FRINGES, or FRINGED GARMENTS (111n, xpcialre3a, Sept. and N. T.) The law respecting fringes is contained in Num. xv. 38-41, and Deut. xxii. 12. Here the children of Israel are enjoined to append fringes or tassels (rIVT, 1:41;), sisting of several threads, to the four comers (rTmn I/TIN) of their outer garment on, moo), put one distinguishing thread of deep blue in each of these fringes (thwl ;inn Npv .0r1:1),* and constantly look at them onN nn,:rn), in order to be put in mind thereby (oni.n) of God's com mandments, to keep them. What number of threads each of these symbolical fringes is to have besides the said blue one, of what material, or how they are to be made, the injunction does not say ; like most of the Mosaic laws, it leaves the particu lars to be determined by the executive powers ac cording to the peculiar circumstances of the time.
Guided by the fact that they are symbolical, tradition, in determining the manner in which these fringes are to be made, endeavoured to act in har mony with their spiritual import, and hence fixed that each of these four TriTY= fringes or tassels, for the four corners of the garment, should consist of eight threads of white wool, the emblem of purity and holiness (Is. i. z81; that one of these threads is to be wound round the others, first seven times, and then a double knot to be made ; then eight tirnes, and a double knot (15 il,); then eleven times (=-. M), and a double knot ; and finally thirteen times (=-.111N), and a double knot, so as to obtain from the collective number of times which this thread is wound round, the words -vim min+, con stituting the creed which was the distinguishing marlc of the Hebrew nation, and which was in scribed on their banners, whilst the five knots represent the five books of the Law. As the Law, however, is said to contain 613 commandments [EnucArioN], and as the design of these fringes is to remind the Jews of all these commandments (Niro nw, tradition has so arranged it, that the word TM which is numerically 6o0, with the threads and 5 knots, should exactly comprise this number, and thus constitute a perfect symbol of the Law.
Originally, as we have seen, this fringed or tasseled garment was the outer one. rt was more like a large oblong piece of cloth, with a hole in the centre through which the head was put, thus dividing it into two halves, one covering the front, and the other the back of the body, like a tunic.
But when the Hebrews bcg.an to mix with other nations, and especially when they were dispersed and became a byeword and a hissing, this ancient badge of distinction which God conferred upon them became the signal of persecution, inasmuch as it indicated that the wearer of it was a Jew, on whom Christians thought they ought to avenge the blood of Christ. Hence the Israelites found it
necessary to discard the fringed garment as an outer dress, and to wear it in a smaller size, and a somewhat altered form, as an under garment, in order to conceal it from their persecutors.
This under fringed-garment is called 3/111•3 nin=, the fonr-eornered a'ress, or simply nvv, fringes or tassels, and is worn by every orthodox Jew to the present day.
But though the Jews have becn compelled to re linquish the large outer fringed-garment as a per manent article of apparel, they still continue to wear it in a somewhat modified form, at their as all the other laws put together (comp. Rashi on Numb. xv. 41). It was for this reason that the woman with the issue of blood (Matt. ix. 2o), and the inhabitants of Gennesaret xiv. 36), were so anxious to touch a fringe of our Saviour's gar ment (Kpcio-7reSop To0 imariov). This superstitious reverence for the external symbol, with little care for the things it symbolised, led the Pharisees to enlarge their fringes, believing that the larger they made the tassels, the better they did God's service; and this it was that our Saviour rebuked : comp. Math xxiii. 5.
Literatare.-111aimonides, Yoe?' Ha-Chezaka, chalk Tzitzith, vol. i. p. too, a, etc. ; °rack Cha jim, sect. viii. ; the Hebrew Prayer Book, with all tbe laws respecting the Jewish ritual, called Dereek Ha-Chajim, Vienna, 1839, p. 21, a, etc.—C. D. G.
morning prayers, and call it Talith, i.e., cover or wrapper.
This Tafith, or fringed wrapper, is generally made of a white woollen material ; the wool must be spun by Jews for this express purpose. It has three or more blue stripes running in parallel lines across the whole garment, at the right and left sidc. In some cases, however, the Ta/ith is also made of silk. Every married Jew must wear it at morning prayer ; a single man can do what he likes. \Wien putting it on, the following pmyer is offered : Blessed art thou, 0 Lord, King of the universe, who bast •sanctified us with thy com mandments, and enjoined us to array ourselves with fringes.' The Jews attach the utmost import ance to the fringed garment. Thus it is related in the Talmud, that R. Joseph asked R. Joseph b. Rabba, which commandment has your father ad monished you to observe more than any other ? He replied, the law about the fringes. Once when my father, on descending a ladder, stepped on one of the threads and tore it off, he would not move from the place till it was repaired' (Sabbath, I'S, b). Soine of the rabbins go so far as to say, that the law respecting the fringes is as important