by rabbi karen s. citrin
Shelach Lecha
Bambidar 13:1-15.41
Joshua 2:1 - 2:24
The blue sky above us does not always look like the sky. For exhausted travelers in the desert, it may appear as a lake of water. On hot, sunny days on tarmac roads, the sky may look like water, or even spilled oil.
This is no optical illusion. It is a real phenomenon, and one can photograph it. The interpretation of the image, though, is up to human imagination. Henry David Thoreau once said, “The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”
This week’s Torah portion, Shelach Lecha, is about seeing. God instructed Moses to send men to scout the land of Israel. While Joshua and Caleb came back with a favorable report, the other 10 spies returned with a negative view, reporting that “the country that we traversed and scouted is one that devours its settlers. All the people that we saw in it are men of great size ... we looked like grasshoppers to ourselves, and so we must have looked to them.” (Num. 14:32-33).
Because of their self-image, the negative light they saw themselves in, the spies ascertained that they must have also appeared inferior to others.
While most of the text focuses on the story of the spies, the portion concludes with the law of tzitzit, or fringes. God instructed the Israelites to make fringes on the corners of their garments. God said, “That shall be your fringe; look at it and recall all the commandments of Adonai and observe them, so that you do not follow your heart and eyes in your lustful urge. Thus you shall be reminded to observe all My commandments and be holy to your God.” (Num. 15:39-40)
The midrash links the mitzvah of wearing tzitzit to sight. The word “meitzitz” means “to peer.” The rabbis commented, “Whoever carries out the religious duty of wearing tzitzit is credited as if he had seen (or peered at) the face of the Presence of God.” (Sifre to Num. 115)
The Talmud adds, “This mitzvah is equal to all the mitzvot together ... looking upon the tzitzit leads to remembering the commandments, and remembering leads to doing them.” (Men. 43b)
It turns out that seeing is not just believing; seeing is also doing. Looking upon the tzitzit not only reminds us of this commandment, but of all the commandments. Rashi notes that the numerical value of the word “tzitzit” is 600, and that the fringe is tied with eight threads and five knots. Together the numerical equivalent comes to 613, the number of commandments in the Torah.
Noting that the commandment for wearing tzitzit includes the instruction to look upon it “so that you do not follow your heart and eyes in your lustful urge,” the rabbis comment that the meaning of the tzitzit is more than a reminder to observe the commandments. It functions primarily to preserve ethical behavior. They believed that our eyes and all our senses require direction and discipline.
The tzitzit “save those who wear them from temptation.” (Num. Rabbah 7:6)
The Talmud recounts the story of a man who once hired a prostitute. She prepared a tempting room with 12 couches, six of silver and six of gold, and she lay on one of them. As he took off his clothing, his tzitzit appeared to him like four witnesses, and struck him in the face. He fell to the floor with shame.
When she inquired what was wrong, he told her that in seeing the tzitzit he had been reminded of his ethical obligation. “They testified against me so that I feared for my soul.” Upon seeing the strength of his faith, the woman decided to study Torah and convert to Judaism.
Today, there is so much visual stimuli to make us careless and forgetful and take us away from our ethical obligations. We are bombarded with images from television, the Internet, advertisements and all other modes of media. We are often drawn to follow the first glance of our eyes.
The mitzvah of tzitzit is given to counter such tendencies, to serve as a reminder to look deeper and alert us to our ethical and religious obligations.
We learn from this week’s parshah to open our eyes, so that we may be seen in the light of God and see holiness all around.
Rabbi Karen S. Citrin is the associate rabbi at Reform Peninsula Temple Beth El in San Mateo.
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