What's a tzitz?
In Exodus 28:36-38 we read about a headgear worn by the High priest. It will contain a thread of techelet (a color), and be put on the front portion of gold of his headdress, where it would always be seen by Aaron as it was before his eyes.
Most commentators interpret tzitz (ציץ) as a "protrusion" or "extension", and some as the plate of pure gold rather than a protrusion from the plate. But the use of having it connected to a thread of techelet where it could be seen by the people is similar to the description of tzitzit (ציצית).
And just as there are multiple interpretations as to the design of the menorah, so too are there multiple interpretations concerning this tzitz.
Here is one created by the Temple Institute in Jerusalem, which is committed to making "perfect" recreations of things required for Temple practices in preparation for the building of the Third Temple (which is unlikely to ever happen).
Other than the metal and the words on it, the rest of it is just artistic fantasy. It also seems to be missing the all-important techelet.
In any case, there is a narrative and implied connection between tzitz and tzitzit, and because of this, it is generally understood to be an extension of the corners of one's garments.
But Scripture does not describe what they are. So how do we get from "extension" to "8 strings with 5 knots"?
In order to explain that, I need to explain a bit about gematria and dismiss a common trope: that the Torah has 613 commandments (mitzvot).
613 Commandments?
At some point in history, the ancient Rabbis came up with an arbitrary number of commandments in the Torah: 613. They got to this number through gematria, which is the process of adding up the numerical value of each Hebrew letter that makes up a Hebrew word. In this case, the letters that compose the word "Torah", or (ת ו ר ה – T + O + R + H) each of which has a value (T=400, O=6, R=200, and H=5) which came up to 611. And for some reason, 2 was added, and there is some conjecture as to why. According to the Babylonian Talmud (Tractate Makkot, 23b), two more were added to include a belief in a God, and a lack of belief in other Gods. Another thought that I have heard is that it was to include the concept of a written and an oral Torah.
A lot of these commandments are redundant, such as the positive commandment to only serve Yahweh, and the negative commandment to not serve other Gods. Other commandments that were generic were broken into individual components to be more specific. So while the commandment to not covet your neighbors property (wife, male slaves, female slaves, oxen) should only be one, it was expanded to be listed as 4 separate ones.
Also, not all of these commandments can be performed. Some are for men, some for women, some for priests, and so forth. And because of the elimination of a Temple, a functional priesthood, slavery, and religiously imposed capital or corporal punishments, that number is actually very small, and it varies depending on the source, but one could use 200 as a decent round number.
What you may not know is that there are multiple lists of 613 commandments by different Rabbinical leaders and none of them contain the same 613. This number was not arrived at by looking for commandments and then counting them, but having a number and forcing it to be 613.
For example, Rav Shimon Kaira (author of the Bahag, of the 8th century) had his list, and did not include the belief in a God as a commandment. Later, the Rambam (Maimonides, 12th century) was uncomfortable with that list and wrote his own, and added that YHVH demands that you believe in him by saying “I am YHVH”, and made that #1 on his list in his book Sefer HaMitzvot.
Tzitzit Design
Because of the gematria of tzitzit is 600, and because the Rabbis wanted to impose a "613" value upon them, the tzitzit people wear has 8 strings and 5 knots.
None of this is in the Torah, and all of this is an imposition of the number "613", which was imposed to force a gematria value where none existed in the text.
Now, there have been arguments over this. Joseph Ibn Kaspi, connecting tzitzit to tzitz wrote that this refers to the 4-cornered headscarf that Jewish men wore, that they wrapped around their head for protection against the sun (as many Arabs do today), and the fringes were to dangle in front of the face. Most commentators saw it as a form of beautification of the garment that covered the body. The early Karites saw this command to put these on garments to adorn the wall, so that you would see them.
And different people have different styles of knot-typing. The Chassidic style is different than the typical Ashkenazi style, for example.
And that brings us to techelet
What is Techelet?
Techelet is a color. But nobody is 100% certain what that color is. The word is often translated to "turquoise" for lack of a better description.
According to Rashi, the color was extracted from a now-extinct mollusk or snail and was the palest of green, like the end of a leek, or the color of one's skin who is nauseous. While others accept the type of animal this came from, they prefer a deep blue. Others combine these ideas and have a blue-green. And then you have purple.
Nobody knows for sure what the color was. At the techelet museum in Israel, there are over a dozen different colors on display, each of which has its fans that call it "techelet". And because of that, the Rabbis rules that no color was to be added. But by doing that, they rendered the commandment moot, since techelet is part of the commandment, and so it was decreed that it is praiseworthy to wear white fringes as a "memory of the commandment". In recent years, however, some people have gotten to having a colored string be included, with each person becoming a fan of a specific color.
From light green (an unpopular color) to Mediterranean Blue and beyond, folks are doing this because they believe that this is what God wants them to do, even though they aren't sure if they have the right color, knots, design, or if tzitzit is something else. Some wear them but tuck them in their pants. Some wear a square cloth on the outside of the clothing. Some under the clothing. One fellow who is well known to those who visit the Western Wall wears many squares of cloth and is referred to some as the "Tzitzit man".
Summary
So the commandment to wear tzitzit is still carried out today by religious Jewish men (women used to wear them at one time, but the later Rabbis changed the rules) even though they don't know what they were, how they looked, or what color their string was and even though they don't normally wear a garment with corners. And many will kiss them during prayer:
And that's how it goes when you want to obey God's perfect word!
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