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Get a grip on God: Finding the why of the tassels (Numbers 15)
In this study
Ezekiel 8: Israel’s love affair with foreign gods should have been hair-brainedEzekiel 5: Hair today, exiled tomorrowYes, look now, they’re blooming amazing!I spy with my wayward eyeDon’t ‘follow your heart’; follow GodHealing in His tzititotBillboards of hope for the Day of the LORD
Bringing your old life with you as you try to walk in a new way of life is a recipe for disaster. This is why there was so much grumbling and complaining after the children of Israel left Egypt. The wilderness was like a post-prison half-way house between Egypt and the Promised Land. A half-way house can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on whether you see it as an opportunity for growth and renewal or an opportunity to long to return to your prior life.
This study focuses on Numbers 15, the seventh aliyah (Scripture portion) of the Torah reading שלח Shelakh (“send,” Numbers 13–15). This section focuses on the commandment of wearing tzitzitot (fringes) on four-cornered garments. A lot of ink has flowed for over 3,000 years discussing the what and the how of tzitzitot — colors, numbers of threads, who can wear them, to what they’re attached. This study will focus on the lessons of them.
Speak to the children of Israel and you shall say to them that they shall make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments, throughout their generations, and they shall affix a thread of sky blue [wool] on the fringe of each corner.This shall be fringes for you, and when you see it, you will remember all the commandments of the Lord to perform them, and you shall not wander after your hearts and after your eyes after which you are going astray.So that you shall remember and perform all My commandments and you shall be holy to your God.I am the Lord, your God, Who took you out of the land of Egypt to be your God; I am the Lord, your God. Numbers 15:37-41, Judaica Press
The tzitzitot were given to us by HaShem so that when looking at them — either our own or those on other people’s garments — we remember “every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” and refrain from following the temptations of the heart.
We see in the Bible stories of how people would grab on the tzitzitot of another person as a demonstration of trust or faith.
The Hebrew word that is translated as “tassels” or “fringes” is צִיצִתות tzitzitot (H6734) in Hebrew or κράσπεδον kráspedon (G2899) in Greek.
Ezekiel 8: Israel’s love affair with foreign gods should have been hair-brained
The respected medieval Jewish commentator Rashi had two ideas regarding the meaning of the tzitzit:
* Resemble a lock or strand of hair, based on Ezek. 8:3.* Attract the gaze, based on a similarly spelled Hebrew word.
You see in Numbers 15 that Moses was prophesying that the children of Israel would go astray, and Ezekiel lived through a time of great apostasy and soon-coming exile of Israel to a foreign land. God revealed to Ezekiel in a vision (Ezekiel 8:1–18) how the priests and the people had their backs to the Temple and were facing east to pray to the rising sun.
In a monarchy,
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By Hallel FellowshipIn this study
Ezekiel 8: Israel’s love affair with foreign gods should have been hair-brainedEzekiel 5: Hair today, exiled tomorrowYes, look now, they’re blooming amazing!I spy with my wayward eyeDon’t ‘follow your heart’; follow GodHealing in His tzititotBillboards of hope for the Day of the LORD
Bringing your old life with you as you try to walk in a new way of life is a recipe for disaster. This is why there was so much grumbling and complaining after the children of Israel left Egypt. The wilderness was like a post-prison half-way house between Egypt and the Promised Land. A half-way house can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on whether you see it as an opportunity for growth and renewal or an opportunity to long to return to your prior life.
This study focuses on Numbers 15, the seventh aliyah (Scripture portion) of the Torah reading שלח Shelakh (“send,” Numbers 13–15). This section focuses on the commandment of wearing tzitzitot (fringes) on four-cornered garments. A lot of ink has flowed for over 3,000 years discussing the what and the how of tzitzitot — colors, numbers of threads, who can wear them, to what they’re attached. This study will focus on the lessons of them.
Speak to the children of Israel and you shall say to them that they shall make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments, throughout their generations, and they shall affix a thread of sky blue [wool] on the fringe of each corner.This shall be fringes for you, and when you see it, you will remember all the commandments of the Lord to perform them, and you shall not wander after your hearts and after your eyes after which you are going astray.So that you shall remember and perform all My commandments and you shall be holy to your God.I am the Lord, your God, Who took you out of the land of Egypt to be your God; I am the Lord, your God. Numbers 15:37-41, Judaica Press
The tzitzitot were given to us by HaShem so that when looking at them — either our own or those on other people’s garments — we remember “every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” and refrain from following the temptations of the heart.
We see in the Bible stories of how people would grab on the tzitzitot of another person as a demonstration of trust or faith.
The Hebrew word that is translated as “tassels” or “fringes” is צִיצִתות tzitzitot (H6734) in Hebrew or κράσπεδον kráspedon (G2899) in Greek.
Ezekiel 8: Israel’s love affair with foreign gods should have been hair-brained
The respected medieval Jewish commentator Rashi had two ideas regarding the meaning of the tzitzit:
* Resemble a lock or strand of hair, based on Ezek. 8:3.* Attract the gaze, based on a similarly spelled Hebrew word.
You see in Numbers 15 that Moses was prophesying that the children of Israel would go astray, and Ezekiel lived through a time of great apostasy and soon-coming exile of Israel to a foreign land. God revealed to Ezekiel in a vision (Ezekiel 8:1–18) how the priests and the people had their backs to the Temple and were facing east to pray to the rising sun.
In a monarchy,