[Avodah] Black on black tefillin retzuos

[D Rubin via Avodah]

Date: Fri 1 Apr 2016 10:39:46 EDT
From: Zev Sero
> Further to the above: How do you understand the `Oros Eilim Me'adamim?
> Were they dyed red through and through, or just painted on one side?
> If the former, then there is your proof that they're still called `oros.

Oros Eilim Me'adamim are explained by the Yerushalmi to mean rams hit -
whilst living - so as to produce bruising, which subsequently produced
the 'red' skins, on being flayed.Rashi (ad loc.) appears to concede
with that explanation.Lulei d'midtofino, I would suggest the redness
was due to a tannery process, much as the old Yemenite Sifrei Torah
were reddish [brown].(Note: Me'adamim is most probably a brownish red,
as in Poroh Adumoh.)

Dovid Rubin