Jewish Ritual Objects Gone Wild
I'm very proud of this project that I completed last week and have been meaning to show it to all of y'all but I'm only now getting around to putting this entry together. Because it may be filled with Jewy terms, I suggest choosing the LJ-cut that matches your knowledge first and keep reading down through the rest.
Background
Maybe you've seen pictures of religious Jewish men wearing large prayer shawls. Slightly more subtle, maybe you've seen [pictures of] men with little white strings hanging down from underneath their shirts. The source for these garments is biblical in origin. Numbers 15:38 states, "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 blue (tekhelet) on the fringe of each corner." Since men don't wear four-cornered garments regularly any more, rectangular prayer shawls (singular, tallit) with the ritual fringes (tzitzit) are often worn during morning prayer. Some men also wear smaller four cornered garments with tzitzit (ritual fringes) under their clothing during the day to further obey this commandment. This smaller garment is called a tallit katan (small prayer shawl) and basically looks like a big rectangle with a hole in the middle for the head and strings coming from each of the four corners. [For images, see Google Images: Tallit katan]
There are a few reasons why men wear tzitzit (ritual fringes). For some, it's just a form of identity like a kippa/skullcap. Wearing tzitzit "out" (sticking out from below the shirt and not tucked into the pants) can immediately mark a Jewish man as a member of his particular religious community. For others, it's simply that the biblical commandment says to make fringes on four cornered garments. And that is reason enough for them to go out of their way to wear special garments with the fringes. A traditional and deeper reason is given that the tzitzit (fringes) represent all of the commandments that a Jew is obligated to follow. Looking upon them remind the weares of the commandments and of God. There are different ways of tying and knotting the strings to represent the number of commandments, the name of God, and so on. [Image: A standard method of tying]
A Bit More Detail
As I mentioned, one of the biblical sources for tzitzit mentions "a thread of blue (tekhelet)." This is a hot-button in issue in many Jewish communities because for centuries it was thought that the specific tekhelet (blue) dye that was used for the tzitzit was lost. Recently, a number of organizations have re-discovered what they believe is the original source for tekhelet. Until then, almost all tzitzit were made up of only white strings. It was prohibited to use a fake-blue, so all the fringes remained white while the source for the blue dye remained unknown. Now that many believe the correct dye and process for tekhelet was discovered, they feel that the only way to properly fulfill this commandment is to use one string of tekhelet on their ritual fringes. This can be tied in any number of ways. [Image: Some methods of tying and knotting tzitzit with tekhelet]
Beyond Blue and White
There has also been a tradition, rather obscure but still existent, in the permissibility of dying all tzitzit and the garment on which they're tied a single color such as red or green. This would result in, for example, an all-red garment with all-red ritual fringes. Only blue would be problematic because it would have the false appearance of tekhelet. (The source for this is the Rambam. For the all Hebrew text, see 2:8 here.)
I was talking with a dear, dear friend of mine one Saturday afternoon and the subject turned to tzitzit and tekhelet. Joking around at first, we talked about colorful tzitzit, rainbow tzitzit, even Pride Tzitzit! (Remember, Rambam said tzitzit could be dyed almost any color.) I mentioned to him my own odd obsession with tzitzit and we decided that I would make him his very on pair of rainbow tzitzit. He went and bought a few sets of tekhelet (the very expensive blue dyed strings) and gave me one along with a garment. He explained to me his method of tying tzitzit (Western Sefardi 10-5-6-5) and I got to work. First I colored the strands. There are four strands on each corner, doubled over to make eight. One entire strand is tekhelet (blue) leaving three remaining strands. Folded over, that gave room for six colors. One of those was left white so that he could theoretically use his tzitzit to determine prayer times by being able to differentiate between white and tekhelet. The other five I then dyed using super-permanent-waterproof markers in green, yellow, orange, purple, and red.
Next I tied the tzitzit. This wasn't the first set of tzitzit I'd ever made (although it was the first time I'd used this particular method of tying) and I've always loved it. I described tying tzitzit to a friend as "making friendship bracelets - but with kavannah." (Kavannah is spiritual intention.) The tekhelet was used to make the individual wraps. As it turned out, each one of the four corners ended up being a little different in the ways the colors came together. All together beautiful. And he loves them.
The Pictures
Before I gave them to my friend, I went over to another friend's house and photographed my creation. (Clicking each photo takes you to even larger versions of each one.)
Background
Maybe you've seen pictures of religious Jewish men wearing large prayer shawls. Slightly more subtle, maybe you've seen [pictures of] men with little white strings hanging down from underneath their shirts. The source for these garments is biblical in origin. Numbers 15:38 states, "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 blue (tekhelet) on the fringe of each corner." Since men don't wear four-cornered garments regularly any more, rectangular prayer shawls (singular, tallit) with the ritual fringes (tzitzit) are often worn during morning prayer. Some men also wear smaller four cornered garments with tzitzit (ritual fringes) under their clothing during the day to further obey this commandment. This smaller garment is called a tallit katan (small prayer shawl) and basically looks like a big rectangle with a hole in the middle for the head and strings coming from each of the four corners. [For images, see Google Images: Tallit katan]
There are a few reasons why men wear tzitzit (ritual fringes). For some, it's just a form of identity like a kippa/skullcap. Wearing tzitzit "out" (sticking out from below the shirt and not tucked into the pants) can immediately mark a Jewish man as a member of his particular religious community. For others, it's simply that the biblical commandment says to make fringes on four cornered garments. And that is reason enough for them to go out of their way to wear special garments with the fringes. A traditional and deeper reason is given that the tzitzit (fringes) represent all of the commandments that a Jew is obligated to follow. Looking upon them remind the weares of the commandments and of God. There are different ways of tying and knotting the strings to represent the number of commandments, the name of God, and so on. [Image: A standard method of tying]
A Bit More Detail
As I mentioned, one of the biblical sources for tzitzit mentions "a thread of blue (tekhelet)." This is a hot-button in issue in many Jewish communities because for centuries it was thought that the specific tekhelet (blue) dye that was used for the tzitzit was lost. Recently, a number of organizations have re-discovered what they believe is the original source for tekhelet. Until then, almost all tzitzit were made up of only white strings. It was prohibited to use a fake-blue, so all the fringes remained white while the source for the blue dye remained unknown. Now that many believe the correct dye and process for tekhelet was discovered, they feel that the only way to properly fulfill this commandment is to use one string of tekhelet on their ritual fringes. This can be tied in any number of ways. [Image: Some methods of tying and knotting tzitzit with tekhelet]
Beyond Blue and White
There has also been a tradition, rather obscure but still existent, in the permissibility of dying all tzitzit and the garment on which they're tied a single color such as red or green. This would result in, for example, an all-red garment with all-red ritual fringes. Only blue would be problematic because it would have the false appearance of tekhelet. (The source for this is the Rambam. For the all Hebrew text, see 2:8 here.)
I was talking with a dear, dear friend of mine one Saturday afternoon and the subject turned to tzitzit and tekhelet. Joking around at first, we talked about colorful tzitzit, rainbow tzitzit, even Pride Tzitzit! (Remember, Rambam said tzitzit could be dyed almost any color.) I mentioned to him my own odd obsession with tzitzit and we decided that I would make him his very on pair of rainbow tzitzit. He went and bought a few sets of tekhelet (the very expensive blue dyed strings) and gave me one along with a garment. He explained to me his method of tying tzitzit (Western Sefardi 10-5-6-5) and I got to work. First I colored the strands. There are four strands on each corner, doubled over to make eight. One entire strand is tekhelet (blue) leaving three remaining strands. Folded over, that gave room for six colors. One of those was left white so that he could theoretically use his tzitzit to determine prayer times by being able to differentiate between white and tekhelet. The other five I then dyed using super-permanent-waterproof markers in green, yellow, orange, purple, and red.
Next I tied the tzitzit. This wasn't the first set of tzitzit I'd ever made (although it was the first time I'd used this particular method of tying) and I've always loved it. I described tying tzitzit to a friend as "making friendship bracelets - but with kavannah." (Kavannah is spiritual intention.) The tekhelet was used to make the individual wraps. As it turned out, each one of the four corners ended up being a little different in the ways the colors came together. All together beautiful. And he loves them.
The Pictures
Before I gave them to my friend, I went over to another friend's house and photographed my creation. (Clicking each photo takes you to even larger versions of each one.)