Mysteries of Tallit. Tzitzith and the Teklet

M. M. NINAN
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In Mari, an ancient city in what is now Syria, a professional prophet or diviner would
enclose with his report to the King a lock of his hair and a piece of his
hem....Sometimes the hem was impressed on a clay tablet as a kind of signature.
Requests accompanied by grasping the fringes of the one from whom you wanted
something could not be refused.
Exorcists used the hem of a patient's garment in their healing ceremonies.
A husband could divorce his wife by cutting off the hem of his wife's robe.
Professor Milgrom of Berkeley University, who write one of the
critical volumes of commentary on the Torah for the Jewish Publication Society, saw
the tzitzit as a sign of royalty or the priesthood. They were worn on the lower hem of
the robe, and thus signifying those who are called out as a nation as a "kingdom of
priests"
The Jewish prayer shawl displayed a person's authority. The more important the
person, the more elaborate his prayer shawl. In the period of Kigns, a Prophets
would cut of one of their tassels to send along with their prophecy to ensure the king
it was their prophecy.
In 1 Samuel 15:27-29, Saul tore Samuel's tassel from his shawl.
Samuel told Saul the kingdom of Israel would be torn from him as Saul had torn
Samuel's tassel (authority) from him. We also see David's anguish in 1 Samuel 24:5
when he cut the tassel from Saul's shawl. David knew he was to replace Saul as
king over Israel, but, by cutting the tassel off Saul's shawl, he had gotten ahead of
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