The next in the series of morning blessings after al netilat yadayim (washing the hands) is al mitzvat tzitzit. Tzitzit are “fringes” on garments required in several biblical passages: “They shall make fringes for themselves on the corners of their garments throughout their generations.” (Num. 15:38)
Jews carry out this mitzvah by wearing the arba kanfot, the “four corners,” a garment with tzitzit, the first garment put on each day when getting dressed. There are also tzitzit on the tallit, the “prayer shawl” a Jew puts on for prayer. A post in theTorah.com provides a historical overview of meanings associated with wearing tzitzit. I’d like to focus on two ideas mentioned in the post and think about how they speak to me. But first, the blessing:
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה הָ׳ אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם אַשֶׁר קִדְשָנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָנוּ עַל מִצְוַת צִיצִת
Baruch atta Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha’olam asher kid-sha-nu b’mitz-vo-tav v’tzi-vanu al mitzvat tzitzit.
Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments, and commanded us concerning the mitzvah of tzitzit.
The explanation I have heard most frequently of the meaning and purpose of tzitzit is that they remind us throughout the day of the commandments and in reminding, save us from sin. But here are two other ideas that speak more meaningfully to me:
A Reminder of the Shema
“Listen, Israel, Adonai is our God. Adonai is One.” The Shema speaks to us of the Oneness of God. But what does that mean?
Adonai, Lord, a stand-in for the Tetragrammaton, is most often thought of as a “personal” god, a god who engages in personal relationships with human beings. Maimonides makes this idea part of his 13 Principles of Faith. God creates and guides, rewards and punishes. ~ Principles 1, 10 and 11. God is often represented in Jewish tradition, in the Torah and rabbinic literature, with characteristics we associate with a human being. God feels great love, compassion, tenderness, anger, even regret. It is these anthropopathic qualities that allow a personal relationship with created beings.
At the same time, this god is wholly other than God’s creation: “nothing whatsoever can compare to Him [or be compared with Him]…” ~ Principles 2 and 3. Where there is no similarity, no point of identification, it is hard to imagine a relationship.
So we have a paradox, a being wholly other yet to whom human beings can relate. That suggests to me a range of meanings and different ways of experiencing what we refer to by phonemes (God, Lord, Adonai) as we attempt to live within the paradox.
The paradox has been expressed in many different ways within Judaism. Never speaking or writing the four-letter name for God, the Tetragrammaton. Referring to God as Ha-Shem, the Name. The Jewish mystics use the phrase Ayn Sof to refer to God, “without end.”
But even as we refer to the incomprehensibility and otherness of God, we imagine ourselves in relationship with a being who says with reference to freeing the Israelites from Egypt, “…how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Me.” The tenderness and beauty of this phrase speak of a profound relationship — yet we know there are no wings involved here other than in our imagination. “Religion is in the language of ‘as if.’” It is our stories and images and similes that give meaning to our lives, including the idea that we are in an intimate relationship with All That Was, Is, Will Be. But Maimonides reminds us that any story, any simile, cannot possibly express ultimate reality.
So for a moment as I recite this benediction, I will set aside all the names for what is unnameable, all the visualizations and stories. I will empty myself and in that empty state participate in oneness. For a moment, I am without cultural constructs, the limitations of language, space and time. I am aware of profound interconnection, of interbeing — I am in everything, and everything is in me. There is a oneness of being, a compassionate whole in which the miracle of diversified life unfolds. This is a meaningful space from which to enter my daily life.
The Seas and the Heavens
In the post from theTorah.com, there is a passing reference to “the mystical explanation that the tekhelet of tzitzit reminds us of the seas and of the heavens and of God,” as one of the few rabbinic explanations of why the tzitzit remind us of God. Tekhelet is a special blue dye mentioned 49 times in the Tanakh/Hebrew Bible. It was used in the High Priest’s garments, the tapestries in the Tabernacle and in tzitzit.
My earliest experience of anything like a “God-awareness” came from watching the sun on the water or lying on my back looking up to the heavens. Somehow I didn’t need and didn’t form a picture in my child’s mind of that “God.” I didn’t need to name my experience, define it or explain it. I just experienced vastness, intimacy, profound connection, beauty and deep peace. So understanding the tekhelet of the tzitzit as a reminder of those moments, as a path into them, is a powerful kavanah (intention, direction of the heart) for me.
Tzitzit. Unity of All That Was, Is, Will Be. I was, am, and will always be part of this extraordinary beauty. There is inexpressible peace and love in this space. Tzitzit wordlessly connect me to that.