כי תבואו אל ארץ מושבותיכם,”when you come to the land of your permanent settlement, etc.;” what is the reason that this paragraph has been inserted at this point in the Torah? If anything, the legislation added here would not be applicable for at least another forty years! The people at this stage were so frustrated that they did not believe they would ever get to the Land of Canaan and settle there, as they might become guilty of so many more sins, looking back at the less than two years they had been out of Egypt, and what had befallen them during that short period. The wording of the paragraph, i.e. G–d’s promise to Moses at this point, was meant to reassure them that unless the settlement of the people in their ancestral homeland would become a fact, what would be the point in introducing legislation that is capable of being applied only after they were settled in that land? Moses relayed this legislation to the present generation in order to convince them that their children would definitely become residents of the Holy Land.

אם נפש אחת תחטא בשגגה, “if a person (soul) will commit a sin through an error, etc;” the author draws the reader’s attention to the fact that on Leviticus 4,2 he had already explained that the effect on the soul of a person committing a sin through error, i.e. psychological effect is more profound than the effect on his body. This is why the Torah used the term נפש, “soul,” rather than איש or אדם which we might have expected.

ויהיו בני ישראל במדבר, “While the Children of Israel were in the desert, etc.;” our sages say that if the Israelites had (all of them) observed a second Sabbath in a row, no nation could ever have achieve mastery over them. (Talmud, tractate Shabbat, folio 118). Whence do we know that the Sabbath on which they found the man gathering sticks was that second Sabbath? This is clear from the sequence of the words: ויהיו וימצאו, which means that as soon as they had been commanded all the rules of Sabbath observance, they found this man violating it. How do we know that this man was Tzelofchod? The letters in the sequence עצים ביום have the same numerical value as the letters in the name צלפחד. [The Israelites desecrated already the first Sabbath, when some of them went out to gather manna, compare Exodus 16,27. Ed.] Why has the paragraph about Tzelofchod been inserted in the Torah at this point? At the time when this man desecrated the Sabbath Moses had been saying to Hashem “Lord of the universe, it is written in the phylacteries that wearing them is in order to remind the wearer to talk about the Commandments, (Exodus 13,9) and You have forbidden the phylacteries being worn on the Sabbath.” (Talmud, tractate Menachot folio 36) If only Tzelofchod had worn his phylacteries on that Sabbath, he would have reminded himself of the prohibition of gathering sticks on the Sabbath.” Hashem answered him that He had already commanded the people a commandment to remind them of the laws of the Sabbath, and that is the wearing of the tzitzit on their prayer shawls. (four cornered garment requiring these fringes).

על ציצית הכנף פתיל תכלת, “fringes in the corners of their garments with the fringe of each corners containing a thread of blue wool.” This thread had to be interwoven with the white ones. Our sages also said that the length of one third of these fringes had to be twisted, whereas the other two thirds were to be free hanging each. (Talmud tractate Menachot folio 39) The reason for this has been explained in the Midrash, i.e. the eight threads (after being doubled over) are symbolic of eight attributes, emotions that are present in the heart. (I did not find the origin of this Midrash, Ed.) Alternately, what the Midrash means is that the “heart” is known by eight different names. Its location in the body commences in the top third of the torso, and this is why the fringes extend to the bottom of the second third of the torso. (מהר'ם) (Chapter 6 section 34 shaar kedushah, reyshit chochmah)

וראיתם אותו, “when you see it, etc.;” since being able to look at the tzitzit when you wear them is of the essence, garments worn only at night are not required to have such fringes attached to them. This is also why a blind person is not required to attach fringes to his garments. In other words, the commandment to look at the fringes is meant for people able to see them. (Menachot folio 43). If you look at the fringes with the proper concentration it is considered as if you looked at the throne of G–d, which is supposed to look like wool dyed blue. Rabbi Meir, in describing the difference between that tint of blue from all other colours, said it is because it is closest to the blue of the horizon, which by definition is a reminder of the heaven beyond it. He bases this on Exodus 24,10 as interpreted in the Talmud, tractate Menachot, folio 10, where the elders are described of having looked at a Divine apparition which they described as looking like bricks made of sapphire. The colour of a sapphire is supposed to be just like the colour of the horizon. The sequence of three verbs in our verse, i.e. “you will see,” “you will remember,” and “you will do, i.e. perform,” explains the importance of this commandment and how fulfilling it will stimulate our heart and eyes to be loyal to G–d.

'וזכרתם את כל מצות ה, “you will remember all of the Lord’s commandments;” Rashi points out that the numerical value of the letters in the word ציצית is 600, (he is aware that the word is spelled defective, with one letter י missing, so that it is really only 590.) The word appears three times in the paragraph, once with the prefix ל, the numerical value of which is 30, so that we may consider these three words as all having been spelled perfectly. I have also heard that the manner in which some people arrange the fringes are separated from one section to another with knots and ringlets around each section, each of a different number of ringlets amount to a total of 613, so that the wearer is constantly aware that he is clothed symbolically in the 613 commandments. The Talmud in Menachot folio 39 goes into all the details.

ולא תתורו אחרי לבבכם ואחרי עיניכם, “do not follow your heart and your eyes in a lustful urge.” The Jersualem Talmud, tractate B’rachot chapter 1, halachah 5 describes the heart and the eyes as the principal agents of the evil urge within us.