Menachot 41 – Opinion of an Angel about Tzitzit

Is tzitzit the obligation of a person, so that when one wears a four-cornered garment, he needs to put tzitzit fringes on it, or is it an obligation of the garment, so that even while it is in the box, unworn, it already requires a tzitzit? Rabbah bar Huna prefers the second, so that even unworn garment already requires tzitzit.

However, a Heavenly angel disagrees, for once an angel encountered Rav Ketina wearing a linen garment without a blue thread in tzitzit - following the opinion that this is not needed. Angel said, “Ketina, Ketina, since you wear linen in the summer and a woolen cloak with rounded corners in the winter, what will become of the mitzvah to have a tzitzit with blue threads?” Rav Ketina said to him, “Do you then punish for failure to fulfill a positive commandment?” The angel said, “At the time of anger, yes.”

From here we see that the angel considers tzitzit to be an obligation of a person, for why would he punish a person for the obligation of a garment?! - Not necessarily! He just told Rav Ketina that he was using loopholes to get out of the obligation.

Art: Pere Serra - Angel Playing A Harp