Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

If you will only heed his every commandment that I am commanding you today – loving the Lord your God, and serving him with all your heart and with all your soul – then he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, and you will gather in your grain, your wine, and your oil; and he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you will eat your fill. Take care, or you will be seduced into turning away, serving other gods and worshipping them, for then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain and the land will yield no fruit; then you will perish quickly from the good land that the Lord is giving you.

You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and fix them as an emblem on your forehead. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.

The Lord said to Moses: Speak to the Israelites, and tell them to make fringes on the corners of their garments throughout their generations and to put a blue cord on the fringe at each corner. You have the fringe so that, when you see it, you will remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and not follow the lust of your own heart and your own eyes. So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and you shall be holy to your God. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the Lord your God.

Jones concludes,

It can be said that these verses, this prayer, compose the very heart of Judaism, and what became Christianity. While the orders to add fringes to clothing as a reminder seem odd to those of us who aren’t Jewish, we surely recognize the statements about God’s oneness, about the love and honor that is due to God, and about God’s steadfast love to Israel in bringing them out of bondage. (57)

For whatever reason, I was struck by the part Jones seems to do away with. Before reading his immediate remarks that follow the prayer, I underlined this sentence:

You have the fringe so that, when you see it, you will remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and not follow the lust of your own heart and your own eyes.

There’s something really profound here that I’m not sure I can pinpoint or explain. It takes into account both righteousness and the reality of our fallenness. I’m thinking of Peter Rollins’ assertion (following Caputo) that the Kingdom is rather materialistic endeavor; that the “working out” of Christian faith provides food for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, welcoming for the stranger, clothing for the naked, care for the sick and time visiting the prisoner [see Matthew 25.31-46]. David Bazan seems to be saying something similar in his song “Bearing Witness”, though he may dislike my saying so.

The use of fringes as a reminder to be holy seems to be for the same reason but pointing in the opposite direction. A material thing pointing back to a spiritual dimension. Are not God’s commandments so often forgotten because of the desires of our hearts?

Anyway, I’m off to the sewing machine.