Parshas Shlach: The Spiritual Significance of Tzitzis in Daily Life

0:01 Take a look at these strings here. Can you see it? I hold before you the sacred tzitzis, the knots, the fringes, this techele's list. But take a good deep look and ask yourself what is it that comes to your mind? Which thoughts begin to course through your brain? Which thoughts begin to course through your brain? Well, I'm like you. I see white, I see knots, I see that they probably need to go into the laundry. But you know what? Stuffed, packed and fully absorbed into these strings here, on this garment, is the entire Torah.

0:45 We are told. When you see it, you shall remember all of the mitzvot of Hashem and perform them. That's all right here, friends. And if that's not enough to see an even bigger picture, we are commanded see the tzitzis that you shall not stray after the thoughts of your heart and after the sights of your eyes, after which you tend to stray. That's all pushed and absorbed deeply into this garment, in tzitzis. So why is it, I ask you, friends, that maybe we don't see it?

1:29 I check my tzitzit every day in the morning, or my tithes before I put it on Shemitzvot tzitzit. I see that the knots are loose, but do I see all 613 mitzvot and the remembering that we should not stray after the vulgar, vulgar world, I'm not sure, and to suggest an approach. Why is it and how can we perfect this? It just came to me the other day when I was cloud gazing, sitting back on the grass with my daughter. We're looking up seeing the different clouds, and I pointed over into one funny looking cloud and said, hey, look, that one looks like a schnitzel sandwich. You see how it's kind of rounded, Laughing. She responded no, that's not a schnitzel sandwich, Tati, that looks like my dollhouse.

2:13 You know how? You see, there's a base there and that's where the dolls would go in. And I thought, you know it's funny, Everybody really does see what they want to see. Because you know what, when Rashi sees this pustic, he says, ah, yeah, 613. That's the hogan macha, the numerical value when our hearts are in line and we're one track, minded with God. Rashi saw 613, a total numerical value. When he put it all together, Ramban saw the just color blue of the string, that ancient string of treles, and saw the kisei ha-kavod citing the Gemara Menachas, the Menchas Chinuch, really, the Sefer HaChinuch sees white and sees the beginning of man, a sheleg, as there was a whiteness, according to one of the Zohars.

3:05 But when we are in touch with our inner world and we become one-track minded with the Almighty, you start to see a whole different world. And it's obvious, it's easy and immediately thoughts of holiness will come to our heads when we see the holy, holy fringes that sits us. For us, the more we learn, the more we study, the more we learn Musa and get into our inner world, the more we may see the world in its reality, which is packed with holiness and references about HaKadosh Baruch Hu.