The Secret Codes in Matthew: Examining Israel’s Messiah, Part 9: Matthew 13-14, by Kevin M. Williams
In today’s Orthodox Jewish world, this biblical age “shirt” is known as a tallit-katan, and covers only a man’s torso (pictured here). In Yeshua’s day, a similar garment would have been worn, long enough for the tzit-tzit to almost—but not quite—touch the ground as one stood.
The commandment is somewhat vague. What does it mean to tie these threads into tassels? That is a very wide-open commandment, and one of the reasons Jewish scholarship can successfully argue in favor of an oral torah, an unwritten law. In response, the oral tradition emerged setting the standard. There would be a total of 613 knots amidst all four tzit-tzit. It is no coincidence that there are 613 commandments in the Torah. Similarly, the number 613 in the Hebrew language is also the numeric equivalent of the Holy Name—הוהי—Yahweh. So in the same “tassel,” they recognized symbols both of the Lord and His instructions.
Because the ancient sages believed that all men stand as equals before God, with no one being greater in position or prominence, the standard required all “legal” tzit-tzit to be exactly the same length. In a prayer group, therefore, with all heads covered, it would be difficult to tell one person from another.
So for some, the tzit-tzit symbolize the Torah and grace. It can also commemorate the commandments and the Holy Name of the Most High God of Israel. For others is symbolizes the equality of all people before God, neither rich nor poor, neither official nor common.
There is yet another symbol relevant to the tzit-tzit. The Hebrew word for “corners” is kanaf (ףנכ), which also means “wings.”
These corners, with the deep symbolism of the tzit-tzit, can accurately and appropriately be translated as “wings,” and the rabbis attached special significance to these “wings” as well from the Word of God.
“May the Lord reward your work, and your wages be full from the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge” (Ruth 2:12).
The kanaf of the Lord is a place to seek refuge.
Keep me as the apple of the eye; Hide me in the shadow of Thy wings” (Psalm 17:8).
Anyone’s instinctive response is to swat away anything that would attack the pupil, or “apple” of their eye. This is how important and treasured King David felt in his relationship with God. This protected place was the shadow of God’s kanaf. The Psalms are filled with this type of “wings” imagery.
One can begin to see why the tzit-tzit is so important even today in Hebraic life. Yet one more reason remains that is important to our study in Matthew, another clear revelation of the Messiah to Israel:
But for you who fear My name the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings (Malachi 4:2).
The Messiah, to whom this verse was widely attributed, would have healing in His kanaf. One Messianic expectation was that by touching the promised One’s corners, the hem or tzit-tzit, one would be healed. The multitudes in attendance in our Matthew passage did not reach out for His garment by accident. They did not grasp it because it was all they reach of Him.
They already believed that if they took hold of His tzit-tzit—and they were healed—it would be a public sign of the coming of the long awaited Messiah of Israel! The kingdom of Heaven would be in their midst.
Category: Biblical Studies, Pneuma Review, Spring 2003
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