A break from Pesach thoughts
I buy sedurim more for the "instructions" (הוראות) as much as anything else.
My favorite sedur is Shlom Messas' וזרח השמש and although I have several copies, I now keep the large-print version for Shabat-only use. (My Syrian brother-in-law [once removed] insists I need bigger print. I don't, but he's a super guy so . . . )
My "daily" sedur is Avotanu (אבותנו), also large print. It's pronunciation guide is better, but more importantly, it has many, many more instructions and comments.
Both follow one of the Moroccan traditions. (Like the US, there is a difference between "northern" Morocco and "southern" Morocco or perhaps between formerly "Spanish" Morocco and formerly "French" Morocco. Even pronunciation varies - one is closer to "modern" (Israeli) Hebrew, the other not so much.) I have some other sedurim, even an Ashkenazi one, and one, in a protective wrapper, titled "Prayer Book, Abridged, for Jews in the Armed Forces of the United States" issued c WW 2. It's in the same wrapper as the one from צה''ל . I have another sedur - also in a protective wrapper - that my Father-in-Law, Eliyahu ben Zohara z"l (or a"h if you prefer) saved from the trash and gifted to me. Thank you, Rahel, whoever you are, for tossing out your sedur . . . I used it for many years. Since it's close to Pesach, perhaps I should mention my Union Haggadah, Revised, also a gift and also in a protective wrapper. (In southeast Florida, the humidity and bugs are book killers, ergo the wraps.)
Enough asides.
Most of us, when we come to the Shema (שמע) take all four tzit-tzit in our hand.
Tzel HeHarim, an excellent book in English* on tzit-tzit by R. Hertzel Hillel Yitzhak with approbations from Mizrachi and Ashkenazi rabbis in Israel and New York, advises that "According to Kabbalists, when one reaches the statement מארבע קנפות כל הארץ (in the אהבת עולם prayer before the Shema) he should gather the ritual strands of all four corners. . . and place the strands between his "pinky" (little finger) and his ring finger." (Chap. 10, Pg. 240)
In Footnote 9 on Page 240, R, Yitzhak notes that the Vilna Gaon only held the front strands, added that Hakham Ovadia Yosef "often" would gather only the front strands.
The sedur אבותנו agrees with the timing, but then parts company with R. Yitzhak's book by stating, in Footnote 34 on Page 161 that we take the front two tzit-tzit and wrap them around the middle (צרידה) finger. This instruction is repeated immediately before the Shema's third paragraph (דבר אל-בני ישראל). Hakham Messas' sedur is, unfortunately, silent on how many corners to hold.
In Tzel HeHarim we are told that we kiss the tzit-tzit each time they are mentioned in the Shema's third paragraph (דבר אל-בני ישראל), and that we are to look at the stands when reciting וראיתם אותו.
Sedur אבותנו, on the other hand, tells us to take the tzit-tzit across our eyes twice at וראיתם אותו and at ואחרי עיניכם to pass them before the eyes once again and then to kiss the tzit-tzit.
* Feldheim Publishers, ISBN 1-58330-292-1
הריני מקבל עלי מצוה עשה של ואהבת לרעך כמוך, והריני אוהב כל אחד מבני ישראל כנפשי ומאודי
