You've heard of kosher food, but have you heard of kosher clothing? Just as it's forbidden to eat a mixture of meat and dairy, the Torah similarly prohibits wearing a mixture of wool and linen. It's called Shatnez.
Why the Torah forbids this mixture is a mystery. Some write that combining these two materials confuses the vital energies of creation. However, the matter remains beyond our understanding.
All fabrics that can cover a person, including sheets, must be free of shatnez. The problem is that even garments labeled "100% wool" can still contain up to 5% of other materials. Furthermore, labels generally describe the outer material of the garments and not their linings, fillings, or threads.
Proper examination of the clothes should be carried out in a Shatnez laboratory, where experts in the field take samples of the clothes, without damaging them, and examine them under a microscope in order to identify the fibers.
Some details:
Shatnez's rules apply to borrowed or rented clothing as well.
Wearing wool and linen clothing simultaneously is permitted, as long as they are not connected, so that one can be removed without taking off the other.
It is forbidden to wear Shatnez, not to possess it.
Wool specifically refers to the wool of sheep and goats, not camel, alpaca, llama, vicuña, or other animals.
Warm greetings.
I have a small flock of sheep in the municipality of La Calera, near Bogotá. I'm looking for potential buyers for the meat and wool. I came across the topic of shatnez, which has caught my attention, and I'm curious to understand why it's prohibited.
It's a question: can I wear a wool scarf to protect myself from the cold over my regular clothes?
Yeah