part4...
Prayer Shawl, Called in Hebrew: TALLITH
The tallith is the Jewish prayer shawl. Originally, the word tallith meant "gown" or "cloak." It is a rectangular mantle that looks like a blanket. It has been worn since ancient times by Jewish men when they pray. It is worn by men during morning prayers and during all Day of Atonement services. Before putting on the prayer shawl, Jewish men recite the following benediction: "Blessed art Thou, O Lord, our God, King of the universe, Who has sanctified us by Thy commandments, and hast commanded us to wrap ourselves in the fringed garment." When the tallith is put on, the head is first covered with it and the four corners thrown over the left shoulder. After a short pause, the four corners are allowed to fall back into their original position on each side.
The original commandment to wear a prayer shawl (given the Israelis by God) is Numbers 15:37-41. They were to place a tassel in each of the four corners of the prayer shawl. In each tassel was to be one wool thread dyed in blue. Archaeologists have long known from ancient writings that the purple (blue) dyes were produced by extraction of the hypobranchial glands of the Mediterranean gastropod mollusks. It became worth its weight in gold. It took over 3,387,000 mollusks, hand drilled, to produce a pound of dye. CleopatraÂ’s boat had a purple sail. Nero issued an edict in the first century A.D. making the dye the prerogative of the emperor. Aaron, the High Priest of Israel, had his robe dyed in purple recorded in Exodus 28:31-35. To this day it is called "royal" blue.
By placing one blue thread in every manÂ’s prayer shawl, God identified every Jewish man as king in his home. The fact that each man was allowed to mix linen with wool in his tassel also reveals how God identified each man as a priest. This combination was reserved for the priests.
The Jewish prayer shawl displayed a personÂ’s authority. The more important the person, the more elaborate his prayer shawl. The tassel was an important part of this display of authority. Prophets would cut off one of their tassels to send along with their prophecy to ensure the king it was their prophecy. In I Samuel 15:27-29, Saul tore SamuelÂ’s tassel from his shawl. Samuel told Saul the kingdom of Israel would be torn from him as Saul had torn SamuelÂ’s tassel (authority) from him. We also see DavidÂ’s anguish in I Samuel 24:5 when he cut the tassel from SaulÂ’s shawl. David knew he was to replace Saul as king over Israel, but, by cutting the tassel off SaulÂ’s shawl, he had gotten ahead of GodÂ’s timing. Thus, for stripping Saul of his authority by cutting off SaulÂ’s tassel, David repented before God and Saul in I Samuel 24:5.
The tassel on the prayer shawl is called in Hebrew: tzee-tzeeth (tyxiyxi). When you add the numeric value of the Hebrew letters in tzee-tzeeth, you get 600. There are 8 threads and 5 knots in each tassel. Added together, you get 613, the exact number of Laws contained in Torah. Of the 613 Laws, 365 are negative and 248 are positive. There are 365 days in each year, 248 of which Jews are in public (not at home on Sabbaths). Also, each human has 248 bones held together by exactly 365 ligaments. The point is, every time a Jewish man puts on his prayer shawl, he is instructed to look upon the tassels which are to remind him that he must do all the 613 commands of the Lord.
The tassel reminds the person wearing it of all 613 Laws. Also, it reminds him of the great commandment, "The Lord is One," found in the Shema. The tassel has 5 knots and 4 sets of wrappings. They numerically spell: dj;a, hw;hoy} (26 &13).