Tying Tzitzit

The Lord said to Moses as follows: Speak to the Israelite people and instruct them to make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments throughout the ages; let them attach a cord of blue to the fringe at each corner. That shall be your fringe; look at it and recall all the commandments of the Lord and observe them, so that you do not follow your heart and eyes in your lustful urge. Thus you shall be reminded to observe all My commandments and to be holy to your God. I the Lord am you God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I, the Lord your God. Numbers 15:37-41

The thing about tying tzitzit is the numbers. There are seven turns of the wrapping thread, then eight, which added together equal yud and heh, the first two letters in God’s Name. Next are eleven turns and thirteen turns; eleven for the final vav and heh in the Name, and thirteen for aleph, chet, dalet, which spells “One”, giving the phrase “God is One”. Further, in the numerology, the word tzitzit comes out to six hundred, and there are eight strands with five knots each, for a total, 613, equal to the traditional count of mitzvot in Torah. The five knots also stand for the five books of the Torah, and several other important fives.

A Sephardic variation ends each turn with a hitch knot. This creates a spiral ridge going around the wrap. Another count is 10 wraps, then 5, 6, and 5,. The numbers of the wraps correspond directly to the numeric equivalent of the yud and heh and vav and heh that spell the Name of God. There is also a spiral wrap usually associated with the techelet (blue) thread which uses both a blue and a white shamash, or winding thread, though the regular wrap can also be done with the blue as the winder.

None of this is absolutely required. The minimum is a knot, three windings, and a knot. The current standard is that one third of the total tassel should be the windings, however, and a more complex tying is preferred, yielding a total between nine and twelve inches in length. In Talmudic times there was much less consensus about how the fringes must be done. These ideas taken together say that between six and sixteen threads are used, and some portion of them must hang free (unknotted). The Shulchan Aruch is much more specific, down to the spinning of the thread, therefore if you hold with Shulchan Aruch you should purchase kosher tzitzit packs from a Jewish book or ritual store.

Some have the tradition to bite rather than cut the thread.

The standard wrap: One thread should be longer than the other three to do the wrapping. Pull the threads through the corner hole and level them out so that seven ends are the same length and one on the front hangs down. Bind the four rear even threads together at the end so that it’s easier to handle them (a slip knot will do). Make a double knot at the top, crossing the two bunches of four to anchor the cords at the very tip of the corner of the tallit. Don’t pull so hard it puckers.

Twist the seven even cords together to make a firm bundle and wrap the long cord seven times around them. Release the twist. Group the winding thread with the three loose ones from the front and tie a double knot.

Repeat, twisting the cords together, wrap 8 times and knot.

On the next repeat wrap 11 times and knot.

The final wrap is 13 times, and knot.

See illustration.

That’s all there is to it! That and a spirit of reverence. One of the Talmudic rebbeim said that there was no blessing for the tying of tzitzit. Now it’s reported that the Jerusalem Talmud does in fact have a blessing. Some reserve the blessing for when there is a thread of techelet, because they feel the mitzvah is more complete then.

Baruch atah Adonai eloheinu melech ha’olam asher kiddishanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu la'asot tzitzith

(Blessed art thou Lord our God King of the universe Who sanctified us with His commandments and commanded to make tzitzith)

Whether or not you use the above blessing you should focus on the task of tying the tzitzit and not be doing anything else, including minding your children, but keep your attention entirely on reverence for the task of tying.

Before starting one usually says, LeShem Mitzvat Tzitzit, "For the sake of the commandment of tzitzit."