386. String ‘Em Up, Boys!: The obligation to place tzitzis on four-cornered garments

It is a mitzvah for Jewish men and boys to put tassels called tzitzis on the corners of a four-cornered garment of a certain size (not, for example, a scarf). A tallis – the special cloak worn for prayer – is a four-cornered garment with tzitzis. Nowadays, we don’t wear too many garments that naturally fit the criteria, so men and boys wear a special garment called a tallis katan (“a small tallis”), typically but not exclusively under their shirts. There are, however, certain garments such as ponchos and serapes that may require tzitzis to be added. (There are other criteria, such as the material from which the garment is made. A rubber rain slicker would not require tzitzis, even if four-cornered.)

This is one instance where the Torah comes right out and tells us the reason underlying the mitzvah: “You will see them and you will remember all of God’s commandments so that you may perform them…” (Numbers 15:39). There’s more to this verse, which we’ll discuss in the next mitzvah.

Tzitzis contain a hint to the 613 mitzvos because the numerical value of the word tzitzis is 600. Each corner is wound in such a way that the tassel hanging from it has five knots and eight strings. 600 + 5 + 8 = 613. (Rashi on Numbers 15:39 and on Menachos 43b, s.v. Shekula.) A famous story about someone stopping himself from sin because of seeing his tzitzis is told in Talmud Menachos (44a). In it, a man stopped himself from sinning with a prostitute when he saw his tzitzis. The woman was so moved by this that she looked into Torah and eventually became a convert and married the man who had abruptly spurned her. The Talmud also equates the performance of this mitzvah with that of all mitzvos combined (43b).

Part of the mitzvah of tzitzis is that one thread should be dyed a special shade of blue called techeiles, which was made from a special pigment extracted from a shellfish called the chilazon. We have lost the tradition as to what, specifically, the chilazon was so most people nowadays do not wear the blue thread as part of their tzitzis. Lack of techeiles does not disqualify garments from requiring tzitzis; the mitzvah still applies even if we are incapable of wearing the blue thread. (There are those who feel the chilazon has been identified as a snail called the murex trunculus. These people have resumed the practice of wearing techeiles in their tzitzis, but the position is hardly recognized as universal and there are those who actively disagree.)

Tzitzis is an obligation on the individual, not on the garment. One is allowed to own a warehouse full of four-cornered garments and it would violate neither the letter nor the spirit of the precept. If he wants to wear one of his thousand wool ponchos, he would have to put tzitzis on the corners.

This mitzvah applies to men in all times and places. It is discussed in the Talmud in tractate Menachos, starting on page 37b. This mitzvah is codified in the Shulchan Aruch in Orach Chaim 8. It is #14 of the 248 positive mitzvos in the Rambam’s Sefer HaMitzvos and #10 of the 77 positive mitzvos that can be fulfilled today as listed in the Chofetz Chaim’s Sefer HaMitzvos HaKatzar.