How to tie Breslov tzitzit

Posted by Ben G. on 9th Aug 2016

We don't do a lot of Breslov tying, but we do offer it as an option. The following is an email exchange with a customer who wanted to try tying Breslov tzitzit himself.

BS''D

Shalom,

I saw on your website that you now tie tzitzis according to the Breslov minhag. I would like to know how exactly you tie them, because I'm interested in tying some myself. Could you give me some pointers? I assume the chulyos are made like Rambam chulyos, correct? Also, please note that I need to know how to tie them with techeiles.

By the way, where does the Breslov tzitzis tying minhag come from?

Thanks,

Ezra

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Breslov tzitzit tying is sort of a hybrid of Rambam, Arizal and Ashkenazi. You make four double knots like with Ashkenazi and Arizal. In between the knots you tie Rambam chulyot. But not every chulyah is three windings. In the first section, you do 3-3-1 (i.e. a chulyah of three windings, another one of three and the third a chulyah of one winding. In the second section you do 2-3-3. In the third section you do 3-3-3-2 and in the fourth section you do 1-3-3-3-3. (Notice you wind up with 7-8-11-13.)

That very first one (i.e. the first winding of the seven in the 3-3-1) is white and the very last one (i.e. the last winding at the end of the 1-3-3-3-3) is white, all the rest are blue. That means you have to make sure you have enough shamash to go the distance.There are two or three variations of Breslov tying. Our office is near a fairly large Breslov kehilah, and most of them tie as described above.
- Ben

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Thank you for the detailed instructions. I am considering tying my next set of tzitzis according to this method. I was also considering techeiles, because these are the days of Moshiach and it is a time to act, in my opinion. :) - Ezra