A Thought on Parshas Shlach

"...u're'isem oso u'zechartem es kol mitzvos HaShem..." (15:39) "...and when you see it you'll remember all of HaShem's commandments..." The status of tzitzis is enigmatic. At the physical level, they involve strings, strands, knots and fringes. At the thematic level, they involve reminding, cautioning and inspiring. They are tied into forms and quantities, and they are also "tied into" remembering the commandments, avoiding temptation, recalling our national origins, and knowing HaShem. The commentaries seek symbolic meaning in these knotted threads, finding numeric allusions, and visual echoes of the sea, the sky and beyond. The tzitzis are unique to the Torah nation, and boys and men don them beneath, above, and upon their garments, including the Tallis which is worn during prayers. ibn Shu'aib also takes notice of the tzitzis and seeks some meaning in them. Strings tied into knots, strings hanging beyond those knots, somehow reminding and cautioning us to avoid the straying of the eye and the fantasy. ibn Shu'aib focuses on the strings which hang beneath the knots. What began as four strands now appears as eight strings. Below the final knot emerge four strings at one side and four at the second side. What do they represent or hint at? ibn Shu'aib suggests that since the verse says that upon seeing them, we are meant to remember not to pursue the objects and subjects of our wayward fantasies, there must be a link between "eight" and our use of the self. Physically, he comments, we are given eight limbs with which we can either serve HaShem or we can self-indulge in profane ways. We have the eye, the ear, the nose, the mouth, the hand, the foot, the mind, and the organ of procreation. We can utilize these parts of our physical selves in ways which help us think of the heavens above. We can, however, opt to do the remote opposite as well. This is one thought to have when seeing the eight strings below the knots. Will we think above the strings at their higher connection, or will our lives dangle over the abyss? With tzitzis on all four corners of the garment, there are four sets of eight strings. That totals 32. The number 32 is also representational of a higher truth. ibn Shu'aib teaches that there are 32 pathways to wisdom. These are the ten sefiros - the channels of Divine emanation of knowledge from the heavens down to the earth, and there are the twenty two letters of the aleph bais. With those sources, we have access to the wisdom of the Torah, both in its given, written form (alef bais), and in its more mystical hidden forms (ten sefiros). In fact, the Torah itself begins with the letter bais (equaling 2) and it ends with the letter lamed (equaling 30). Together of course they equal 32, which are the number of pathways mentioned. When our verse above proclaims, "and when you see the tzitzis you will remember all of the mitzvos of HaShem", that thought is then captured in the number and layout of the threads themselves. The 32 threads hint at the 32 ways to wisdom which are accessible through learning and practicing the Torah. Good Shabbos. D Fox