Caring for Your Neighbor and Creation

Deuteronomy 22:1–12 is the movement “Caring for Your Neighbor and Creation.” Read it inside Moses’ final covenant instruction to Israel on the eastern side of the Jordan as the people prepare for life in the land. The section opens with: “Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ox or his sheep go astray, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy brother.” It closes with: “Thou shalt make thee fringes upon the four quarters of thy vesture, wherewith thou coverest thyself.”

Scripture also places this passage inside a wider canonical network. Garment fringes/tassels are commanded in Torah as reminders of God's commands. Jesus condemns enlarging them for status display, not Torah's command itself. The woman touches the fringe/tassel of Jesus' garment, a practice rooted in Torah's command for Israelite garment tassels. Touching the border/fringe of Jesus' garment recalls the Torah-commanded tassels already encountered in Matthew 9.