TINK (Things I Never Knew)
Tzitzit-Part 1
zitzit [tsiˈtsit]
QUESTION: Ever heard of tzit tzit?
Care to know about it?
It’s fairly eye-opening!
Short definition:
Tzitzit: Fringes or tassels tied at the four corners of a Jewish garment known as a Tallit or prayer shawl.
See the picture below.
Now that you know what they are, you will probably see them in Bible movies and documentaries.
What are they for?
Read Numbers 15:37-41
37 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
38 Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue:
39 And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them ; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring:”
So God instructed His people to make these tzitzits and attatch them to the 4 corners of their garments as a reminder of His commandments. Kind of like a string tied around your finger to help you remember to do something.
In the ancient Near East, the corners of a person’s garment represented his identity, a symbol of who he was and what he stood for. For example, when Ruth came to Boaz, she asked him to spread his garment over her. It would have been a request for him to identify with her.
How about the time when Saul was chasing David. Remember, Saul fell asleep in the cave and David had the perfect opportunity to kill him. But what does the Bible say happened? “Then David arose, and cut off the skirt of Saul’s robe privily.” But David didn’t just shorten Saul’s garment, he cut off the corners, the “wings” (Strong’s tells us). He cut off Saul’s tzitzit! David, as seen by their culture, had defaced an important symbol of Saul’s identity and divinely authored kingship. Most likely, that’s why Saul said a few verses later, “I know well that thou shalt surely be king(David), and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in thine hand. Wow! Right??
Stay with me!
God used this phrasing other times in the Old Testament:
Speaking of God’s love to Jerusalem ” I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine.” Ezekiel 16:8
The word “skirt” in this verse is “kanaph” in Hebrew…”wings”
Also in Psalm 91:4 “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust….” wings = kanaph = tzitzit
AND 5 verses before God closed out the Old Testament books, we read this.
“But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.” Malachi 4:2
Healing where? In His WINGS, His kanaph, His tassels, His tzitzit.
Wait!!! You gotta see this!
Fast forward to New Testament times. By now, tzitzits are known as a symbol of the priesthood, a person’s identity, being holy unto God and obeying His commandments and most of all healing. Now picture one of the most well-known stories in the New Testament.
The woman with the issue of blood. She came up behind Jesus and what? She touched the border of His garment (Luke 8:43). She touched the hem of His garment (Matt 9:20) “Hem” or “border” comes from that Hebrew word “kanaph” translated to “kraspedon” in the Greek. She didn’t just reach for the hem of His garment! SHE REACHED OUT TO TOUCH HIS WINGS, HIS TZITZIT!!!
As one of my pastor’s would say, “You didn’t hear me.” The woman with the issue of blood was healed when she touched the tassels on the corners of his Tallit. Jesus turned and told her “thy faith hath made thee whole.” She most likely knew the prophecy from Malachi about healing in His “wings”.
Are you kidding me?
What I haven’t told you is this. These tassels are tied and knotted with a hidden code. Not to mention, the blue thread in each tzitzit has profound meaning as well.
Please see Tzitzits Part 2
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