By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal
SAN DIEGO –The final paragraph of parashat Sh’lach L’cha contains the mitzvah of tzitzit:
“The Lord said to Moses as follows: Speak to the Israelite people and instruct them to make for themselves fringes (tzitzit) on the corners of their garments throughout the ages; let them attach a cord of blue to the fringe at each corner. That shall be your fringe; look at it and recall all the commandments of the Lord and observe them, so that you do not follow your heart and eyes in your lustful urge. Thus shall you be reminded to observe all My commandments and to be holy to your God. I the Lord am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to me your God; I, the Lord, your God.” (Num. 15:37-41)
Although at one time Jews wore tzitzit on all of their garments, which were constructed similar to ponchos, today they are relegated to ritual garb. Tzitzit are placed on a tallit katan, a small four cornered undershirt type garment worn under one’s clothes, and a tallit gadol, the larger prayer shawl we wear in the synagogue. The rabbis taught that tzitzit are not mere strings tied unceremoniously on the corners of such garments, but rather special threads which are created specifically for the purpose of fulfilling the mitzvah.
There are several traditions which explain how the tzitzit remind us of the mitzvot. One of the most popular is that of the medieval commentator Rashi who teaches that the gematria, the numeric equivalent of the Hebrew letters in the word tzitzit, is 600. Each fringe has eight threads at the bottom and five knots. When you add 600+8+5 together you get 613, the number of commandments in the Torah!
Rabbi Menachem Beker writes that the wearing of tzitzit can be compared to a rope thrown to a drowning man. As long as he holds onto the rope he can be saved. The minute he lets go, he will perish.
As long as Jews hold on to their tzitzit, Rabbi Beker says, and remember to perform the mitzvot, Judaism will be safe. The minute we let go, it will disappear.
Tzitzit are more than religious ornaments. They are a complex macrame of threads and knots that serve as a string around our finger to remind us of God’s commanding presence in our lives.
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Rabbi Rosenthal is spiritual leader of Tifereth Israel Synagogue in San Diego. He may be contacted at leonard.rosenthal@sdjewishworld.com