Tzitzit

What it is

A tzitzit is a set of threads knotted at a corner of a cloth. Four corners means four sets. The strands are tied and then left to hang. Two garments carry them. The tallit gadol, often called simply a tallit or tallis, is a large shawl worn over the clothes like a cloak. The tallit katan is smaller and goes underneath the clothing. It is a plain garment with a front and a back fold, which creates the four corners where the fringes are fastened. Because the small garment and its fringes are so closely linked, people often use the word tzitzit for the undershirt itself.

The Torah sources

The Hebrew Bible names the fringes in two places. Numbers records an instruction given to Moses for the Israelites: they are to make fringes on the corners of their clothing in every generation, with a cord of blue, and the sight of them is to bring the commandments to mind and keep the people from straying after their own hearts and eyes. Deuteronomy repeats the duty in one short sentence. Neither passage says how many fringes a corner should have, or how they are tied. Even the place on the garment is left open, because the Hebrew word used can mean corner or border. Those details stayed in oral teaching until they were written down.

Tying and knots

The tying has no single form. Four strands go through a hole near the corner, so the ends hang as eight. In many communities the strands are double-knotted, then one longer strand, the shamash, is wound around the rest, and the pattern repeats until there are five knots with four stretches of winding between them. Ashkenazi custom uses 7, 8, 11 and 13 windings, adding up to 39. Sephardic Jews often use 10, 5, 6 and 5. Before tying, the person doing it says that this is for the sake of the commandment.

The blue thread

The Torah asks for a cord of blue, called tekhelet. According to the rabbis it came from a creature known as the hillazon. After the Temple was destroyed, the knowledge of how to make the dye was lost among rabbinic Jews, and most have worn plain white fringes since. Some explain the black stripes on many prayer shawls as a sign of that loss. Rabbinic law permits wool and linen to be used together in these fringes, although the Torah otherwise forbids mixing the two. With the dye unavailable, the customs of tying were adapted to fill the gap.

What it means

Wearing the fringes is treated as a way of keeping the whole law. The Talmud puts it on the same level as all 613 commandments, and Maimonides counts it among the major ones. The strands and knots carry number patterns that point to the same idea. Rashi read 600 for the word itself, then added eight threads and five sets of knots to reach 613. Nachmanides answered that the biblical spelling gives 590 instead, and held that the blue thread, not the arithmetic, turns the wearer back to God. The scholar Jacob Milgrom writes that the fringes are a democratic mark, since all Israel is asked to become a nation of priests.

How Tzitzit is kept

A four-cornered garment is chosen, either a large prayer shawl or a small undershirt. At each corner, four strands are pushed through a hole and knotted, with the ends left hanging. The tying is done with the intention of fulfilling the commandment, and a short declaration is said first. The garment is then worn: the large shawl over the clothes for prayer, the small one beneath them. On seeing the fringes the wearer is reminded of the commandments. The passage about fringes appears in the daily prayer, at the end of the Shema.

When and where

Tzitzit have no date in the calendar. They are worn with the garment, and the small tallit katan is described as an everyday undershirt. The passage about the fringes is said in daily prayer, as the last part of the Shema. The ways of tying differ from one community to another, not from one season to the next.

The practice belongs to Jewish life wherever it is kept, in Israel and in the diaspora, and Samaritans keep it too. Yemenite Jews, known as Temani, follow the knot pattern of Nachmanides, as do most Sephardic Jews, while Ashkenazi communities mostly use the pattern linked with Rashi. The blue thread is rare today among rabbinic Jews.

What Tzitzit means

Looking at the fringes is meant to turn the mind to the commandments and away from straying thoughts. One reading holds that the blue thread recalls the sea, the sea recalls the sky, and the sky recalls God's throne. The fringes are also a mark of belonging: the duty falls on everyone, not only on priests or kings, and the passage read with them reminds Jews that they are no longer slaves. For the wearer, the garment is a quiet daily prompt toward duty and holiness.

Questions people ask about Tzitzit

See also

PassoverA Jewish spring festival celebrating freedom from slavery with ritual mealsHanukkahAn eight-day Jewish festival marking the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem and the miracle of a single day'Yom KippurThe holiest day in Judaism, dedicated to fasting, prayer and atonementRosh HashanahThe Jewish New Year marked by shofar horn blasts, prayer and sweet foods

Good reading and sources

• Tzitzit on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.