Advanced Search

Making Tzitzit – Number of Twists


Question:

When making Tzitzit, is there any significance to the number of times the string is twisted and wound around before making each set of knots?



AskTheRabbi.org answered:

The accepted custom is to have five sets of double knots, which leaves four sections that are filled in with the wound thread. The Ashkenazi custom is that the first section has seven "winds", the second eight, the third eleven, and the fourth thirteen (Magen Avraham)

Why seven, eight, eleven and thirteen? The number seven represents the perfection of the physical world (the seven days of Creation, seven days of the week, etc.). The number eight represents the realm that is beyond the physical. The seven and the eight added together equals fifteen, which is the numerical value of the first two letters in God’s Name (Yud and Hay).

The number eleven equals the numerical value of eleven, the last two letters of God's Name (Vav and Hay). Together these three sections equal the numerical value of the Four Lettered Name of God.

The word "Echad", one - aleph (1), chet (8), dalet (4), equals the final section of thirteen. The number thirteen also represents The Thirteen Attributes of Mercy.


Similar Questions
Mitzvot > Rationale
Purpose of Commandments
Oral Law
Yizkor on Joyous Holidays
Tithing
Ark Direction in Synagogue
Growing Beards
Charity
Salt – The Spice of Life
A Sabbatical for the Land
Covering Eyes and Shabbat Candles
Clean Hands at Last
Women’s Exemption from Time Bound Mitzvot
Forbidden Fabrics?
Blue Tsitsit
Day of Rest
The Ten Tenets
Dome of the Kippa
Mitzvah Methodology
Doing a Mitzvah with God
Being a Good Jew
Forgiveness Without Regret
Red, White and Not Blue
Why Wine?
Why So Many Commandments?
Love Your Neighbor
Modesty
Why Do a Mitzvah?
A Meaningful Mitzvah
Tefillin Shape
The Jewish Wrap
Negel Vasser – Morning Washing
The More Important Mitzvah
Miscellaneous > Numbers & Their Significance
Ten
Number 176
Torah Numbers
The Significance of 666 in Kabalah
Four in the Haggadah
What is a Minyan?
Number Six
Significance of 60
Significance of Forty
Until One Hundred and Twenty
From Zero to Sixty
Forty and the Flood
Happy 120th Birthday!
Forty Years Old
Have a question?
 
Gateways - Your Key to Jewish Continuity

AskTheRabbi.org is a service of the Gateways Organization © 2024
Technical problems? Please contact the AskTheRabbi Support team