Shaatnez Panic in Jerusalem

 

Hundreds of students at the Old Seminary, an ultra-Orthodox school in Jerusalem, removed their shoes and walked barefoot after discovering their TOMS footwear contained Shaatnez, a forbidden mixture of wool and linen, BeHadrei Haredim and Mynet reported.

In a display of religious observance, the incident began when a student reported finding Shaatnez in her shoes, prompting the school’s principal, Rabbi Yisrael Levin, to announce the discovery over the PA system. Within moments, hundreds of pairs of shoes were removed as students chose to observe the halachic ruling by walking barefoot, BeHadrei Haredim reported.

The origins of the prohibition of shatnez in Jewish tradition is considered chok, an unexplainable law. The prohibition of mixing wool and linen is called kilayim. “The word shatnez is not actually a real word.”  Shatnez comes from combining three Hebrew words that refer to the different steps of garment production: combing, spinning, and weaving.

Basically, Judaism is a religion of purity and hates all kinds of mixing, like meat and milk. It must come from Egyptian priests, who shaved their whole body and had all sorts of impurity tabus.