In Numbers 15:37-41 and Deut. 22:12, the Israelites were commanded to wear fringes, tassels, or twisted coils on the corner of their garments to remind them of YEHOVAH's commandments and the necessity of obeying them. There were 39 windings in each, which equals the numerical value of the Hebrew words "the Lord is One." It is awesome to realize that the Messiah suffered the same number of stripes for our healing. (Is. 53:5; I Pet. 2:24) Even today the Jewish people say that the Talis (Prayer Shawl) is a religious symbol, a garment, shroud, canopy, cloak which envelops the Jew both physically and spiritually, in prayer and celebration, in joy and sorrow. It is used at all major Jewish occasions -- circumcisions, barmitsvahs, weddings and burials. It protects the scrolls of the Torah when they are moved. The dead are wrapped in it when they are buried. The bride and bridegroom are covered with the canopy of the prayer shawl. (Some wrap them in it, while others have the whole wedding party stand under it.) When the state of Israel was founded it inspired the Jewish flag. Three separate people had the same idea -- they just unfurled the prayer shawl and added the Shield of David.

In biblical times the Israelitish men wore this garment called a TALITH, TALIS, TALIT or PRAYER SHAWL all the time -- not just at prayer. TALITH contains two Hebrew words; TAL meaning tent and ITH meaning little. Thus, you have LITTLE TENT. Each man had his own little tent. (The apostle Paul was a Jewish Pharisee, but also a tentmaker. Many believe that he made Prayer Shawls, not tents to live in.) Six million Israelites could not fit into the tent of meeting that was set up in the Old Testament. Therefore, what was given to them was their own private sanctuary where they could meet with YEHOVAH God. Each man had one! His Prayer Shawl or Talis. They would pull it up over their head, forming a tent, where they would begin to chant and sing their Hebrew songs, and call upon Elohim, YEHOVAH, Adonai. It was intimate, private, and set them apart from anyone else -- enabling them to totally focus upon YEHOVAH. This was their prayer closet!

The Hebrew writing on the ATARAH or CROWN, is the BLESSING: "Blessed art thou. Lord our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to wrap ourselves in the tzit tzit." The Blessing is placed over the head, on the outside, just like the tent walls of the Holy Tabernacle so that they would always hang the same way. As the Atorah was placed over the head, it formed his own tent. WINGS of the garment were formed when the arms were held out. In Ruth 3:9, Ruth found herself at the feet of Boaz. Women were not to do things of this nature in those days, but in complete honesty and openness she said to him, "spread the corner of your garment over me for thou art my kinsman redeemer" In NKJ it says, "Take your maidservant under your wing, for you are a close relative." Ruth said, "Take me under your WING." Cover me, is a term of intimacy. Boaz was an honorable man and did the honorable thing. They were married, and she became his bride. Here she was, a Moabite woman grafted into the nation of Israel. She had the right to be covered by her Jewish spouse's Talis. This is a symbolic expression of marriage. (In the Mideast a garment is cast over one to be married.)

As you study the Hebrew and Greek, this covering with the garment is expressed as "the HOVERING or BROODING of the Spirit of God over the face of the waters" in Genesis 1:2 and "the hovering over and spreading out of the wings of the eagle" in Deut. 32:11, and the overshadowing that came upon Peter, John and James as they went with Yeshua the Messiah to the Mt. of Transfiguration to pray in Luke 9:28, and also when Peter's shadow became the overshadowing as people were healed when his shadow (filled with the overshadowing presence of YEHOVAH) fell upon them in Acts 5:14. The Prophet Elijah passed his mantle on to Elisha in II Kings 2. Many believe that this mantle was actually his Talis and was symbolic of the power of prayer that Elijah had saturated that mantle with. This mantle that Elijah left behind as he was taken up by a whirlwind into the atmosphere, was what Elisha struck and parted the waters with. In Luke 8:43 the woman with the issue of blood for twelve years, came and touched THE BORDER OF the Messiah's garment and was healed. What did she touch? The twisted coils on the border of the garment (his Prayer Shawl) that Yeshua, being Jewish, would have been wearing!! Mark 5:41 "Then He took the child by the hand and said to her, 'Talitha cumi',which is translated, "Little girl, I say to you arise." Some scholars believe that her name comes from the old word "Talith" and that the literal translation of this is, "Little girl who is now in my tabernacle (tent), arise!" and the power of the intimacy that Yeshua the Messiah had with YEHOVAH God caused her to rise.