f CM 8 1627 24*- 6. II where the L.XX renders •",;; by the exact temia ti wTiovyia* jyti iiirXo't ioe, for which eee Jevons and Gardner, ilanital qf Gr. Antiq. 62.
J That one and the same garment is intended in Dt and Nu is oonllrmed by theTar^um of Uukelos, which in boLli potisages has
g The practice of wearing.' toyselB was Itnown to the Ancient Persians, as appear* from tlie monuments of I'ersepoha.
more of the tassels may be visible. The tallith now described came, later, to be kno\vn as \allith katon or ' small tallith,' to distinguish it from the tallith gadul, ' lar-'e tallith ' or prayer-shawL The latter more nearly corresponds in shape to the ancient simlah, being a quadrangular piece of white woollen (or silken) cloth to which the tassels are attached in the manner about to be described. It is worn universally by the Jews during the daily service in the synagogue, either thrown over the head or round the shoulders, but always so that the tassels shall be visible in front. Special prayers are said before and during the act of adjusting the tallith.
The rabbinical prescriptions with regard to the nv>"V or tassels have been elaborated with charac- teristic detaU, and fUl many pages of the Jewish codes (see literature at end of art.). Only a very few of these need be cited here. From a reference in the Mishna (Menakh. iv. 1) it would appear that the former practice of making the zizith by twist- ing three white threads with one of blue (or blue- purple) was falling into desuetude, perhaps owing to the increasing ditiiculty of procuring the ex- pensive dye required ; and that it was henceforth permissible to use white threads alone so long as the numbers were complete (see Levy, Wurtcrb. s. voc. 3DV). Somewhat later we learn from the curious, and in part obscure, paraphrase of Nu 15** in the Tarijum Jerus. i. (pseudo-Jonathan) appar- ently based on Talnmdic decision, that the threads must be spun expressly for the purpose, not made of the refuse of the loom, and tliat they must be tied with five knots (["TO'p). According to the prescription still in force, it is required that four (white) threads (J'oin) shall be taken, of which one — technically called the shammcsh or 'servant' — shall be considerably longer than the rest. A small hole or eyelet (3p:) is made in each corner of the tallith three thumb-breadths (d'Siu) from each margin ; through this the four threads are drawn and the ends brought to,L,'ether. A double knot is tied close to the margin of the tallith, the shammcsh is then twisted tightly 9 times round the remaining 7 threads and another double knot is tied ; then round 9 times and a knot; tlien round U times and a knot ; and finally round 13 times and a knot, and the zizith is complete. Various mystic signifi- cations are attached to the number of knots and twistings. The most interesting, pcrhap.s, is that which deduces from the whole a sjinhol of the complete Torah : thus the numerical value of the letters of the word r\"ff is 90 + 10 -I- 90 + 10 -H 400 = 600, which with the 8 threads and the 5 knots makes a total of 613, the exact number, according to rabbinic calculation, of the positive (248) and negative (3G5) precepts of the Torah. This ha.s led to the exaggerated statement that the wearing of the zizith IS of equal merit with the observance of the whole Law.
Males only are to wear the tallith (so already Targum pseudo-Jonathan on Dt 22'). This is compulsory after the 13th year, wlien the Jewish boy becomes a bar-mizvah, but the small tallith may be worn earlier. The size of the latter is said by iSIaimonides to be such that a boy, just able to walk alone, shall be completely covered by it. It is not necessary to wear the tallith at night ; thia is inferred from the words of the Law, ' that ye may look upon it and remember' (Nu 15"), an injunc- tion impossible of fulfilment in the darkness of the night.* As an illustration of the importance ati ached to the wearing of t\w:iftth, the following anecdote is frequently quoted. Tlie son of a famous Kabbi was asked which of the command- ments above all others his father had especially
■ This queation wu one of the dilTcrcncea between tbe icboola ot Hillel and Shomniai {Kdii/yoth, iv. 10).
70
FROCK
FRUIT
charged him to keep. His reply was: 'The law concerninj; the pzith. On descending a ladder my father stejiped on one of the threads and tore it off. He refused to move from the spot till it was re- placed ' {^/labb. 1186). See also DRESS.
LiTERATfUE. — The rabbinical prescriptions are found in the aulti'Titative codes of Maimonidcs (I'ad Ha-fyazakah, Uilkoth /izitli) and Joseph Caro (Shulhan 'Aruk Yori De a, ch. viii.-xxiv.). A convenient compendium of the latter work is the D"n miN nny \rha-Sv Dm "n tso, Wilna, 1888 (rules concemin){ the zizUh, pp. SS-BS). Also in the tractate Z<zith in Raph. Kirclieim', iSeptem libri Talnutdlei parvi Uierosobinitlani, Frankfort, 1851: Hiller, Z)« vestilnu Jiuibriatie Hehraurum, ia UL'olini Thesaurus, vol. xxi. More easily accessible is Bodcn- ecnatz, Kirchliche Verfasgvng d. heiilifien Juden, 1748, pt. iv. pp. 9-16 ; Bu-\torf, Siinagi>ra, Judaiai, pp. 160-170. Art. 'Fringes 'in Kitto'fl Biblical Cydopcedia'. See also Driver on