I’ve enjoyed the past several months doing the Torah commentaries every week at my congregation, but the most recent good news is that there is a rotation coming! That’s right, soon I’ll be sharing the Torah commentary duties with a couple other folks.

Some people might be disappointed, but not me; I’m in a Torah study with both of the people joining the rotation and I couldn’t be happier to see them taking on this challenge. And while I won’t say I need wrinkle cream just yet to cope with the stress, it is nice to not have to write a commentary quite so often.

So, let’s see… less work for me, and joining forces with two good friends to share the duties with? I don’t see any negatives!

The place to talk about trivial, temporal matters like humidifier filters is on a blog that specializes in such things. But here at MessianicMusings.com, we consider matters that are more eternal in nature. Here’s my commentary for Ha’azinu. Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom.

Our parashah for today is Ha’azinu, a Hebrew word that means “Give ear!” and covers all fifty-two verses of Deuteronomy chapter 32. This is the chapter that is more often known as The Song of Moses, and the opening four verses certainly have been made into memorable songs by various artists. They are poetic and inspiring and, well, let’s just read them, shall we?

Deuteronomy 32:1-4
Listen, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants. I will proclaim the name of the L-RD. Oh, praise the greatness of our God! He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.

They are certainly words befitting a man like Moses, who is said to have known the L-RD better than anyone since Adam and Eve, better than anyone until Messiah Yeshua. Moses knows the L-RD better than most of us probably know people we refer to as “friends.” He had a friendship, a close friendship, with the creator of the universe!

What many people don’t take the time to do, however, is read past those first four verses and discover what other insights this man who knew the L-RD so well has into the mind and character of our Creator. What we find when we do is a sad and tragic portrait of how often Israel – and indeed, all of us –fails to stay faithful to the L-RD, even as He remains faithful to His people.

Deuteronomy 32:5-6
They have acted corruptly toward him; to their shame they are no longer his children, but a warped and crooked generation. Is this the way you repay the L-RD, O foolish and unwise people? Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you?

Here, the L-RD is prophesying through Moses about the future of Israel, how when they are settled in the land and have grown comfortable, they will turn away from the L-RD and worship other gods, false idols who are not gods at all. For the L-RD, there can be no greater sin that turning aside from the truth once you have already known it.

Even Peter taught this message, as we read in:

II Peter 2:20-21
If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Yeshua the Messiah and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.

Peter must have had this Torah portion in mind when he wrote these words to the first-century believers. Like the children of Israel, those who follow the Messiah Yeshua enter into a new life, just as the children of Israel are about to enter into a new land. Just like the children of Israel, we who follow Messiah Yeshua are assured of victory over our enemies – the evil one – through the work of our Messiah. Just like the children of Israel, the danger for us is not an impending battle, but the danger is in the aftermath of victory.

You see, when life is difficult, when there is a struggle, when you are under persecution, you find out what is most important to you, what makes you who you are. At times like that, although they are not easy times, clinging to God, clinging to faith, isn’t necessarily a challenge; it’s a survival skill. On the one hand, Yeshua may be all you have, but on the other hand, all you have is Yeshua! All you have is the hope in Your savior, Your Messiah, the one who gives you life.

But when the battles are over, when life gets more comfortable, when the pressure is off and the victory celebrations have died down, what do we do? Well, human nature tells us that we tend to relax. We tend to get comfortable. We tend to begin taking things for granted. And that’s when the most destructive form of temptation can creep in; that’s when sin can overtake us. Not by outright attack, but through a quiet seduction.

That’s how it was for David. David, who had victory over Goliath, who persevered against King Saul without raising his own hand to strike him down, who conquered much of Israel and established a palace for himself in Bethlehem and whose life is a shadow of the Messiah in many respects – how did David fall? Was it through a mightier and more determined enemy? No. Let’s read this in:

II Samuel 11:1-5
In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home. The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”

Now, notice what is going on in the first verse. We’re told that it is springtime, a time when kings go off to war. That’s where David should be, leading his people into battle. But that’s not where he is, is it? No, instead, he’s wandering about on his rooftop, feeling restless, feeling comfortable, feeling perhaps just a little too safe. And what happens as a result? A sin with another man’s wife that spirals out of control and, it could be argued, poisons the rest of his time on the throne. Although the L-RD forgives David of his sin, the consequences have a ripple effect on David and his family that is felt for generations to come.

This is what worried Peter. This is what worried Moses. These are the sort of things that drive men and women of God to prayer throughout history, from the time of Moses to Yeshua to now; the knowledge that we are weak against the temptations of sin, that one bad choice can be made in an instant and yet leave such destruction in its wake. And we are at our weakest when we are at our most confident, in our most secure moments. That is why Moses goes on to say this in:

Deuteronomy 32:45-47
When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. They are not just idle words for you–they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

Now, what words is Moses speaking of here? Is he speaking merely of the Song of Moses that this chapter concerns itself with? Absolutely not. He’s speaking on a grander scale than that. Remember, Moses began this farewell address to the people of Israel at the beginning of Deuteronomy and he’s only finishing up just now. And Deuteronomy is a review of the entire Torah, the complete instructions of the L-RD for how to live at least to his minimum standard. Those are the words Moses is speaking of; not just the Song of Moses, but he is speaking of the entire Torah of God. That is what Moses had in mind when he said, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. They are not just idle words for you–they are your life.”

You know, the phrasing is made even more clear in the:

Stone Edition Chumash
For it is not an empty thing for you, for it is your life.

That’s the message we ought to take away as we wrap up our journey this year through the Torah cycle, and are nearing the end of our time in Deuteronomy. You see, some people explore the Jewish roots of their faith, and all it will ever be for them is an intellectual exercise. Maybe they see it as a useful way to “witness” to a Jewish friend. Maybe they simply want a history lesson. It could be any number of reasons.

Whatever the case, even though they learn more about God and who He is and what He expects of us, somehow it just doesn’t land on them and they return to whatever their previous experience with God was.

You know, when I was in college, I was part of a Christian Bible study where the subject of salvation came up, and the question we discussed was, which is the truth? Are we “once saved, always saved?” Or can we somehow lose our salvation? And as young believers searching for reassurance, we naturally clung to any verses that seemed to agree with our preferred answer, “Once saved, always saved.”

Even back then, though, I noticed verses that didn’t seem to fit with that conclusion. Verses like the words of Peter that I read earlier, as well as many others. And it was only later, as I saw how some of my friends, overconfident in their salvation, began slipping into sin, only when I formed a Bible study a few years later and saw how grace without obedience can lead people astray, that I began to lose my fear of what those harsher words of the Bible said and began to explore what they really meant. It’s part of what drew me to the Messianic movement.

You see, when I was single, I went to Christian singles retreats and one of the most common themes was “finding God’s will” or “knowing the mind of Christ” and yet I came away from each of those experiences finding the answers that were given in those settings to be either highly personal and subjective, or lacking in specifics and details drawn directly from Scripture.

You see, as a maturing believer, I was no longer satisfied to with making it up as I went along. “You are not to do as we do here today, everyone as he sees fit,” as Moses said in Deuteronomy 12:8. Somehow, I knew that. I was saved. I knew there was a God and a Savior. But I also knew that He had to have a specific will, that it wasn’t a subjective thing, but something specific, something easily accessible, something that would even be possible to keep, or, as we read a couple weeks ago, something, as Moses said, that was “not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.”

That’s where the Torah comes in. It is our clear words from the L-RD on what His will for us is, His instruction book for us to follow. It is the Word of God, which means it is also the Living Torah, an expression of the Messiah Yeshua Himself. And once we know it, we must never turn our backs on it again, for when we do, we are turning our backs also on the Messiah.

“Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. They are not just idle words for you–they are your life.”

L-RD, may they never be idle words for any of us here. May they be our life – the life found in Messiah Yeshua, our living Torah.

Shabbat Shalom.

I’ve learned the hard way the important of backing up your PC data, whether it’s through an external hard drive, flash memory or online data backup. After having lost three hard drives in just over 12 months, I’ve learned that there’s nothing like protecting your data, because when you lose it, it takes forever to get a new hard drive back to even the point of being useful. Anyway, here’s my Nitsavim-VaYelech commentary. Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom.

We have a double portion this week, so our parashahs for today are Nitsavim, which means “you are standing” and VaYelech, which means “and he went,” which cover Deuteronomy chapter 29, verse 10 (though due to a difference in numbering, some Bibles will say the portion starts at Chapter 29, verse 9,) through chapter 31, verse 30.

Now, the last time we met, I taught about how the L-RD commanded us to tie fringes on the four corners of your garments, putting a thread of blue upon the corner fringe as a reminder of the commands of the L-RD. And we talked about how the method of tying these fringes – called tzitzit in Hebrew, which is a word that has a numerical value of 600, as well as five knots and eight strands, which equals 613, the number of commands of the L-RD in the Torah.

Now, the fact that we teach about the 613 commands here at Beth Yeshua is something that makes us unique. It’s part of what distinguishes us as Messianic.

However, there are some common misunderstandings about the 613 commands related in these five books that comprise the Torah, and that is what I’d like to talk about today. When the subject of the Ten Commands comes up, or the 613 commands, or the five books of Torah or even the entire Tenakh – with perhaps the exception of Psalms and Proverbs – what is the most common misunderstanding?
“Well, the Law has been done away with.”

OK. What else is a common objection?

People might say, “Oh, this is all too difficult,” or “No one can keep all these commands. It’s impossible!” And you know what? On a technical level, I agree. No one can keep all 613 commands of the Torah. But not because human will is too weak. It’s because not all 613 commands are directed at everyone.

You see, among those 613 commands, there are commands that are for men only; there are commands that are for women only; there are commands that only apply to Levites; there are commands that only apply to those who sit on the earthly throne of Israel as king; there are commands that only apply to married people; there are commands that only apply to parents.

See, if you’re not a Levite, do you have to worry about keeping the commands for the Levites? No. Can you keep them even if you wanted to? No. They don’t apply to you. Can you keep the commands for parents if you are not a parent, even if you wanted to? Of course not.

So yes, technically, you can’t keep all of the commands of the Torah. I agree. But not because the human will is too weak to obey the L-RD; only because not all of the commands of the L-RD apply to everyone.

Now what about that argument that human will is too weak to keep the commands? Certainly there are verses that would seem to back this up, verses we all recognize, such as, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” But is that passage talking about the weakness of human will to obey the written Torah? Or is there something else going on there?

We all understand that Scripture reveals Scripture, right? So let’s start our examination of these questions in this week’s parashah, where we read at:

Deuteronomy 30:11
Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.

In this passage, the L-RD is speaking through Moses to the people of Israel as they prepare to enter the Promised Land. He has spent time summarizing the entire history of the Exodus from Egypt, the giving of the Torah, and the laws that shall govern them in the land they are about to enter. And so it is entirely appropriate at this point for the L-RD to reassure the people, so that they do not feel overwhelmed by the burdens and responsibilities they have been given and he shares these words. “Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.”

You know, as Solomon observed, there’s nothing new under the sun, is there? As it was back then in the days of Moses, so it is today. That’s what’s going on here. I’m sure many of the children of Israel listened to these 613 commands, this entire Torah, and found themselves overwhelmed by it, and in their hearts, if not yet on their lips, were thoughts that it was too much for God to ask, too much for Him to expect of them. That no one could ever keep it. And that’s how many people still feel about it today.

But is it true? Well, if the Torah is to be believed, and of course we trust that it is the Word of God, then we have to accept as true what we read here. “Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.”

Now, this is consistent with the life of Messiah Yeshua. He lived a life far above the standard set down in the Torah, and if He is our example, would he set an example that no one can follow, or would he set one that we are capable of following?

We also know of others who lived at or above the standard set by the Torah. For example, we read this in:

Luke 1:5-6
In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly.

We also know that Paul’s wishes for Yeshua’s early followers included a wish for them to live blamelessly, as we read in:

Philippians 1:9-10
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Messiah,

Finally, such an achievement is actually a requirement for leadership in a congregation, as we read in:

Titus 1:6-7
An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. Since an overseer is entrusted with God’s work, he must be blameless–not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain.

So I ask you this: Is blameless keeping of the Torah standard really too hard for any believer to live up to?

Notice that these passages do not indicate sin-free living, but blameless living. I took most of my examples here from the New Covenant writings to demonstrate that this is not simply a Mosaic standard; the expectation to live a life blameless according to the written Torah is not only a command of the
L-RD to Moses, but it is how Yeshua lived out His example for us to follow, it is a standard many people are said to have lived up to in both the Old and New Covenant writings, and it was a general expectation for those in leadership in the first-century church. Would this be expected if it could not be accomplished?

The answer, of course, is no, it would not be required if it were impossible to attain. Again, it is important to remember that what the Torah requires is not the L-RD’s perfect standard for holy living, but merely the minimum standard for our behavior to be acceptable to Him, a minimum standard that was the result of negotiations between the L-RD and Moses. In other words, it’s the least we could do in gratitude for all He has done for us.

This is why Yeshua so often taught things in this style, saying, “You have heard it said, but I tell you this.” In each teaching of that style, Yeshua was always raising the standards, not lowering them or doing away with them. And He did this to point out that not only was the Torah standard achievable, but much more was possible as well.

Take Yeshua’s teaching on divorce for example. The Torah standard is for a husband to write his wife a certificate of divorce; Yeshua pointed out that Moses allowed for divorce because our hearts were hard, and that, except for marital infidelity, divorce was not acceptable. I should add that it was understood in Yeshua’s time that the preservation of life came before all the rules of the Torah, so divorce would also be acceptable for those in abusive marriages.

So, I submit that it is a myth that no one can live up to the expectations of the Torah. In fact, we’re called to live beyond it, far above that minimum standard.

Of course, let’s not deceive ourselves. We are all subject to sin; we all fall short of the L-RD’s perfect standard. But, as I pointed out a few weeks ago, there is a vast difference between the occasional slip into sin in a moment of weakness and what Paul identifies in:

Galatians 5:21
I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

That phrase, “live like this,” indicates a state of ongoing, willing, unrepentant sin. It is that point at which we give up the struggle against the fleshly desires, snuff out the will of the Spirit in our lives, and we begin to justify and excuse whatever sinful behavior captures and enslaves us.

That is what the L-RD is referring to here as well as he speaks to the people of Israel through Moses in this week’s reading. The L-RD is not impatient with those who slip up occasionally; but those who allow their hearts to grow hard and unrepentant will not go unpunished by Him.

What about the misunderstanding that God’s will is too complex and unknowable? Let’s read on in:

Deuteronomy 30:12-14
It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

Here, the L-RD makes plain that His word, His standards, are completely accessible. Not only are they possible to achieve, but they are no mystery, either. He has made His will known in the words of the written Torah, so all that’s really necessary is to obey; to accept the L-RD’s word as right and just and correct, and then submit our will to His and live by it.

For example, is it possible to observe a seventh day Sabbath? Absolutely. Is there a cost to doing so if you’re in a family that goes to church on a different day? You bet. So it comes down to a willingness to obey, once you are convinced that God’s will is accurately laid out in His word, rather than in the human traditions we’re used to observing. So there’s a cost to obedience, but is there a reward as well? Certainly.

Let’s read on in:

Deuteronomy 30:15-18
See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the L-RD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the L-RD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

That’s our insight for today; the L-RD is and will always be consistent. He is not a God who deals unfairly, making demands that are impossible to meet. He is not a God who gives one set of rules to one person, and another set of rules to another. Now, our completion comes through the Messiah Yeshua, who makes up for our failings. The challenge of following the Living Torah is always to be moving closer toward more perfect obedience, rather than lounging about in our sin, overconfident in our own salvation to the point that we no longer even struggle against our sinful desires.

Shabbat Shalom.

A new Torah year is looming closer than ever. I’m certainly looking forward to going through Genesis (B’resheet) again. I missed out on the chance to teach on the very first parashah last year, and hopefully this year I’ll get it done, finally, and realize that ambition.

There’s so much rich material in those first six chapters or so. I’ve heard others teach on it and even so there’s so much unexplored territory that I perceive that particular parashah as almost endlessly rich and rewarding. While I will be sharing the Torah commentary duties once the new Torah year starts, I’m excited even about that because I’m really looking forward to seeing some of these new faces – some of whom I’ve helped along the way – spread their wings and give Torah commentary a try!

It’s more valuable than the finest in Eagle Creek luggage, to teach Torah and of Messiah Yeshua as well.

This weekend, I was reunited with a lot of old friends I haven’t seen enough of since taking on a teaching role in the congregation I’m now a part of. While picnics are fun, it was nice to worship alongside familiar faces, rather than just eating and socializing.

It turned out to be a great time, rather than the Ugg experience it might have been if I hadn’t seen quite so many old friends.

One thing I am coming to agree with is that while it’s important to grow in a way that spawns new congregations, it’s certainly nice and a joy to come together for the festivals of the L-RD. I’m looking forward more than ever to Rosh Hashanah after this weekend.

This weekend, thanks to a wedding at our building where we rent space, the congregation I am part of had a joint service with our other congregation and while I had some mixed feelings about sitting on the sidelines for a service after so many weeks of teaching, it actually ended up being quite enjoyable.

Now, don’t break out the hid kits just yet, I’m not saying I don’t want to teach ever again; in fact, I feel I’ve come up with one of my better commentaries in a while, for next week here, and I’m certainly thinking that I’ll be glad to be involved again.

But one thing teachers rarely get to do is be taught; it was a pleasure to be ministered to, rather than ministering, for a week. Though in the long run, I’m not sure I’d enjoy it if it lasted more than a week every once in a while. I just enjoy teaching too much to ever go back to being very casually involved.

I was pleased to finally finish this one; it took me far too long to write. Here is my Ke Tetse commentary. Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom.

Our parashah for today is Ke Tetse or “when you go out” and covers Deuteronomy chapter 21, verse 10 through chapter 25, verse 19. You know, as a young congregation, there are still many among us who notice all the things we do – things we take for granted – and they wonder, “What’s up with that? Why do you do that?” And this week’s parashah allows me the opportunity to address one such issue, which comes to us in:

Deuteronomy 22:12
Make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.

This is an abbreviated version of the original command given to Moses in Numbers. We’ll find this to be familiar because it is part of our weekly prayer service, and there is more detail offered here in:

Numbers 15:38-41
Speak to the children of Israel and tell them to make fringes on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, putting a thread of blue upon the corner fringe. They will be a fringe for you to look upon and remember all the L-RD’s commands and do them. And that you follow not after your own eyes, after which you used to go astray; that you may remember and do all my commandments and be holy to your God. I am the L-RD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God; I am the L-RD your God.

To understand this tradition, we must first understand its context. As related in the preceding verses of Numbers, an Israelite was found to be gathering wood on the Sabbath, the day the L-RD commanded no regular work be done. And the penalty was severe; the man was stoned to death. But almost immediately, the L-RD offers this command to put fringes on the corners of garments as a reminder of His commands.

Now, I’m sure most of you have forgotten something you were supposed to remember at one point or another. For me, sometimes, it seems like it’s a daily occurrence. And if you’re forgetful, what is some common advice?

That’s right. “Why not tie a string around your finger to help you remember?” It’s not a big stretch to suggest that this old nugget of advice had its origins in this command of the L-RD. The concept of a visual reminder of a promise is nothing new; the same concept is the reason people wear wedding bands when they get married; as a visual reminder that they are vowed to someone and no longer available to anyone else.

So that’s what the tzitzit are, basically; a visual reminder of the L-RD’s commands and our promise to follow them. Now, we know what the L-RD commands here; to make tassels or fringes on the four corners of our garments as a reminder of His commandments. But beyond the command to do so, how does one fulfill this command? For example, how many threads should one use in these fringes? Beyond the thread of blue, what color should they be? How should they be tied? How long should they be? For most of these questions, the Torah is silent.

That means there is some freedom in how to observe this command, so long as you observe it. One source a person can turn to for examples in observance of this command, of course, is Jewish tradition and practice.

Now, one must be cautious in this area. This is not an endorsement of all rabbinic traditions or everything that the rabbis teach. Yet if one is searching for a “how do I do this” response, certainly one can find some examples as a guideline in this area, within the realm of Jewish tradition and practice.

Look at my prayer shawl and fringes a moment. On each corner, there are eight strands; seven white and one blue.

The blue thread is significant. It is the only thread singled out in the Torah command, and the word used for blue here is t’chellet. There is more than one school of thought on the meaning of t’chellet blue.

One school of thought insists that t’chellet blue is made from the blood of a creature the Torah calls the chilazon. This rare fish at some point was thought to have gone extinct and the use of the thread of blue in the fringes, for many, passed out of practice with it. However, some Jewish scholars believe a rare fish found in the ocean near Israel, called the cuttlefish, matches the description of the chilazon and have reintroduced the use of the thread of blue through cuttlefish blood.

Another school of thought holds that t’chellet blue was derived from a rare type of snail, and so you’ll come across fringes made with that kind of t’chellet blue also. A few – such as Karaite Jews – believe that any blue will do the trick because the Torah does not refer to a specific dye.

No matter how one interprets t’chellet blue, however, its meaning is also a source of various views. Some teach that the blue was chosen to remind people of the ocean, which in turn reminds them of the sky, which then in turn reminds them of God’s throne, which finally reminds them of the L-RD’s commands. Among Messianics, the blue thread is a reminder of the Messianic promise, and therefore of the Messiah Yeshua.

Now, the rest of the threads are white; typically, they will be white, although if the main prayer shawl is another color – black, for example – then the rest of the strands would be the color of the main garment. No matter what fabric the prayer shawl is made of, the tzitizit are to be made of wool.

The white strands are typically forty inches in length, while the blue strand is to be sixty inches, so it can be the thread used for winding. Also, the blue strand only needs to be dyed blue on about half to two-thirds of its length, since it needs to be white on the other end, so that when these four threads are doubled over for tying and winding, there are seven strands of white and only one strand of blue.

The next area for diversity is in how to tie the tzitzit. Mine are wound in an Ashkenazi style. What that means is this: we start the tying of the tzitzit with a double knot, then use the t’chellet blue thread to wrap around the other strands several times, then do a double knot again, then go back to windings. This pattern repeats for a set of four windings and ends in a final, fifth double-knot. The end result of this is that in Hebrew the numerical value of the word tzitzit is 600. There are then five knots and eight strands, which added up gives you a total of 613, the number of commands in the Torah.

I called this style I use the Ashkenazi style. There are two main styles: Ashkenazi and Sephardic. For those who don’t know, Ashkenazi refers primarily to the Jews of eastern Europe – Germany and parts of northern France, primarily – while Sephardic refers primarily to the Jews of Spain and Portugal.

The Ashkenazi style of tzitzit tying follows a pattern that also includes four sets of windings: seven winds in the first set, then eight windings, then eleven, then thirteen windings. That totals thirty-nine windings. In biblical Hebrew, thirty-nine is the numeric value of the Deuteronomy 6:4 phrase, “ADONAI echad” or “The L-RD is one.” This is how I’ve done my windings.

The Sephardic style uses the pattern of ten windings, followed by five, then six, and then five. This pattern follows the Hebrew numeric value of the name of the L-RD: yod-hey-vav-hey. Ten, five, six and five. Either way, the point is to remind the wearer of the L-RD, and this turn his attention toward God and His commands.

So, there are some ideas on how to tie these fringes and why to tie them that way. Yet some of you may be saying to yourselves, “That all sounds good, but it sounds like a lot of human tradition to me. Where is Yeshua in all this?”

Again, let’s be clear: there is freedom for those of us who are Messianic in how to tie the fringes, since how to do it – other than including a thread of blue – is not included in the written Torah. These examples were just that – examples, taken from the traditions of thousands of years of Jewish customs – which do not hold the same weight as Scripture, obviously, but which do have some good ideas and symbolism.

Yet where is Messiah in the fringes? Everywhere. To understand this, first we must reiterate the point that one of the titles for the Messiah is the Living Torah. Since the fringes point us toward the Torah, ultimately they are pointing us toward the Messiah Yeshua who, like the cord of blue that binds all the other strands together, is the force that binds the written Torah together, gives it form and shape and substance and meaning. The very act of looking on the fringes should not only remind us of the commands of the Torah, but also of the one who is the Living Torah – Messiah Yeshua.

That being said, there is deeper significance in the connection between the fringes and the Messiah. There is an episode that will reveal to us that Yeshua Himself wore tzitzit, and they played a role in His ministry. We read this in:

Luke 8:43-48
And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. “Who touched me?” Yeshua asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.” But Yeshua said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.” Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”

In the NIV, the key phrase is “she touched the edge of His cloak.” However, the New Living Translation says, “she touched the fringe of his robe,” and that agrees with the Complete Jewish Bible, which translates the phrase in question this way: “[the woman] came up behind him and touched the tzitzit on his robe; instantly her hemorrhaging stopped.”

Now, this is a nice story, but it raises the question… where did she get the idea? Well, this Jewish woman must have known her Tenakh, because this is what is written in:

Malachi 4:2
But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall.

One of the titles for the Messiah is the “Son of righteousness” and the promise is that this Son will have healing in his “wings.” One of the nicknames for the fringes of a prayer shawl is “wings.” So you can see that she took this promise quite literally and her faith has healed her. But was it faith just in the tzitzit? No, it was faith in the words of the L-RD through the prophet Malachi. And again, who is Yeshua? He is the Word of the L-RD, the Living Torah, so ultimately it is her faith in Yeshua that is praised here.

Of course, for every good and positive command, what always follows close behind? The enemy looks for ways to take the good things the L-RD commands and makes them a source of sin. Did this happen with the tzitzit?

It did, as we read in:

Matthew 23:1-5
Then Yeshua said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long;

It’s not a bad thing to wear tzitzit, it’s obedient; Yeshua Himself wore them. But as with many things, one can go overboard or make the practice a source of attention-getting, a way to look that much holier than the next guy.

That’s what Yeshua is referring to here; tzitzit are a reminder of the L-RD’s commands for who? For the one wearing them. So they really don’t need to be extremely long; they don’t even need to be visible to others.

Rather than a large prayer shawl like this, which is appropriate for Shabbat service, one could wear a small tallit katan, which means small prayer shawl, with fringes tied and worn under the outer garments, so that only the wearer knows it’s there.

The point, therefore, is to remind yourself – not others – and that is what the Pharisees of Yeshua’s day were ignoring; they wore their tassels extra long and always visible, to draw the attention of others, to be seen wearing them, rather than to simply wear them – as the command states – as a reminder. A reminder of the L-RD’s commands, so we do not forget to obey them – and also of He who spoke those commands to Moses at Sinai – the Living Torah Himself, the Messiah Yeshua.

Shabbat Shalom.