Tzitzit – The Fringe

The Lord said to Moses as follows: Speak to the Israelite people and instruct them to make for themselves fringes (Tzitzit) on the corners (Kanphei) 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 you shall 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 be your God: I, the Lord your God

Numbers 15:37-40

And You shall make tassels on the four corners of the garment with which you cover yourself.

Deuteronomy 22:12

The reason for the tassels is given by the torah The sole significance of the tallit was in the tzitzit.

To my sons and daughters of Israel and you said to them that they make for them tzitzits.

Numbers 15:38

And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD,to do them, not to follow after your  own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after.
 Numbers 15:39

The root of Tzitzit is based on the word, “to blossom forth, burst out into, sprout, breakthrough.”

Thus the Tzitzit of an animal is its wings,
Tzitzit of a man is their hair,
Tzitzit of an animal is its wings,

Tzitzit of a plant is its sprout, flowers and fruits.

The term Tzitzith recalls the tzitz, the golden plate, worn by the high priest, upon which were engraved the words "Holy unto God" (Exodus 28:36).

Just as tzitz is derived from (to gaze; cf. Song 2:9), because it was worn on the forehead, a place visible to all  (Rashbam), - Tzitzith, too, is derived from the same root.

Exodus 28:36-38 And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and engrave upon it, like the engravings of a signet: HOLY TO THE LORD.  And thou shalt put it on a thread of blue, and it shall be upon the mitre; upon the forefront of the mitre it shall be. And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead, and Aaron shall bear the iniquity committed in the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow, even in all their holy gifts; and it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the LORD.

Exodus 39:30 refers to the Tzitz as the "holy crown".

Jewish High Priest wearing the sacred vestments, the Tzitz is depicted above his forehead in yellow. 

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Tzitzith also refers to the hairs, or "fringes" on the forehead (cf.Ezek. 8:3).

 This word thus denotes that the fringes are to be seen, to be looked upon, and its best translation is, therefore, "showfringes" thus the fringes are attached to the garment in order to be seen. It is a mnemonic device – look and remember.

Fringe as Identification

The use of fringes itself was not new.

Assyrians and Babylonians wore fringes and they believed that fringes assured the wearer of the protection of the gods.

This ornate hem from where the fringes started, was a "symbolic extension of the owner and more specifically of the owner's rank and authority." In all societies and cultures the fringes were the "I.D. of nobility."

In Mari, an ancient city in what is now Syria, a professional prophet or diviner would enclose with his report to the King a lock of his hair and a piece of his hem....Sometimes the hem was impressed on a clay tablet as a kind of signature.

Requests accompanied by grasping the fringes of the one from whom you wanted something could not be refused.

Exorcists used the hem of a patient's garment in their healing ceremonies.

A husband could divorce his wife by cutting off the hem of his wife's robe.

Professor Milgrom of Berkeley University, who write one of the

critical volumes of commentary on the Torah for the Jewish Publication Society, saw the tzitzit as a sign of royalty or the priesthood. They were worn on the lower hem of the robe, and thus signifying those who are called out as a nation as a "kingdom of priests"

The Jewish prayer shawl displayed a person's authority. The more important the person, the more elaborate his prayer shawl. In the period of Kigns, a Prophets would cut of one of their tassels to send along with their prophecy to ensure the king it was their prophecy.

In 1 Samuel 15:27-29, Saul tore Samuel's tassel from his shawl.

Samuel told Saul the kingdom of Israel would be torn from him as Saul had torn Samuel's tassel (authority) from him. We also see David's anguish in 1 Samuel 24:5 when he cut the tassel from Saul's shawl. David knew he was to replace Saul as king over Israel, but, by cutting the tassel off Saul's shawl, he had gotten ahead of God's timing. Thus, stripping Saul of his authority by cutting off Saul's tassel, David repented before God and Saul in 1 Samuel 24:5.

The reason why the tallis is striped is simply because that was the fashion in Greece and Rome. But this doesn't answer the question of why blue or black?

Tzitzis are supposed to include a thread of blue wool in each tassle. The stripes on the tallit remind us of the 'strand of techelet' once worn as part of the tzitzit. The Torah commands that tzitzis contain a thread of Tichales (blue). The reason for this is contained in Sotah 17b.