False Customs, Part Two

Here is some information that may cause many to reflect on how they practice the observation of this mitzvah. Rabbinical Judaism has some interesting insights on how to obey this mitzvah.

First, you are to wear the tzitzit on the corners of your garment. Tying them to clothing or belt loops is not obedience, but creating your own commandment. It would be better not to wear them at all.

Second, tzitzit are to be white with a thread of blue. While this may seem like rabbinic mumbo-jumbo, the teaching behind it testifies of our Messiah, Yeshua. (see Revelation 19:10) The blue dye, techelet, was made by crushing snails and using their blood to make the dye. This had to be done in caves because the dye was red and only turned blue when exposed to light. In other words this dye only became royal blue when it emerged from the cave. Our Messiah became Lord of all, King of kings when he emerged from the cave/tomb.

The dye was made in the city of Luz. Oddly enough, the Jews have named a bone in the body by the same name.

"Luz (Hebrew: 'לוז') is the name of a small bone in the human body, at the top of the spinal column (the seventh cervical vertebra) or at the base of the spinal column (the coccyx). Jews believe that this is the bone from which the body will be rebuilt at the time of resurrection, and share the belief that this bone does not decay." (Wikipedia) Again, we have the theme of resurrection.

Third, the manufacturing process of this dye was lost at the time of the destruction of the Second Temple. Jews believed this judgment was not just coincidental. It is also said that the Temple was destroyed because of the gross wickedness of that generation. (Which included the killing fo their Messiah) Jewish tradition teaches that the dyeing process will return with the coming of the Messiah. Though this process has not been officially recognized by Jewish authorities, many Jews are wearing blue in their white tzitzit in anticipation of the coming of the Messiah and the resurrection of the dead.

Finally, how this applies to believers in Yeshua: we are dead in him, we cannot obey the Torah, but the Torah-obedient Messiah lives in us and lives out the Torah through us. (Galatians 2:20) We look at our tzitzit and know that his resurrection life flows through us, (Romans 6:4) and we look forward to the final resurrection when we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:20)