Shaatnez

Q: I heard of a law that prohibits Jews from wearing certain kinds of clothing.  What are these prohibitions and what do they mean? 

A:  The law to which you refer is found in Leviticus 19.  We read there, “you shall neither wear a garment of two kinds of co-mingled elements.  Later, in Deuteronomy these fabrics are defined as wool and linen. The forbidden mixture of wool and linen is called “shaatnez.”

In our day observant Jews can be seen to carefully examine the labels of garments before purchasing it to determine if it contains shaatnez.  As all clothes are mandated to have labels revealing their composition is simple to discover the ingredients of all the fabrics.

One interpretation for the law of shaatnez is to keep the disparate nature of wool and linen entirely separate.  While one grows from the ground, linen, the other is shorn from sheep. Since the two textiles have totally different origins it has been postulated that we should avoid confusing the natural order of the world.

To be truthful however, we do not know the rationale for the law of shatnez. There is no reason given in Torah for this ordinance. The law simply states ‘do not get these fabrics mixed up.’ Some Jews are so sensitive to the issue of shaatnez that there are laboratories set up to minutely examine the individual fabric in question.