The fringes of garments
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(Matt. 23:5) consisted of purple-blue tassels on the four corners of the outer garment; by the prescription of the Law of Moses (Num. 15:37), they were meant to remind one of the Lord’s commandments. The Pharisees thought that the wider their fringes, the more visible to the people was their piety. The touch, in faith, of the woman with an issue of blood to these tassels on Jesus’s garment healed her sickness (Matt. 9:20). Among the Persians, according to the testimony of travelers, tassels sewn onto outer garments, even at present, serve as an expression of piety on the part of those who have them.