In Parshat Ki Teitzei, we read about many of the mitzvot given to the Jewish People. While many of the commentators examine each mitzvah independently, Rabbi Yitzchak Abarbanel looks to examine each mitzvah in relation to the mitzvah that immediately precedes it.
With this in mind, we need to understand the connection between the mitzvah of wearing tzitzit, “You must make yourself twisted threads and hang them as tassels on the four corners of your garment” (Devarim 22:12), and the mitzvah of refraining from defamation: “If a man takes a wife, has marital relations with her, and comes to hate her, and then accuses her of improper conduct and slanders her” (22:13–14).
What is the connection between these two seemingly unrelated mitzvot? Abarbanel explains that the essence of these mitzvot is the same, even though their applications and details are presented differently. Their common message, he says, is that G-d desires us to live truthfully and to honestly represent who we are. Our qualities, as well as our shortcomings, should not be hidden, but rather acknowledged and expressed truthfully. This is why we are commanded to wear tzitzit.
The tzitzit are a visible demonstration of our relationship with G-d. They are not hidden or tucked away, but clearly visible to everyone who sees us. They serve as an outward expression of an inner truth.
While wearing tzitzit is an active way of revealing our true selves, the defamer does the exact opposite. By slandering another human being, we conceal their true nature and character, replacing it with a false and damaging veneer. Rather than allowing the truth of another
person to be seen, we distort it through our own words.
At first glance, these two mitzvot seem completely unrelated. Yet, by looking more deeply, we see how their connection expresses a fundamental value that G-d wants us to internalize: to treasure and uphold the truth, and to avoid its opposite at all costs. This applies to every area of our lives: in how we represent ourselves, in how we acknowledge our own strengths and shortcomings, and in how we see, speak about, and treat others.
