פרשת שלח
In this week’s Parsha, the Jewish people are instructed to place Tzitzis on any four cornered garment that they own. Although technically this commandment is only applicable to those who possess square clothes, the Jews took upon themselves to deliberately purchase four cornered articles of clothing so that they may become obligated and successfully fulfill the Mitzvah of Tzitzis. This commandment seems to be quite unique. The Gemorah in Menachos (43b) teaches us that it is so special that its value is equal to the entire Torah combined. Chazal furthermore state that anyone who is careful about the Mitzvah of Tzitzis will merit to greet the Shechina, and will have 2800 slaves in times to come. We know that Tzitzis are meant to remind us of all the commandments so that we may fulfill them. There are several different opinions in the Rishonim as to how it does this.
The Seforno, and the Sefer Hachinuch both write that Tzitzis are meant to be like a royal uniform which indicates that we are servants of the King. When a soldier looks at his uniform, he generally feels a sense of responsibility toward the side he is fighting for and finds a kindred spirit with his brothers at arms in their joint cause. Similarly, when we look at our Tzitzis, we should feel a sense of pride at the majesty of the cause we are serving, and a sense of motivation to carry out that service to the best of our ability. The Shaare Teshuvain discussing what servitude really means, says that if a slave tells his master that he is willing to perform any task the master commands accept for one task which he is unwilling to do under any circumstances, such a servant is not really a servant at all. This is because he shows that he has not really accepted any authority upon himself, and merely does what is acceptable to him, but retains his own character. Similarly, if we tell Hashem that we are unwilling to keep any commandment in the Torah, we have essentially thrown off the yoke of Heaven, and rejected Hashem as our master. Tzitzis is a constant reminder not to do that. It literally represents the yoke we have taken upon ourselves. Rashi says that Tzitzis reminds us of Hashem in a slightly more mathematical way. ציצית has the numerical value of 600. Add that to the five knots, and the four strings, and you have the sum of 613. The Ramban learns that the way to reach awareness of Hashem and ultimately a motivation to keep all of His commandments is from the Techelis in the Tzitzis. The Ramban is based on the Gemorah in Menachos (43a) which says that the blue color in the Tzitzis (which most of us no longer have) will remind a person of the sea, which in turn will remind him of the sky, which will cause him to remember Hashem. The Ramban goes on to say that “Techeiles” is similar to the word “Tachlis” which means purpose. When one looks at the blue dye in his Tzitzis, he should be reminded of his purpose in the world, and persuade himself to act accordingly. He goes on to say something that perhaps could only be understood by a physicist – that blue is the objective of all colors and that from far away, all colors take on a bluish hue. Parenthetically, my father used to say that when one is young, the world seems extremely diverse, with a wide variety of tastes and colors, with diverse cultures and habits, but as one gets older, one begins to realize that there is really only one thing going on in any given situation and that is the will of Hashem. It either is His will or it isn’t. Any way you learn, the goal of Tzitzis is clearly to remind us of our creator, and our responsibilities on this earth.
The Gemorah in Menachos relates that there was once a man who was extremely meticulous to perform the commandment of Tzitzis in all its stringencies. One day, he desired a certain woman who was forbidden to him. When his will power could hold out no longer, and he was about to do the sin, his Tzitzis got up and slapped him in the face, thereby ending his romantic interlude. I believe it is self-evident that this Gemorah is not to be taken literally, but rather because this Jew had developed such a keen awareness of what the Tzitzis symbolized, that powerful consciousness is what “slapped him in the face”, and aided him in controlling his passions.
It is interesting to note that the steps mentioned in the Gemorah to achieve a perception of the creator seem somewhat removed from the Tzitzis. Couldn’t Hashem have come up with a color that gives us a more direct link to him? I would like to suggest that perhaps the Torah meant to teach us with this seemingly convoluted progression, that understanding of Hashem cannot come to a person instantaneously, but rather is a methodical process which can only be achieved if one is willing to invest the time necessary to reach this realization. When a person glances at the world, Hashem is nowhere to be found on the surface. However, when one makes a decision to look slightly below the surface, he is confronted with infinite evidence which leads to the sole conclusion that there is a creator who loves us and is looking out for our good at every moment of the day. The Gemorah in Berachos (10a) learns out from a play on words that there is no artist like Hashem. Every other artist fashions a piece of art which looks good on the outside, but has no depth to it. Even a sculptor would never go through the trouble to sculpt something inside his own sculpture which nobody would ever see. Not so with Hashem. Hashem sculpted the human being with extreme perfection on the outside, and then went and did the unthinkable. He sculpted the inside of a human being, (and every other creature on this marvelous planet) with even greater accuracy, depth, and complexity such that there are literally thousands of working parts which simultaneously perform their own jobs, and interact with the other systems in the body with such precision that it would take a hundred lifetimes to even begin to fully appreciate their workings. And after all that, He went and fashioned a heavenly soul to somehow forge itself to the physical in a way that is unfathomable to human beings. And He did all this with the knowledge that nobody would ever have the instruments or the data to even witness this exquisite display for over five millennia. This is why Hashem is the most unique artist.
I once heard another nice explanation on this Gemorah from my father in law, R’ Elimelech Meller. He said that very often, an artist creates a piece of art which is so realistic, that from far away, it actually looks alive, so much so that unless one approaches very close, he cannot discern whether or not the art is breathing. Similarly, Hashem created the world in such a way that unless one looks closely, one can be fooled into thinking that the incredible intricacies of this world are random. Only when one looks closely does one become conscious of the fact that there is a puppet master orchestrating everything that is going on around us. My great uncle, The Ohr Sameach would add that this world is like a garment in that the goal of clothing is to hide what is underneath. Perhaps this is why Tzitzis, which is attached to a garment, was chosen as the transmitter of all these important ideas we have discussed.
R’ Eliyashiv once explained this point quite nicely. The Gemorah in Sotah (17) says that in the merit that Avraham told the king of Sedom that he would not take from him even a shoe lace, the Jews received the commandment of Tzitzis and the blue Techeles color. What, (other then the fact that they’re both made of string), is the connection between the two? R’ Eliyashiv explained that had the king sent Avraham away with riches, people would have said that he enriched Avraham, when in fact Avraham himself knew that it was only Hashem who was to thank. So Avraham was essentially the first person to draw attention to the fact that even though this world seems to run fairly smoothly on its own, behind each and every encounter, and behind every dollar we earn, and every involuntary function of our body, Hashem is there to allow it to happen and can veto it if He so chooses. With this understanding, it makes perfect sense why in his merit, we received the commandment of Tzitzis, whose primary goal is to accentuate this point.
May we all merit to inculcate the essential message of the Tzitzis into our hearts!