They shall wear fringes

The multiple functions of clothes include utility, protection, rivalry, disguise, camouflage, display for seduction purposes, aggression, totemism, and status. Here the focus is on a decorative and distinctive hierarchical aspect of ancient dress, the tsitsit or fringes, whose original function is long absent, but that has endured for 3,500 years in Judaism. The beginning of their use beyond the totemic appears related to issues of changing identity from slavery to liberty, endowing noble status, exhibitionism, a symbol of identity, identification with the aggressor, a talisman, and potency. It is conceptualized that they became a symbol, or a specifier, that helped promote group cohesion in ex-slaves who were frightened, dependent, anxious, and not hopeful about their future. The tsitsit aided the development of a new identity and made all Israelites equal and noble to the observer. The durability of this symbol to the present is evident in its daily wear, as an accompaniment to daily prayers, as well as in its use as a burial shroud for males. It appears that the tsitsit have additional multiple functions. These are the promise of oral and genital satisfaction, and the pleasure of the after-life, superego warnings and control of sexual impulses, protection, survival value, and affirmation. Since they offer sublimation with acceptable gratification of instincts, the tsitsit have become ritualized and endure.