how the tallit speaks to the Church

[HelenaZF]

The tallit or "prayer shawl" is an important symbol from our Jewish roots given to the Church today.



For the Jewish believer, the tallit is a sign that he is always enveloped in the laws of God, as the fringes of the tallit represent obedience to the law. It is his own personal prayer closet, in which he can wrap himself and be alone with God. The tzit-tzit, or fringes on the four corners also symbolize The Name Ha Shem as there are 4 letters in the tetragrammaton that we interpret as Yahweh, or Jehovah.



When the woman with the issue of blood reached out and touched "the hem of his garment"....she was not grabbing the bottom of a robe...she was grabbing the tzit-tzit of his tallit....and thereby grabbing onto the very Name of God...in which she knew was the power to heal.



The tzit-tzit are a sign of authority. When David cut off "the corner of Saul's garment", he had cut off one of the tzit-tzit. A tallit without all 4 tzit-tzit is deemed invalid, and so what David did was effectively invalidate Saul's authority.



The tallit is also translated with the same words in the scripture as "wings". That gives a whole different picture, doesn't it, when one reads passages like "in the shadow of His wings", or Jesus's words over Jerusalem in Luke 13:34 "...How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it!" Or this one: (Malachi 4:2) And to you who fear my Name, the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings... which can be translated: "the Sun of Righteousness who would come with restoration in the corners of his tallit".



So when we use the tallit in Christian contexts, it can speak a message of intercession, of healing power, of intimacy with God, or of the beautiful metaphor of covering, protecting wings. I often choreograph my dances with the tallit, and it is a central symbol used in many of my altar and environment designs. It can be a powerful reminder of our Jewish roots



For more indepth scriptural exegesis, you might want to check out a condensed version of Dwight Pryor's teaching on the tallit: <URL url="http://www.jcstudies.com/touchinghemgarment.html">http://www.jcstudies.com/touchinghemgarment.html

Also available in book form - <URL url="http://www.messianicjewish.net/cgi-bin/webstore/quikstore.cgi?category=jewish_roots&page=webstore.html&search=yes">Touching the Hem of His Garment