Our journey into Torah observance started in 2016. Jereme had been praying for some time, asking the Lord to show Him what it really means to love him.
About 8 months after our son was born, we began to get some answers. It started with keeping the Sabbath (as it tends to start for many people in this walk). I didn’t jump on board right away … I remember Jereme coming into our home office on Friday nights and saying “Shabbat Shalom!” I just looked at him like he had 10 heads and continued working.
But I slowly began to ask questions and to come to the same understanding. Thankfully, we’ve always both been pretty open minded and willing to look into things, even if it means admitting everything we’ve always been taught to believe was a lie.
One of the first commands we learned about towards the beginning of our journey was the instruction to wear tzitzit.
In case you’re not familiar, this particular instruction comes from Numbers 15:
“Speak to the Israelites and tell them that throughout their generations they are to make tassels for the corners of their garments, and put a blue cord on the tassel at each corner. These will serve as tassels for you to look at, so that you may remember all the Lord’s commands and obey them and not become unfaithful by following your own heart and your own eyes.”
Numbers 15: 38-39
When reading the Torah, we always try to understand the “why” behind each commandment. Understanding the “why” really helps to reinforce the heart of the matter and avoid just blindly following a checklist of commands. I truly believe that our God looks at the heart first. If we are simply following a checklist with no repentance or heartfelt intentions, we can quickly become like the Pharisees – legalistic and burdened by seemingly arbitrary, meaningless, and difficult demands.
That’s not the intent of the Torah. We don’t keep our Father’s commandments out of pure obligation. (That would be religion.) We do it because we know that his heart is for us. He gives us his instructions because he loves and wants to bless his children, and his instructions are intended to keep us out of harm’s way.
What Are Tzitzit?
Tzitzit are specially knotted tassels or fringes. They are traditionally attached to the four corners of a tallit, which is a prayer shawl often worn by orthodox Jews. But many Torah-observant Christians will attach them to the belt loops of their pants or even safety-pin them to the sides of a t-shirt or dress in an effort to obey the command despite the limitations of modern-day garments.
Most scholars agree that it was the fringe of Yeshua’s robe that the woman in Matthew 9 had touched when she was healed:
“A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years approached him from behind and touched the tzitzit on his robe. For she said to herself, ‘If I can only touch his robe, I will be healed.’ Yeshua turned, saw her and said, ‘Courage, daughter! Your trust has healed you.’ And she was instantly healed.”
Matthew 9: 20-22
What is the Purpose of Tzitzit?
The Israelites were told to wear tzitzit so that when they look upon them, they would remember to obey all of God’s commands. I believe this purpose still holds true for us today as we strive to obey his instructions just as our Messiah did.
Why Should Christians Wear Tzitzit?
Some people would assert that Christians don’t have to wear tzitzit. That like many of the “Old Testament” commandments, that instruction was “done away with” and no longer applies.
But contrary to popular belief, the Torah was never “done away with.” Yeshua himself said that he came not to abolish the Torah and that not one jot or tittle would pass from the law until heaven and earth pass away and all had been fulfilled.
Last I checked, heaven and earth were still around…
How to Wear Tzitzit with Modern Clothing
I’ve recently seen some people claim that keeping God’s commandments incorrectly is worse than not keeping them at all. That if we can’t follow them properly then we shouldn’t even attempt to keep them, because doing so is sinful.
I honestly can’t get behind that reasoning … to me, that way of thinking is making his commands into an arbitrary checklist that must be followed to the letter, regardless of our heart’s intent. But it’s clear throughout the Torah and the New Testament that Yah cares more about our hearts than about whether we keep the commandments perfectly.
This is easy to understand if we think of God as our loving Father instead of viewing him as some far-off entity who simply wants to control our every action.
As parents, we often give our kids instructions that we want them to obey in order to keep them out of harm’s way. And it’s our genuine hope that they’ll obey our instructions because they believe and trust that what we say is true and for their good, and they have a heartfelt desire to please us.
I think God hopes the same for us as his children…
The same people who says its sinful to keep the commandments incorrectly might claim that wearing tzitzit with our modern-day attire the way that many Messianics do is wrong and therefore sinful. When it comes to wearing tzitzit, that same line of reasoning might go something like this:
“The command says to wear them on the corners of our garments, so putting them on the belt loops of our jeans is incorrect. Jeans don’t have corners like the garments that the early church wore.”
The answer, then, is that we completely change our modern wardrobe to accommodate the instruction or forego the instruction altogether…
Or, maybe … just maybe, we follow a merciful God who understands our current situation, lifestyle, environment and all of its limitations, and gives us his grace, because the fact that we would even have a heart to follow the command brings him joy:
“Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me and keep all My commandments always, that it may be well with them and with their sons forever!”
Deuteronomy 5:29
Saying we are sinning if we keep the commandments incorrectly or not exactly as prescribed is like scolding a child for falling when they’re learning how to walk for the first time. As parents, we don’t react that way – we praise our children for making the effort and help them get back up and try again when they stumble!
How to Make Tzitzit
There are many styles of tzitzit including different variations of braids and knots. The only specific instruction we have when it comes to how they’re made is that they should include a cord of blue. Some might claim that we shouldn’t include any blue, because we don’t have access to the same dye that was used in ancient times to make the blue cord. But to me, that’s akin to saying we shouldn’t obey a command at all if we can’t do it perfectly, and once again, completely misses the heart of the matter.
So we do the best we can with what we have and use blue string, believing that our Heavenly Father loves us and has grace for those of his people who are scattered among the nations, eagerly awaiting his return and desiring to learn as much as we can about his ways in the meantime…
I recorded a video some time ago demonstrating how I make tzitzit, but there are many different styles and variations that you could make by following any of the tutorials available online!
