denominations Diverge",
        "text": "Where Denominations Diverge"
      },
      {
        "type": "paragraph",
        "body": "[Orthodox](/glossary.json#letter-O) observance of shaatnez requires laboratory testing of garments (shaatnez laboratories operate worldwide). Conservative practice generally observes the prohibition. [Reform Judaism](/glossary.json#letter-R) does not require shaatnez observance, though some Reform Jews do observe it as a meaningful chok.",
        "text": "Orthodox observance of shaatnez requires laboratory testing of garments (shaatnez laboratories operate worldwide). Conservative practice generally observes the prohibition. Reform Judaism does not require shaatnez observance, though some Reform Jews do observe it as a meaningful chok."
      },
      {
        "type": "heading",
        "body": "Sources Cited in the Article",
        "text": "Sources Cited in the Article"
      },
      {
        "type": "paragraph",
        "body": "[Torah](/glossary.json#letter-T): [Vayikra](/glossary.json#letter-V) 19:19; [Devarim](/glossary.json#letter-D) 22:11.",
        "text": "Torah: Vayikra 19:19; Devarim 22:11."
      },
      {
        "type": "paragraph",
        "body": "Rashi on [Vayikra 18:4](https://www.sefaria.org/Leviticus.18.4) (the classical reading of chukim as pure obedience).",
        "text": "Rashi on Vayikra 18:4 (the classical reading of chukim as pure obedience)."
      },
      {
        "type": "paragraph",
        "body": "Rambam, [Moreh Nevuchim](/glossary.json#letter-G) III:26, III:37 (chukim with rational reasons).",
        "text": "Rambam, Moreh Nevuchim III:26, III:37 (chukim with rational reasons)."
      },
      {
        "type": "paragraph",
        "body": "Ramban (Nachmanides), Commentary on Vayikra 19:19 (chukim as mystical/metaphysical).",
        "text": "Ramban (Nachmanides), Commentary on Vayikra 19:19 (chukim as mystical/metaphysical)."
      },
      {
        "type": "paragraph",
        "body": "[Bamidbar 16](https://www.sefaria.org/Numbers.16) (Korach narrative).",
        "text": "Bamidbar 16 (Korach narrative)."
      },
      {
        "type": "paragraph",
        "body": "Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Covenant & Conversation: Numbers (on Korach).",
        "text": "Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Covenant & Conversation: Numbers (on Korach)."
      },
      {
        "type": "paragraph",
        "body": "[Sefer HaChinukh](/glossary.json#letter-S), Mitzvah 551 (shaatnez).",
        "text": "Sefer HaChinukh, Mitzvah 551 (shaatnez)."
      },
      {
        "type": "paragraph",
        "body": "[What is Shatnez?](https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/381831/jewish/What-is-Shatnez.htm) — Chabad.org.",
        "text": "What is Shatnez? — Chabad.org."
      },
      {
        "type": "paragraph",
        "body": "[Shatnez: A Mixture of Wool and Linen - Parshat Kedoshim](https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/882920/jewish/Shatnez-A-Mixture-of-Wool-and-Linen.htm) — Chabad.org.",
        "text": "Shatnez: A Mixture of Wool and Linen - Parshat Kedoshim — Chabad.org."
      },
      {
        "type": "paragraph",
        "body": "[Wool and Linen = Shatnez](https://aish.com/48948976/) — Aish.",
        "text": "Wool and Linen = Shatnez — Aish."
      },
      {
        "type": "paragraph",
        "body": "[11 Facts You Should Know About Korah](https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/6483907/jewish/11-Facts-You-Should-Know-About-Korah.htm) — Chabad.org.",
        "text": "11 Facts You Should Know About Korah — Chabad.org."
      },
      {
        "type": "heading",
        "body": "Further Reading",
        "text": "Further Reading"
      },
      {
        "type": "paragraph",
        "body": "Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Judaism, Human Values, and the Jewish State (on chukim and rationality).",
        "text": "Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Judaism, Human Values, and the Jewish State (on chukim and rationality)."
      },
      {
        "type": "paragraph",
        "body": "[Joseph Soloveitchik](/glossary.json#letter-J), The Halakhic Mind.",
        "text": "Joseph Soloveitchik, The Halakhic Mind."
      }
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    "goDeeper": [],
    "glossary": {
      "devarim": {
        "term": "Devarim",
        "hebrew": "דְּבָרִים",
        "translit": null,
        "definition": "The fifth book of the Torah — Deuteronomy — consisting of Moshe's farewell addresses. The name means 'words.'",
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      },
      "guide-for-the-perplexed": {
        "term": "Guide for the Perplexed",
        "hebrew": "מורה נבוכים",
        "translit": "Moreh Nevuchim",
        "definition": "The Rambam's philosophical masterwork argues that God can be described only through negation — saying what God is not rather than what God is — and works to reconcile Aristotelian philosophy with Torah faith for readers troubled by any apparent conflict between the two.",
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      "halacha": {
        "term": "Halacha",
        "hebrew": "הֲלָכָה",
        "translit": null,
        "definition": "Jewish law — literally \"the way one walks\" — the legal system that develops from the Torah's mitzvot through the Mishnah, Talmud, and the great codes; the movements differ on how binding it is, not on its centrality to the tradition.",
        "moreSlug": "essentials-essential-questions-what-is-halacha"
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      "hashem": {
        "term": "Hashem",
        "hebrew": "הַשֵּׁם",
        "translit": null,
        "definition": "Literally \"the Name\" — the everyday reverent way Jews refer to God outside of prayer, avoiding casual use of the divine names.",
        "moreSlug": null
      },
      "jonathan-sacks": {
        "term": "Jonathan Sacks",
        "hebrew": null,
        "translit": null,
        "definition": "Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks (1948–2020) served as Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom and became one of the most widely read Jewish thinkers of his generation; his commentary anchors the Koren Shalem Siddur, the Field Guide's recommended first siddur for most New Jews.",
        "moreSlug": "where-to-start-your-first-siddur"
      },
      "joseph-soloveitchik": {
        "term": "Joseph Soloveitchik",
        "hebrew": "יוסף דב הלוי סולובייצ'יק",
        "translit": null,
        "definition": "Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (1903–1993), known to his students as \"the Rav,\" was the towering figure of 20th-century Modern Orthodoxy; his framing of the Jew as both dignified \"Adam I\" and covenantal \"Adam II\" remains a touchstone of Modern Orthodox thought.",
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      "kabbalah": {
        "term": "Kabbalah",
        "hebrew": "קַבָּלָה",
        "translit": null,
        "definition": "The Jewish mystical tradition — literally \"that which is received\" — whose central text is the Zohar and whose distinctive teachings include the ten Sefirot and the infinite Ein Sof.",
        "moreSlug": "going-deeper-deeper-questions-what-is-kabbalah"
      },
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        "term": "Machshava",
        "hebrew": "מַחְשָׁבָה",
        "translit": null,
        "definition": "Jewish thought — the tradition's philosophy and theology, from the medieval rationalists through Hasidic masters to modern thinkers.",
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      },
      "mashiach": {
        "term": "Mashiach",
        "hebrew": "מָשִׁיחַ",
        "translit": null,
        "definition": "The Messiah — literally \"the anointed one\" — a future human king from the line of David who, in Jewish belief, will gather the exiles, rebuild the Temple, and usher in an era of universal peace.",
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      },
      "midrash": {
        "term": "Midrash",
        "hebrew": "מִדְרָשׁ",
        "translit": null,
        "definition": "Literally 'inquiry' — the rabbinic genre of creative biblical interpretation, filling gaps in the text, drawing out moral lessons, and reading Scripture in surprising directions.",
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      "mishkan": {
        "term": "Mishkan",
        "hebrew": "מִשְׁכָּן",
        "translit": null,
        "definition": "Literally 'dwelling place' — the portable sanctuary the Israelites built and carried through the wilderness, the forerunner of the Temple in Jerusalem.",
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        "term": "Mussar",
        "hebrew": "מוּסָר",
        "translit": null,
        "definition": "The Jewish discipline of character refinement — the tradition of examining and training one's middot (traits), formalized as a movement in 19th-century Lithuania by Rabbi Yisrael Salanter.",
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        "term": "Oral Torah",
        "hebrew": "תורה שבעל פה",
        "translit": "Torah she-be'al peh",
        "definition": "The body of interpretation and law that tradition holds was given at Sinai alongside the Written Torah and transmitted by the sages, eventually recorded in the Mishnah and Talmud. It is the foundation of how the written text is read and applied.",
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      },
      "orthodox-judaism": {
        "term": "Orthodox Judaism",
        "hebrew": null,
        "translit": null,
        "definition": "Orthodox Judaism holds Halacha as fully binding and the Shulchan Aruch as its canonical code; it spans Haredi and Hasidic communities as well as Modern Orthodoxy, and is the starting point from which this Field Guide is written, even as it engages seriously with other denominations.",
        "moreSlug": "how-to-use-this-field-guide"
      },
      "perushim": {
        "term": "Perushim",
        "hebrew": "פְּרוּשִׁים",
        "translit": "Pharisees",
        "definition": "The Pharisees — the Second Temple movement devoted to the Oral Torah, from which Rabbinic Judaism, and thus all of contemporary Judaism, descends.",
        "moreSlug": null
      },
      "rambam": {
        "term": "Rambam",
        "hebrew": "רמב״ם",
        "translit": null,
        "definition": "Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (1138–1204), known by the acronym Rambam and in the Latin West as Maimonides, was the towering rationalist codifier and philosopher of medieval Judaism — author of the legal code Mishneh Torah and the philosophical Guide for the Perplexed. His formulation of God's unity and incorporeality remains foundational to Jewish theology across denominations.",
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      "ramban": {
        "term": "Ramban",
        "hebrew": "רמב״ן",
        "translit": null,
        "definition": "Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (1194–1270), also called Nachmanides — a leading halachist and Torah commentator of medieval Spain who was also a trained Kabbalist, and whose guarded mystical readings (marked 'al derekh ha-emet') helped bring Kabbalah from the margins into the rabbinic mainstream.",
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      "rashi": {
        "term": "Rashi",
        "hebrew": "רש״י",
        "translit": null,
        "definition": "Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (1040–1105) of Troyes, France, is the single most influential commentator on the Tanakh and the Talmud; his terse, page-anchoring commentary appears alongside almost every printed edition of both. A New Jew encounters Rashi constantly — in every Chumash, on every page of Talmud.",
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      },
      "reform-judaism": {
        "term": "Reform Judaism",
        "hebrew": null,
        "translit": null,
        "definition": "Reform Judaism treats Halacha as a source of values and meaning rather than binding law, emphasizing individual autonomy, ethical monotheism, and tikkun olam; it was the first movement to fully recognize patrilineal descent and ordain women as rabbis.",
        "moreSlug": "how-to-use-this-field-guide"
      },
      "sefer-hachinukh": {
        "term": "Sefer HaChinukh",
        "hebrew": "ספר החינוך",
        "translit": null,
        "definition": "This anonymous medieval work walks through all 613 mitzvot in the order the Torah presents them, giving each its biblical source, its Halachic detail, and a suggested rationale — making it a favorite teaching text for beginners.",
        "moreSlug": "essentials-essential-facts-the-613-mitzvot"
      },
      "talmud": {
        "term": "Talmud",
        "hebrew": "תלמוד",
        "translit": null,
        "definition": "The vast rabbinic work — the Mishnah together with the Gemara's discussion of it — that develops the Oral Torah into Jewish law and thought. It is the central text of Jewish study after the Bible itself.",
        "moreSlug": "essentials-essential-facts-the-talmud-in-one-article"
      },
      "tanakh": {
        "term": "Tanakh",
        "hebrew": "תנ״ך",
        "translit": null,
        "definition": "The Hebrew Bible, named for the initials of its three sections: Torah (the Five Books), Nevi'im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings) — twenty-four books in the traditional count.",
        "moreSlug": "essentials-essential-facts-the-tanakh-in-one-article"
      },
      "torah": {
        "term": "Torah",
        "hebrew": "תּוֹרָה",
        "translit": null,
        "definition": "The Five Books of Moses — the scroll at the center of Jewish life — and, more broadly, the whole of Jewish teaching. 'Learning Torah' can mean anything from Chumash to Talmud.",
        "moreSlug": null
      },
      "vayikra": {
        "term": "Vayikra",
        "hebrew": "ויקרא",
        "translit": null,
        "definition": "The Book of Leviticus, third of the Five Books of the Torah, named for its opening word, 'And He called'; its concerns are the sanctuary, the offerings, and holiness.",
        "moreSlug": null
      },
      "chukim": {
        "term": "chukim",
        "hebrew": "חֻקִּים",
        "translit": null,
        "definition": "Mitzvot given without stated reasons — such as the categories of kashrut or the red heifer — accepted as divine decree (singular: chok). They are classically contrasted with mishpatim, laws whose reasons are evident.",
        "moreSlug": "going-deeper-deeper-facts-chukim-mishpatim-and-eidot"
      },
      "mitzvah": {
        "term": "mitzvah",
        "hebrew": "מִצְוָה",
        "translit": null,
        "definition": "A commandment — one of the Torah's 613 divine instructions, and by extension any religious duty or good deed. The plural is mitzvot.",
        "moreSlug": "essentials-essential-facts-the-613-mitzvot"
      },
      "shaatnez": {
        "term": "shaatnez",
        "hebrew": "שַׁעַטְנֵז",
        "translit": null,
        "definition": "The Torah's prohibition on wearing cloth that mixes wool and linen — a classic chok, a law observed without an evident reason.",
        "moreSlug": "editors-desk-halacha-shaatnez-wool-and-linen"
      },
      "tzitzit": {
        "term": "tzitzit",
        "hebrew": "ציצית",
        "translit": null,
        "definition": "The knotted fringes tied to the four corners of the tallit (and tallit katan), commanded in the Torah as a visible reminder of all the mitzvot.",
        "moreSlug": "essentials-essential-judaica-tallit-and-tzitzit"
      }
    }
  },
  "links": [
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      "rel": "parent",
      "title": "Jewish Living",
      "href": "/sections/jewish-living.json"
    },
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  ]
}