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the unknown reason for shatnez

Written by d fine

Our sedra sees the Torah forbidding the wearing of a garment which has a mixture of wool and linen (19;19). The midrash gives an interesting hint/reason for the root of this prohibition. The first machlokes in the world was that of kayin and hevel (sons of Adam & Chavah). When Hevel’s sacrifice was accepted by HaShem and that of Kayin was not, Kayin killed Hevel. The midrash notes that of these two sacrifices, one was partly from linen and the other had wool. And this machlokes resulted in a quarter of the world being killed then (there were only 4 people in the world)! Therefore, as a rememberance to avoid such machlokes, the Torah forbade the mixing of wool and linen in the prohibition of shatnez.

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