The priestly crown or frontlet (צִיץ ''ṣîṣ''/''tsiyts'') was the golden plate or tiara worn by the

Jewish High Priest High Priest ( he, כהן גדול, translit=Kohen Gadol or ; ) was the title of the chief religious official of Judaism from the early post- Exilic times until the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE. Previous ...

on his mitre or turban whenever he would minister in the

Tabernacle According to the Hebrew Bible, the tabernacle ( he, מִשְׁכַּן, mīškān, residence, dwelling place), also known as the Tent of the Congregation ( he, link=no, אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד, ’ōhel mō‘ēḏ, also Tent of Meeting, etc.), ...

or the

Temple in Jerusalem The Temple in Jerusalem, or alternatively the Holy Temple (; , ), refers to the two now-destroyed religious structures that served as the central places of worship for Israelites and Jews on the modern-day Temple Mount in the Old City of Jeru ...

Etymology

The root ''tzitz'' (צִיץ) means “to blossom” or “a flower” and as such is employed by the picturesque metaphors in Isaiah 27:6, 28:1, 40:7-8, floral descriptions of Solomon’s temple (1 Kings 6:18-35) and the blooming of Aaron’s rod (Num. 17:23). This latter instance is particularly interesting, because just as a ''tzitz'' appeared on the Aaron’s rod so is the Aaronide high-priest supposed to wear a ''tzitz'' on his forehead. In addition to this, once in the Hebrew Bible, in Ezekiel 8:3, the word appears in the construction ''tzitzit rosh'' meaning “a mop of hair” and probably deriving from the metaphor of hair as the plants grown from skin. This is furthermore supported by a handful of rabbinic descriptions which compare the priestly ''tzitz'' to a flower in Shabbat 63b and Sukkah 5a. The Greek

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond t ...

renders the word in Exodus 28:36 and elsewhere ''petalos'' (πέταλος), "blossom," from which the English "petal" derives.

Hebrew Bible

The

commandment Commandment may refer to: * The Ten Commandments * One of the 613 mitzvot of Judaism * The Great Commandment * The New Commandment The New Commandment is a term used in Christianity to describe Jesus's commandment to "love one another" which, ac ...

regarding the crown is found in :

36 And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and engrave upon it, like the engravings of a signet: HOLY TO THE LORD. 37 And thou shalt put it on a thread of blue, and it shall be upon the mitre; upon the forefront of the mitre it shall be. 38 And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead, and Aaron shall bear the iniquity committed in the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow, even in all their holy gifts; and it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the LORD.

The Tzitz was a small rectangular plate of solid gold, engraved in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

letters with "HOLINESS TO THE LORD," and having holes drilled in each of the four corners through which blue cords were threaded () which held the tiara onto the High Priest's priestly turban. Traditionally, it is understood that one set of cords went around the High Priest's head at the base of the tiara, and the other went over the forehead, all meeting at the back of the head to hold the tiara in place. refers to the ''tziytz'' as the "holy crown".

Talmud

According to the

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...

, the wearing of the golden frontlet atoned for the sin of arrogance on the part of the

Children of Israel The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan. The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...

( B.

Zevachim Zevachim ( he, זְבָחִים; lit. "Sacrifices") is the first tractate of Seder Kodashim ("Holy Things") of the Mishnah, the Talmud and the Tosefta. This tractate discusses the topics related to the sacrificial system of the Temple in Jerusale ...

88b) and she also symbolizes that the high priest bears the lack of all the offerings and gifts of the sons of Israel. And it must be constantly on his head for the good pleasure of God towards them (). The Talmud in

Shabbat Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical stori ...

63b describes the ''tziytz'' as encircling the High Priest's forehead “from one ear to the other.” Rabbi

Abraham Isaac Kook Abraham Isaac Kook (; 7 September 1865 – 1 September 1935), known as Rav Kook, and also known by the acronym HaRaAYaH (), was an Orthodox rabbi, and the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine. He is considered to be one o ...

suggested that this emphasis on the High Priest's ears — organs for listening — indicates that he needed to be particularly "receptive to the inner voice of elevated thought."{{cite book , last2=Morrison , first2=Chanan , last1=Kook , first1=Abraham Isaac Kook, title=Sapphire from the Land of Israel: A new light on Weekly Torah Portion from the writings of Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaKohen Kook, date=2013, isbn=1490909362, pages=166–167

References

External links

The Crown
copy of the Tzitz made by

The Temple Institute The Temple Institute, known in Hebrew as Machon HaMikdash ( he, מכון המקדש), is an organization in Israel focusing on the endeavor of establishing the Third Temple. Its long-term aims are to build the third Jewish temple on the Temple M ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

Jewish religious clothing Hebrew Bible words and phrases Headplate

Etymology

Hebrew Bible

Talmud

See also

References

External links