Tzitzit Design
Worn by YESHUA
The image below is not all the methods used today to tie tzitzit, there are some more.
The question is what do all these have in common? They are all different interpretations of the same text of Menachot 38a:4-40a:7.
You may be wondering what this text of Menachot is. If not, you can skip this section between the white dividing lines. The first 5 books of the Bible are the written Torah, which in Hebrew means the Instruction/Law, which was given to Mosheh (Moses). The Torah is the Way/Road/Road-Map-to-the-Destination-of-GOD which is composed of every Mitzvah/Commandment/Instruction/Law/Directions-to-Keep-on-the-Road-to-GOD. The Torah and Mitzvah have similar meanings. They are like when we call the whole Bible the Word/Scripture; but, if we are talking about 1 verse, it is still called the Word/Scripture. The Torah is the book, and each Mitzvah is like a verse. Then there is the oral memorized Torah. There is a very good article for this at Hebrew4Christians.com. There was an oral Torah, but what is called the oral Torah of today, called the Mishnah, was written in about 100-200 AD [1]. Then 2 commentaries were added to the Mishnah, each called the Gemara, and the Mishnah & Gemara together are called the Talmud, of which there are 2 Talmuds because of the 2 Gemara [1]. Menachot is part of the Talmud.
So, how does WhyAlive use these writings? Maybe you have heard the saying with “a grain of salt.” It is a decent and one of the few sources of information of how Yisra’el (Israel) was doing things during the time of YESHUA (JESUS). This is what we want to understand. We know YESHUA wore tzitzit from the verses of Mt 9:20, 21, 22; Luk 8:43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48; Mrk 6:56. So, we are looking to gather enough info to piece back together the original tzitzit.
The first item: how many strings and of what color and type? Every tzitzit design variation has 4 eight-ply strings folded over to form 8 strings in each tzitzit [Menachot 42a:11] [2: see 15 & 16]. From Yevamot 4b:10 from the Gemara of the Talmud, Ex 26:1, 31, 36; 27:16; 28:4, 5, 6, 8, 15, 33; Dt 22:11, 12; Lev 19:19; and Kilayim 9:1 from the Mishnah, we understand wool & linen were used in the Temple; and like the holy perfume (Ex 30:34, 35, 36, 37, 38), the LORD did not want it used for regular use except the tzitzit. The tzitzit was to be sha’atznez (H8162), which is the mixture of wool & linen (in the reference [3] it is talked about how the Jews will no longer mix the linen and wool together and have wool only tzitzit because they are not 100% sure the blue is the right color) (Dt 22:11, 12; Num 15:38) [3]. The linen in the Tabernacle was white 6 ply thread, and the wool was always 12 ply threads dyed a color of tekheleth (blue), ‘argaman (Tyrian purple), and tola’at shani (scarlet/crimson/red) [4] [5]. For the tzitzit, we know the color is blue from the Tzitzit article, which gives all the references that are needed to show it is the correct color. How many of the 4 strings were blue wool? Num 15:39 states when you see “it,” which is singular; so, one string was blue wool. Was it colored 50/50 white and blue like the Rambam method? Every piece of wool in the Tabernacle was colored red, purple, or blue. The only reference I could find of white wool was YESHUA’s hair was like white wool in Rev 1:14. Isa 1:18 does not say what color the wool is in that verse, which means we can not assume it is white; it actually makes more sense if it is colored blue as explained in the Tzitzit article. So, it safe to say the whole single wool string of a tzitzit was colored tekheleth/blue.
There is a Jewish argument that if you only put this tzitzit on a 4 corner garment or on a 4+ corner garment. Dt 22:12 only says a 4-corner-covering, meaning with exactly 4 corners (the symbolism of Dalet should not be removed with more corners). The Hebrew word used in Dt 22:12 that is usually translated garment is the word kesutheka (H3682), which means ‘your covering.’ The Hebrew word used in Num 15:38 is bigdehem (H899), which means ‘their garments/coverings/clothing.’
(A side note: the Tzitzit articles here at WhyAlive are only dealing with a white linen garment, as that is the preferred 4-corner-covering/garment for symbolism. Every priest wore white linen garments (Ex 28:39; 39:27, 28, 29) [5]. And, the Body-of YESHUA/Church/Bride is called a Kingdom of Priests (Rev 1:6; 5:10; 20:6). The high priest wore both a white linen garment and a blue wool garment, but only white linen on Yom-Kippur/Day-of-Atonement [5]. It is the Yom-Kippur/Day-of-Atonement sacrifice that YESHUA represented on the Cross on Pesach/Passover, and HE would need to be wearing a white linen garment to fulfill the Scripture (1 Jhn 2:1, 2; Lev 16:2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34). At this time, we will not be dealing with the argument of if a tzitzit can or should be applied to a 4 cornered garment of a different material other than wool or linen.)
Every knot in every tzitzit design variation is a square-knot/reef-knot (not an overhand-knot or anything else) [Mishna Brurah 11:64]. A square-knot also has the strings going forward without going backward on the tzitzit as explained in the Tzitzit article. The majority of variations have five knots which point to the Torah/Word being 5 books [Kitzur Shulchan Arukh 9:5: summary of Jewish law written by Rabbi Shlomo Ganzfried in 1864]. So, 5 it is since we have a majority and symbolism to back it up (actually there is more backing it up like the divisions of the wraps). Do we want the knot to show the blue or just white? The knot is the Bible with the blue string representing YESHUA as the Word (words) in the Bible. So, do we want the words of the Bible to show up and be seen? I’m saying yes.
The wrappings: Almost all who wear tzitzit want the symbolism of “The LORD is One.” (7-8-11-13 wrapping set up or the 10-5-6-5 wrapping set up). But, the Old Testament has 39 books (as well as Isaiah’s 39 + 27 = 66 chapter setup), which makes the tzitzit represent the Word. This representation can only be obtained by the 7+8+11+13 = 39 set up, which still has the symbolism of the LORD being one and even points to the Trinity of the LORD (see Tzitzit), which Orthodox Jews do not agree with but still approve the 7-8-11-13 setup [Kitzur Shulchan Arukh 9:5]. In Menachot 39a:9, we find the wrappings should be in sets of 3, and most variations have this set of 3. 13 sets of 3 is the most which equals 39. And, we can see that is true of all the tzitzit variations, none have greater than 39 or 13 sets of 3. How should we tie the sets of 3 (the chulyah)? The Radzyner Tradition (seen at the bottom of the page of this link) goes backward on the tzitzit to form the sets of 3. But also, if you tie a knot, the string will also go backward on the tzitzit. If you just wrap the sets of 3 without any knots, all the strings go forward on the tzitzit. And, if you have read Symbolism of Shape, a circle represents YESHUA. “No one having laid the hand upon (the) plow, but looks on the things behind, is useful for the Kingdom of GOD” (Luke 9:62). No going backward is what I understand this to mean. The best symbolic representation seems to be found in wrapping the sets of 3 without a knot so all the strings always go forward (wrapping this way is actually a majority view as well).
According to Menachot 39a:8, the length from the 1st knot to the 5th knot is 1 unit with the strings below the 5th knot being 2 units. And, Kitzur Shulchan Arukh 9:5 makes each knot the same thumb breadth distance apart giving a distance of 4 thumb widths from the 1st knot to the 5th knot; and then, the string length under the 5th knot is 8 thumb widths (which makes since given the symbolism as noted in the Tzitzit article). Whose thumb are we using? If we use a 4 foot or a 7 foot person, the tzitzit will be different sizes. But, as is shown in the Tzitzit article, the tzitzit is representing YESHUA. If we used HIS thumb width, every tzitzit would be the same size. How do we find YESHUA’s thumb width? Every person is made in the image of the LORD (Gen 1:26, 27). This means the ratio of a man’s body parts remains pretty similar from one man to the next and is even used to get the height of people in the medical field [6]. The ‘ammah (cubit) was used to measure the Tabernacle and the Temple that represents YESHUA and HIS Body. The ‘ammah (cubit) used at the time of Mosheh (Moses) is estimated to be 17.5-17.6 inches with the royal ‘ammah (royal cubit) estimated to be 20.4-20.6 inches [7]. Using some men’s ‘ammah (cubit) to height ratios, which vary, a 17.5-17.6 ‘ammah (cubit) comes out to a height of about 5 foot 4 inches to 5 foot 6 inches (I took several measurements of different men then also found this reference [8] which matched my findings). This matches the 5 foot 5 inch average height of a Jewish man during the time of YESHUA [9]. How do we know YESHUA was of average height? Isaiah 53:2 says YESHUA will be average/normal, not tall or short. And, YESHUA disappeared into the crowd a few times, which means HE probably wasn’t tall (Luk 4:29, 30; Jhn 5:13; 8:59; 10:39). There are 24 finger breadths to an ‘ammah (cubit), 28 (24+4) finger breadths to a royal ‘ammah (royal cubit), and about 22.17-24.3 thumb breadths to a royal ‘ammah (royal cubit) [cubit]. (If the calipers for the measurement are adjusted to just touching the skin of the thumb at the widest area, 22.17 is the result. If the calipers for measurement are adjusted to press tightly against the thumb at the widest area, 24.3 is the result. The only number between 22.17-24.3 that makes sense symbolically is 24. When the calipers were set for the 24 result, the fit of the caliper is more like the fit of a ring on the finger.) So, YESHUA’s thumb width was about 0.85-0.93 inches. This is real close to the thumb breadth of 0.919 inches used in the Talmud [10: Eẓba’ (“fingerbreadth”): Measures of Length]. The full length of the tzitzit should be about 10.02-11.15 inches with the wrappings being about 3.34-3.72 inches in length. (That is as close as I can get. This is not exact, just an estimate.)
The next 3 sentences are how I would have liked to have written this article (just a little humor):
The 4-cornered-garment is a rectangular-cloth/tent-covering garment. A square cloth is attached to each corner of the 4-cornered-garment that is about 2.9-3.19 inches. The hole is placed in the corner through the 2.9-3.19″ x 2.9-3.19″ square cloth above about 1.46 inches but below about 1.84 inches from the bottom & side edges of the 4-cornered-garment. But, wait a minute!!! Where did all that come from??? I’m just saying, this article would have been much shorter, lol :-). I thought it was funny anyway. Now, back to explaining all the above. The 4-corner garment (Dt 22:12) is a rectangular-cloth/tent-covering garment [11]. It is interesting this garment was decreased down to 1 ‘ammah (cubit) wide and 1 ‘ammah (cubit) long (tallit katan) by today [Kitzur Shulchan Arukh 9:11] [12]: [13], which is the same size as the 2 Tablets of Testimony (the-10-Commandments) from the LORD [Bava Batra 14a:9 from the Gemara of the Talmud]. There is a non-required reinforcement square cloth placed upon each corner of the 4-cornered garment measuring 3 agudlin by 3 agudlin (three agudlin: 2 2/3 to 3 inches) [Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 9:16]. A handbreadth can be the width of the 4-fingers or the width of 4 thumb breadths, which is the full palm width of the hand with the thumb included [14]. From the measurements in the last paragraph, YESHUA’s full palm width would be too big for 3 agudlin, but the width of HIS 4-finger handbreadth of about 2.9-3.19 inches would be about right [3.19 from this reference [8]. With seam allowance, the raw edge width of the square cloth is YESHUA’s full palm width of about 3.4-3.68 inches. If all the rules are taken into consideration for how far the hole should be from the bottom edge and the side edge of the 4-cornered-garment (tallit) from these references [15] [Kitzur Shulchan Arukh 9:3], with 1.18-1.57 inch (3-4 cm) being the minimum and 2.31-2.83 inch (5.875-7.2 cm) being the maximum; then using the middle of YESHUA’s 4-finger palm width for the smallest dimension and the middle of the full width of HIS palm for the large dimension (this is the above about 1.46 inches but below about 1.84 inches) fits the requirements and fits together very well with good symbolism.
This next part has created most of the tzitzit variations you see in the picture at the top. Menachot 39a:9 states, “taught: one who minimizes may not (have) fewer than seven (sets), and one who adds may not (have) more than thirteen (sets).” And to explain this, Menachot 39a:10 states, “One who minimizes may not (have) fewer than seven (sets) corresponding to seven firmaments. And, one who adds may not (have) more than thirteen (sets) corresponding to their seven firmaments and their six air/spaces between/in-the-interval-of them.” With Menachot 39a:11 stating, “taught: When one begins, begins with white (at) the corner (with the) type (of the) corner; and, when he finishes, he finishes with white. One elevates in/with/by holiness and does not downgrade/rebel.”
After the linen cloth and 1st knot, a white wrapping is at the beginning and a white wrapping is at the end before the last knot. All the tzitzit variations agree with this. But, then how do you minimize down to 7 sets of 3 (7 x 3 = 21) or add up to 13 sets of 3 (13 x 3 = 39) and still keep the 39 wrappings? The firmaments are a direct reference to the tekheleth/blue wool string as tekheleth is described as the color of the sky in Menachot 42b:10. If we increase or decrease the blue wool wrappings, we can keep the same 39 wrap count. What does “one elevates” “not downgrade” have to do with the white strings as stated in Menachot 39a:11? And what are the 6 spaces between the 7 firmaments/blue-wrappings as stated in Menachot 39a:10? The 1st white wrapping is after a knot with blue after it.
If we only have a white string at the 1st & 39th wrapping like the image above, then there will be blue wrappings before and after a knot for the 3 center knots. We know the ‘elevating’ has to do with the knot, white-linen wrapping, and the blue-wool wrapping; that is the only way you can start the tzitzit design. You can only end the tzitzit design with a blue-wool wrapping, then a white-linen wrapping, and then the final 5th knot; but, whether the tzitzit design goes from a knot to a white-linen wrapping to a blue-wool wrapping (at the beginning) or the design goes from a blue-wool wrapping to a white-linen wrapping to a knot (at the end), both ways have to be considered ‘elevating’ and not ‘downgrading’. So, if blue is the sky representing the Heaven(s), then the knot is moving up to the white that is moving up to the blue. This means if we do not have white-linen wrappings before and after the 3 center knots, we are not elevating the same. So, we need a white-linen wrapping on both sides of the knots. This also adds symbolism that will be shown in the Tzitzit article.
The “13 Sets of Blue: 31 Blue” tzitzit design shown in the picture above has blue-wool wrappings in each of the 13 sets of wrappings with a total of 31 blue-wool wrappings. This tzitzit design is just using 1 white-linen wrapping before and after each square/reef knot. Note that the wrapping sets at the 2nd and 4th knots only have one blue-wool wrapping with 2 white-linen wrappings. This means with this tzitzit design pattern of surrounding a knot with white-linen wrappings, it only takes one blue-wool wrapping in a set to be considered a blue set. In these 13 sets of blue, only 7 sets have all 3 wrappings made from 3 blue-wool wrappings. Since a set was considered blue if it had only one blue-wool wrapping, the 6 sets that have white-linen wrappings have to be made to have all white-linen wrappings in order to have a minimized tzitzit design with only 7 sets of blue-wool wrappings as stated in Menachot 39a:9. We will call this minimized tzitzit design “7 Sets of Blue: 21 Blue” as shown in the picture below (21 blue is the total blue-wool wrappings in the tzitzit design).
We can then make one more possibility of maximizing the tzitzit design with 13 blue sets. We will call this maximized tzitzit design “13 Sets of Blue: 27 Blue” as shown in the picture below (27 blue is the total blue-wool wrappings in the tzitzit design). This tzitzit design is made by just making 1 blue-wool wrapping & 2 white-linen wrappings per set for the 6 sets that have the white-linen wrappings.
The symbolism between and with the “13 Sets of Blue: 27 Blue” and the “7 Sets of Blue: 21 Blue” becomes very apparent, as I will point out in the Tzitzit article. Looking at the “7 Sets of Blue: 21 Blue,” there are 6 sets (3-3-3-3-3-3) of full white-linen wrappings that could be considered the spaces between the sky as stated in Menachot 39a:10. These white-linen wrappings (3-3-3-3-3-3) are not increasing or decreasing. We could then say the white in a set makes that set a spacing of which there are 6 with 7 blue sky sets, matching the description of Menachot 39a:10. If we count the white wrappings in each of the 6 sets with white-linen wrappings in the “13 Sets of Blue: 31 Blue,” we get 1-2-1-1-2-1. If we count the white wrappings in each of the 6 sets with white-linen wrappings in the “13 Sets of Blue: 27 Blue,” we get 2-2-2-2-2-2. So, for the “13 Sets of Blue: 27 Blue” there is an increase in holiness with the blue as it increases, but the white stays the same and does not decrease, matching the description of Menachot 39a:11. So, “7 Sets of Blue: 21 Blue” & “13 Sets of Blue: 27 Blue” are the tzitzit designs that match Menachot 39a:11 that describes the the tzitzit design used during the time of YESHUA. This gives us 2 designs, with both being used during the time of YESHUA.
And, for 1300 years [14], not a single Son of Yisra’el (Israel) has fulfilled the Mitzvah of the tzitzit, for they rejected YESHUA. And so, HE rejected them and removed from their presence the blood of the worm (Hexaplex Trunculus), that represents HIMSELF making HIS people clean and being one with HIS people forever. HE has made known the complete fullness of the tzitzit, so that the Mitzvah can once again be fulfilled. For HE is a GOD of eternal mercy pleading for HIS people to come back to HIM.