This passage commands tzitzit: tassels tied to the four corners of one's garment, with a thread of blue, “that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the LORD.” Observant Jews keep the command to this day on the tallit, the fringed prayer shawl worn in synagogue, and many wear a fringed undergarment daily. The Mishnah records that when the blue dye became unobtainable, the white threads alone still fulfill the command: the absence of the sky-blue “does not prevent” the white (Menachot 4:1), which is why most tassels today are all white.

Two Gospel moments turn on this passage. The woman who touched “the hem of his garment” (Matthew 9:20) took hold of the kraspedon, the tassel: she reached for the corner of Jesus' garment where the commandment hangs, which means Jesus wore tzitzit. And His woe against fringes “made long” (Matthew 23:5) targets enlarging the tassels for show; the practice itself was His own.