לאתויי ציצית. ציצית בהדיא כתיב: ״לא תלבש שעטנז צמר ופשתים״, וכתיב: ״גדילים תעשה לך״! סלקא דעתך אמינא כדרבא. דרבא רמי, כתיב: ״הכנף״, מין כנף. וכתיב: ״צמר ופשתים יחדיו״, הא כיצד? צמר ופשתים פוטרין בין במינן, בין שלא במינן. שאר מינין במינן פוטרין שלא במינן אין פוטרין. סלקא דעתך כדרבא קא משמע לן.
garments mentioned in the Torah are made from wool and linen. This comes to include the law of tzitzit; the obligation of tzitzit applies only to those materials. The Talmud asks: Why is that derivation necessary? With regard to tzitzit it is written explicitly: “You should not wear diverse kinds, wool and linen together” (Deuteronomy 22:11); and juxtaposed to it, it is written: “You should make for you twisted fringes upon the 4 corners of your covering, with which you cover yourself” (Deuteronomy 22:12). From the juxtaposition of these two verses it is derived that the mitzva of tzitzit applies only to garments to which the laws of diverse kinds apply. Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak responded that the matter is not so clear, as it could have entered your mind to say in accordance with the statement of Rava. As Rava raised a contradiction: On the one hand, it is written: “And that they put with the fringe of each corner a thread of tekhelet” (Numbers 15:39); apparently, the threads of the tzitzit must be of the same type of fabric as the corner of the garment. However, in Deuteronomy, in the laws of tzitzit, it is written in juxtaposition to the laws of diverse kinds: Wool and linen together. The tzitzit may only be made of those materials. How can that contradiction be resolved? Rather, Rava says: tzitzit made of wool and linen exempt the garment and fulfill the obligation of tzitzit whether the garment is of their own type, wool or linen, whether it is not of their own type. Whereas with regard to other types, a garment of their own type, they exempt; a garment not of their own type, they do not exempt. It would have entered your mind to explain this in accordance with the approach of Rava. Therefore, the tanna taught us that the obligation of tzitzit applies only to wool and linen and not to other materials.