Korah קרח

Four Wings of America

Speak to the Israelites and say to them that they shall make themselves tzitzit on the corner wings of their garments for all generations.  And they shall include in the tzitzit of each corner wing a thread of sky-blue wool….  I am God your Lord who brought you out of Egypt. (Numbers 15:38, 41) דבר אל בני ישראל ואמרת אלהם ועשו להם ציצת על כנפי בגדיהם לדרתם ונתנו על ציצית הכנף פתיל תכלת  אני יהוה אלהיכם אשר הוצאתי אתכם מארץ מצרים

Korah son of Izhar son of Kehat son of Levi began a rebellion along with Datan and Aviram sons of Eliav….  Moses sent forth to summon Datan and Aviram sons of Eliav.  They responded, "We won't come! Isn't it enough that you brought us out of [Egypt], a land flowing with milk and honey to cause us to die in the desert!" (Numbers 16:1, 12-13) ויקח קרח בן יצהר בן קהת בן לוי ודתן ואבירם בני אליאב  וישלח משה לקרא לדתן ולאבירם בני אליאב ויאמדו לא נעלה המעט כי העליתנו מארץ זבת חלב ודבש להמיתנו במידבר 

Korah rebelled against Moses by challenging the call for a sky-blue thread in the tassels flowing from the corners of a prayer shawl. 

 "Isn't a talit (prayer shawl) woven entirely with sky-blue wool exempt from the one sky-blue thread in each of the 4 tzitzit (tassels)?"

Moses replied that one is still obligated to tie a sky-blue thread in the tzitzit independent of the color of the rectangular tallit.

The SaPphiRe thread suggests a heavenly realm SPiRaling through the ordinary white threads to bring SPiRitual energies to everyday life.

An all sky-blue tallit symbolizes a totally spiritual life separated from the mundane. This viewpoint negates the biblical view:

"For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp." (Deuteronomy 23:15)  

Kanfot, the Hebrew word for 'corners' of garments, is also used for 'corners' of the earth as in the biblical prophesy (Isaiah 11:12).

"He will ingather the dispersed ones of Judah from the four corner wings (kanfot) of the earth."

Before donning a talit, a Jew says, "May the talit spread its wings (kanfav) like an eagle rousting his nest, fluttering over its eaglets."

The foremost biblical commentator Rashi links corners and wings: "The tzitzit are placed 'on the corners (kanfot) of their garments,'

alluding to God having freed the Israelites from Egypt, as it states, 'and I carried you on the wings (kanfot) of eagles.'"

When the City of Miami asked us to create the official artwork for its centennial, we proposed placing tzitzit on the 4 corners of America.

American Airlines, the largest US corporation in the wing business, agreed to sponsor our Four Wings of America project.

We flew to Maine where we placed a large rope tzitzit with a sky-blue strand on barnacle-encrusted boulders at the Atlantic Ocean.

We attached a tzitzit to a tree on the beach of a balmy Florida bay where the blue of the sky colored the sea water.

On the Pacific coast, a Mexican boy watched the tzitzit shuddering in the wind hanging from the wall separating San Diego from Tijuana.

From Seattle, we drove to Neah Bay, an Indian reservation at the end of the Olympia Peninsula in Washington State to place the 4^th tzitzit.