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.

Toda tela que pueda cubrir a una persona, incluyendo sábanas, deben ser libres de Shatnez. El problema es que aún las ropas «100% de lana», aún pueden contener hasta un 5% de otros materiales. Además, las etiquetas en general describen el material externo de las ropas y no sus forros, rellenos ni hilos.

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.

3 thoughts on “Shatnez”

  1. 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.

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