Mayanot Institute students tie Tzitzit for IDF soldiers, finding personal fulfillment in the process
As Jewish men across Israel answered the call to serve in the Israel Defense Forces, they also sought ways to protect themselves spiritually. For a growing number of soldiers, that meant the Mitzvah of tzitzit, a shirt with fringes made of eight strings that hang down on four sides of the garment. However, as the fringes, which are tied in a specific fashion, are hand-knotted, tzitzit cannot be mass produced.
To help ease the need, students at Chabad-Lubavitch’s Mayanot Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, took time away from their educational programs to help tie tzitzit for IDF soldiers.
As the students worked “they really understood the intricacies and importance of the process,” said Rabbi Kasriel Shemtov, the school’s executive director. “Many of our students come from secular Jewish backgrounds, and might have themselves been unfamiliar with the importance of wearing tzitzit,,” he explained. “They came to help fortify, and they came out fortified themselves.”
