Goines On: Tzitzit

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After Goines raised the shade over the back door, Mrs. Goines stood there for a few seconds enjoying the cold morning view. “Tzitzit,” she said, “those are what those rope ties on the bird feeder remind me of.”
    “Tzitzit?” Goines said. “What’s that?”
    “What are those,” she corrected him. “The noun’s plural. They’re the fringes, or tassels, that Orthodox Jewish men wear on their garments. I remember them from Shtisel.”
    “Oh, yeah,” Goines said, “I remember.” And he stood by Mrs. Goines and looked at the stringy ends of the short ropes with which he had secured the perch rod onto the feeder.
    “Do you remember why they wear them?” he asked.
    “To remind them of something, I think. To keep Yahweh’s commandments, I think.”
    “There’s probably even a commandment to wear them,” Goines conjectured.
    “Wear tzitzit so you won’t forget to wear tzitzit?” Mrs. Goines suggested.
    “That’s about the size of it.”
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Deuteronomy 22:12. Tassels shalt thou make thee on the four corners of thy clothing, wherewith thou coverest thyself.
                                —1890 Darby Bible

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