Vayomer: the tzitzit

A daytime mitzvah you read at night

Tzitzit are a daytime mitzvah. The Mishnah (the earliest written collection of rabbinic law) says this is the one paragraph of Shema that applies only by day. Yet we read it at night too. Part of why the Sages put it in Shema is the Exodus, and the Mishnah rules that the Exodus is mentioned at night. The Gemara (the Mishnah's long commentary) adds that in the Land of Israel they read only its first and last lines at night. Abaye, a Babylonian sage, said: since they begin it, we begin it, and once begun, we finish.

A mitzvah no one can check

Rava, a sage of the Gemara, asks why the Exodus is mentioned with three mitzvot: interest, weights and tzitzit. His answer: each one can be cheated in secret. A lender can pretend his money belongs to someone else. A merchant can bury his weights in salt so they weigh differently. Someone can use a plant dye, indigo, that looks just like the blue thread and call it techelet. Rava has God say: I am the One who told a firstborn from a non-firstborn in Egypt, and I will hold to account anyone who does these things.

Strings named after the Exodus

The Sifrei (an early collection of teachings on the book of Bamidbar) hears the Exodus in the names of the strings. Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, says techelet, the blue thread, is named for the Egyptians being bereaved of their firstborn at midnight. The same passage says tzitzit comes from the word for peeking: God peeked in at our fathers' houses in Egypt, as in a verse in Shir HaShirim (Song of Songs). These are wordplays, offered as reasons for the names.

Why is there a pull in you at all?

Why would God put a pull in you that you are told not to follow? Rabbi David Solomon Eibeschutz (a rabbi who died in Tzfat in 1813, whose book Arvei Nachal is Chassidic Torah teaching) says it is on purpose. An angel has no such pull, so an angel cannot grow the way a person can. When a bad urge stirs, he writes, the fool just gets upset, and that helps no one. The wise person remembers the kindness: the urge is there so he can serve God by doing the opposite. He reads "so that you will remember" the same way.

ונתן בקרבו תאוה זו כדי שיוכל לעבדו

The thought you push away counts

The Tanya (the basic book of Chabad Chassidut, by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi) speaks to anyone bothered by thoughts and desires they never asked for. If they come while you are busy with ordinary life, he says, be glad that you turned your mind away. That is what this verse asks, and the Rabbis say holding back from a sin earns a reward, as if you did a mitzvah. Feeling crushed, he writes, comes from pride, from not knowing your place. Maybe this struggle is what you were created for.

יֵשׁ לוֹ לִשְׂמוֹחַ בְּחֶלְקוֹ, שֶׁאַף שֶׁנּוֹפְלוֹת לוֹ בְּמַחֲשַׁבְתּוֹ... הוּא מַסִּיחַ דַּעְתּוֹ מֵהֶן

The Exodus is not over

The Ramchal (Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, an Italian kabbalist who died in 1746) explains the order. First you take on the commandments in "Vehayah im shamoa," and only then mention the Exodus. He says it was not only an escape. The slavery cleaned Israel out, like gold in a furnace, and then God lifted them up for good. It was a repair that "stayed forever," and all the good that reaches us depends on it. So we mention it always, and doing so strengthens that repair and its light in us.

נצטוינו לזכור אותו תמיד ולהזכירו בפינו... מתחזק התיקון ההוא עלינו ומתאמץ האור בנו

Said twice for a reason

The last verse says "I am Hashem your God" twice. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev (a Chassidic master who died in 1809) asks why. His answer: keep in mind always that every word, thought and movement leaves a mark above, so guard them with awe of God. Serving God, he says, comes down to remembering that God watches over your ways. The repeated line is that reminder: I am Hashem your God, and I am watching over all your ways. Now read the last line again.

אדם צריך תמיד להעלות על מחשבתו שכל דבוריו ומחשבותיו ותנועותיו עושים רושם למעלה

Do I have to kiss my tzitzit during this paragraph?

No, it is a custom. The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) says some people look at their tzitzit at the words "and you will see it" and hold them to their eyes, calling it a lovely way to show love for the mitzvah. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, for Ashkenazi practice) adds that some also kiss them. Elsewhere the Shulchan Aruch says to touch the two tzitzit in front of you at those words. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law work, early 1900s) quotes a view to kiss them each time the word tzitzit comes.

Can I pause before the last word, emet?

No. The Gemara (Berakhot 14a) rules that you do not pause between "your God" and "emet" (true), because a verse says "Hashem is the true God" (Yirmiyahu 10:10). The Shulchan Aruch says to say "I am Hashem your God, emet" together; only then do the rules for a pause in mid-paragraph apply. That is why this siddur joins them. The Mishnah Berurah (a central commentary, around 1900) calls this stricter than a mid-paragraph pause. Some say not to pause before "veyatziv" either, and he says to be careful about that.

Do girls say this paragraph?

It is not required, but many do. The Shulchan Aruch rules that women are exempt from Shema, since it is a mitzvah tied to a set time. Peninei Halakhah (a modern law guide by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed) says a woman who wants to do more can say all three paragraphs and Emet Veyatziv, and it prefers Emet Veyatziv for the Exodus, since this paragraph is tied to tzitzit, which women are exempt from.

Is there a word here people say wrong?

Yes: the zayin in "tizkeru" (so you remember) and in "uzkhartem" (and you will remember). The Shulchan Aruch says to sound it crisply, so it is not heard as "tishkeru" (you will lie) or "tiskeru" (you will be paid), which would make you like servants who serve only to get a reward. It also rules that if you were not careful you still fulfilled the mitzvah. The Mishnah Berurah explains that this covers a zayin not sounded clearly, and says to take great care from the start.

Where do I leave a tiny gap between words?

Wherever one word ends with the sound the next begins with, so they do not blur. The Shulchan Aruch lists "hakanaf petil" and "etchem me'eretz" from this paragraph. It also says to separate a mem from an aleph after it, as in "ur'item oto," so the words do not run together. The Mishnah Berurah adds more from this paragraph, such as "eineichem asher" and "Elokeichem emet," citing the Shelah (a book by Rabbi Yeshayahu Horowitz, who died in 1630).

Why isn't there a blue thread on my tzitzit?

The verse here says to add a thread of blue (techelet). The Tzitzit blessing tells why most tzitzit are all white. The Rambam (Maimonides, the great codifier of the 1100s) spells out the rule: someone with no blue makes white alone. The Shulchan Aruch calls its own time one "when there is no techelet." In his book Ein HaTekhelet, Rabbi Gershon Henoch Leiner of Radzin (a Chassidic rebbe of the late 1800s) wrote that he had found the sea creature that gives the dye. This card takes no side on that.