Tzitzit, those strange tassels with blue in them that the modern church left so far behind. I'm going to go into what they are biblically and their role to us as believers, wrapping up with how I make some of the ones for my family.
Starting, of course, with scripture Tzitzit are primarily found in Numbers 15:37-40, 37 Adonai said to Moshe (Moses), 38 “Speak to the people of Isra’el, instructing them to make, through all their generations, tzitziyot on the corners of their garments, and to put with the tzitzit on each corner a blue thread. 39 It is to be a tzitzit for you to look at and thereby remember all of Adonai’s mitzvot (commandments) and obey them, so that you won’t go around wherever your own heart and eyes lead you to prostitute yourselves; 40 but it will help you remember and obey all my mitzvot and be holy for your God. So we start out with a simple explanation. A tassel for each of the corners of our garments that have a blue thread within them, meant to remind us to obey Elohim's commands. Pretty straight forward, not difficult.
To answer if we are a part of Israel to be included within this passage I refer you to my post Grafted In. Traditionally the Jewish people have turned this passage to apply to the men only, as context prior to this has aspects referring to the men; but even the Orthodox are moving away from this Rabbinical difference as they see the passage refers to all of the "people of Israel" and not just the men of Israel. Something Messianics have known since the beginning, tzitzit are for the daughters of Israel as well.
With a little thought just off of this passage, is there not something many youth in North America where wearing in the nineties and early turn of the century for a similar result? What Would Jesus Do bracelets are still seen now and then among some young people! Meant to be a physical reminder of following in Yeshua's footsteps and being obedient. The only difference here is style, often color, and one is biblically based while the other is not.
But there is more even to this level of the function of the tzitzit. See, God tells us to be set apart and visible different. In our culture we often see this done in a cross necklace. So while many have left behind this biblical mandate we can see that two of it's features have gained imitators to fill the roles. But are these two roles being filled adequately? I don't think so, see, back when this was written tassels of various sorts where not uncommon among multiple nations; but the blue on the tassels set them shockingly apart.
The blue originally used was from a special snail, and incredibly valuable and difficult to attain, in addition to being a striking color often associated with people of wealth or high standing. So when the Isrealites would travel and coming into a new place they where immediately marked out as being special, above the norm. Marked as royalty. And indeed they where! We, as believers, all are royalty as the sons and daughters of the true and living Elohim. Should we not wish to be marked as such by the one thing he gave us to be marked with? The Jewish have since removed the blue from their tzitzit, unavailable to attain the specific blue historically used they've opted to use a plain white tassel for centuries now. Making those who use blue, believers in the Messiah, stand out individually as sons and daughters of God.
But the depth of the tzitzit doesn't just stop there. Zechariah 8:23 says, 23 Adonai-Tzva’ot says, ‘When that time comes, ten men will take hold — speaking all the languages of the nations — will grab hold of the cloak of a Jew and say, “We want to go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.”’” Now, the Tree of Life Versions instead says, 23 Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, “In those days it will come to pass that ten men from every language of the nations will grasp the corner of the garment of a Jew saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’” And what have we already seen was at the corner of their garmets? The Tzitzit. There are many who believe that this verse is being fullfilled around us today. With the growing rate and revival of Messianic denominations, the growth of the Hebrew Roots Movement, the revival of The Way and Natzarines. That gentile believers all around us are waking up to the idea that they are Hebrew by definition and Israelite by adoption. Turning to the one thing the Jewish people have always kept, Torah. And thus symbolically clinging to the Tzitzit, the physical reminder of those laws.
Tzitzit have something else as well that you'd miss if you didn't know one thing - That the term "wings" is a form of slang, a secondary name, for these fringes. Malachi 4:2, or Malachi 3:20 for CJB and TLV users, says, But to you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will break out leaping, like calves released from the stall.Showing us a glimpse that when the Messiah came there would be healing in his wings. Mark 6:56 says, Wherever he went, in towns, cities or country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the tzitzit on his robe, and all who touched it were healed. Matthew 14:36 also backs this up! Showing us plain as day that Yeshua did in fact have healing in his wings, in the tzitzit. Luke 8:44 and Matthew 9:20 recount a story of a woman who knew just touching his tzitzit would be enough to heal her. So we see that these served another purpose for Jesus during his time here on Earth. It is also theorized that we see them mentioned again in Revelations 19:16, in a sense. The verse reads, And on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. The reason behind the theory is the making of tzitzit in the sephardic style, in which the number of knots for the numeric value for the tetragramaton, God's true name.
In review then we see that all the people of Israel, sons and daughters, are to wear tzitzit for all generations. To both remind us of our covenant and thus remind us to follow the Laws of God and to set us apart as his special children. We see that we are to wear them "at the corners of our garments" but with the changes to fashion in the many years since the commandment was given and after the crucifixion of Yeshua how do we know what those corners will be? Tradition says that a set of tzitzit is 4 (Dueteronomy supports this but as we no longer have 4 corners on our clothing it is not a mandatory number), but many today are even wearing two at a time. Some go with the tradition of needing a garment that has four corners, and thus wear a tallit undershirt, a poncho style shirt for under your clothing with the tassels hung on it. Others hang their tzitzit on the belt loops of their pants. When hung on the waist the options then range from one in front of each thigh, front belt loops, to guide our paths, with or without two to the back to match; or one on each side of us to surround us. Some people even wear six tassels to fully surround themselves. What you decide here is up to you, so long that we are obeying God's commandment to be wearing them.
For women the tzitzit can be hung from the waist, on beltloops or with special hijab safety pins (you can get these cheap and they're even attractive, in an assortments of colors and styles) or some women with long skirts choose to wear the tzitzit at the hem of the skirt, pinning the tzitzit to the underside high enough to not be stepped on. Also, because women are to cover their heads when praying and prophesying it would be appropriate for a woman to have a tallit, the traidtional Jewish prayer shawl, with tzitzit on it when she does these activities. A man, however, as he is to uncover his head at these times would no longer be appropriate to have a tallit over his head, although I have still seen many men wrap one over his shoulders as a cloak.
As for the tzitzit itself, it is to be either entirely wool or entirely cotton, with no blending of the two per Dueteronomy 22:11 and Leviticus 19:19. They are to have at least one blue thread and be a tassel. From there styles vary. I have bought fancy larger style ones for my family for special occasions such as the Holy Days but prefer to use home made smaller ones for simplicity and practicality. I do these in an almost Sephardic style, with tatting threads:
- Starting with three threads that measure 27" in length. One blue and the other two normally white, although variety is permissible and my daughters favorite is pink with her blue.
- With a safety pin in your skirt or pants at your knee and secure measure down ten inches on the threads and knot them together than do a loose fastening to the pin.
- You can choose to have a loose loop or a braided loop, I prefer braided as I find it gives a neater look and lasts longer, and so I braid down two inches in length and then close it with a knot.
- Remove it from the safety pin and bring the two knots together, looping the loop over the pin to hold the tzitzit in place and knot together the two sides.
- Now begins the knotting pattern that you have prior chosen, I use the 10-5-6-5, which represents the numeric value of Yod He Wah He, thus writting God's name onto the tzitzit. The Ashkenazi style is common as well, 7-8-11-13, which equals 39, the numeric equivalent of Dueteronomy 6:4 - The Shema! I do the knots in the Blue, making it the prevalent color and either pattern it is on display.
- Between each segment of the pattern i do a larger knot of all the threads to identify the separations and keep them together.
- At the end I give it a doubled up knot then straighten out my threads.
- To finish it off I cut one of the blue tails at 8 inches, and the rest of the tails at 7 inches. Making the tzitzit itself measure to the number of God and the short blue tail then reminding us that the Messiah has come once, and the long blue tail reminding us that he will come again.
From there it's is the decision of putting the finished tzitzit on lobster clips for belt loops or onto my special pins for skirts and dresses!
I hope this post has been educational and helpful for you! May Adonai keep you and bless you.
