Num. 15 : 37 - 40 "Fringes"

[alon]

Apr 23, 2013 20:43:20 GMT -8 Micha'el said:

... That's my personal take. I am attaching a link for tieing here:
www.synagoguechm.com/articles/tzitzit.pdf
Some people are concerned with the material used and the dye used for the blue. I tie my own and the material comes from a trusted source in Israel.

One of the things that really bothered my wife the one time I did get her to go with me to a class was what she saw (and I agreed) as misuse of Jewish customs. The wearing of tzitzit on belt loops was a big one. However, I have to say at least they are wearing them and I, for the time being, am not.

I do wear "dog tags", which really aren't as they have no personal information on them, next to my skin as a reminder. They have special significance to me as in the service I went along with a hoax and got a set with Pagan on them as my religion. Admin came in and asked if anyone needed dog tags, and took our information. When they asked my religion this smart-alleck New Yorker piped up and said "pagan." They looked at me, and I said "yes" with a straight face. The tags came back so marked. I wasn't, but still ... so they remind me where I've come from and that I need to submit to God, not to man's foolishness.

In a way, they also remind me that I am still on a journey to find what all it is I should be obeying and how, as I'm obviously not fulfilling this one commandment. To that end, I'll get on the web and order some tzitzit for my tallit that have the blue chord. But for now I'll have to not wear the tallit katan as it would cause a lot of trouble in my marriage.

Thanks for the link to tying tzitzit and general use of the tallit.

Dan C

[tonga]

One of the things that really bothered my wife the one time I did get her to go with me to a class was what she saw (and I agreed) as misuse of Jewish customs.

Why should non-Jews use Jewish customs at all? Do you find it desirable to do so? How about those customs that did not exist
at the time of Jesus?

[alon]

Those are very good questions.

Apr 24, 2013 10:31:02 GMT -8 tonga said:

Why should non-Jews use Jewish customs at all?

It's not so much the customs as the commandments. If we are, as we believe, grafted onto a Jewish "tree," then we are bound by the commandments given, heirs to both the blessings and the curses. Again, if we are correct and the book of Revelation is scripture, then we are about to find out about what it really means to be "Jewish" and to have slipped into apostasy.

Do you find it desirable to do so?

I absolutely do not want to "play Jew." I do however want to become observant of all the commandments that are applicable. This includes eventually wearing tzitzit all the time.

How about those customs that did not exist
at the time of Jesus?

If I am ever so fortunate as to be able to attend a synagogue where there is a large proportion of believers actually converted from Judaism, then I'll follow those customs that they want me doing. Here I am just trying to learn, and do not participate in any of the customs outside of commandments other than wearing a kippah and tallit in services and classes.

I do keep the feasts as best I can, and as I said am moving towards observance. But I am going slow as I want to do it right and not be overwhelmed.

Perhaps you could list some of the customs you were referring to and I could look out and not be too quick to do them, if they come up. I'd ask my wife, but she has said she doesn't want to know anything about my "little mishigas."

Dan C

[messianicmama]

I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to get back to this. As I was going through my research, I discovered that nailing down the timing of the Halachic ruling on women being exempt from this is not as concrete as I thought. I have one source that claims the traditional understanding was in place by the time of Yeshua, but others that say it could have been any time during the second Temple period. At any rate, I decided to make myself some fringes.
I don't wear 4 cornered garments, so I wanted to come up with something workable for me. I decided on bracelets. I made one for each wrist using a traditional tzitzit tying method but incorporating some other symbols and personal tastes as well. And I made some simple blue ones for my ankles. It's nice. I know what it means but it's not something that traditional Jews would be weirded out by.

[messianicmama]

Thanks for challenging me on this, btw!

[Yedidyah]

Apr 25, 2013 19:29:12 GMT -8 messianicmama said:

Thanks for challenging me on this, btw!

That is what this forum is about. We all need to be challenged, every day. This is a great discussion and I hope it brings people's hearts into wanting to wear them as personal sign between them and the Father.

Shalom,
Yedidyah