Oftentimes one can easily identify a fellow Jew by the strings that protrude from his clothes. These strings are called tzitzit and they are essentially the four fringes attached to the tallit, which is the piece of clothing, the cloth, that is worn under shirts.
In the Bible, in the Book of Numbers Chapter 15, God commands Moses to “Speak unto the children of Israel and bid them that they make them throughout their generations fringes in the corners of their garments, and that they put with the fringe of each corner a thread of blue. And it shall be a fringe for you, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them”. From this passage we learn that it is a positive commandment to wear tzitzit on the garments. By wearing the four corner fringes, we will remember our connection to God and His commandments and will not stray from His path and ways.
This commandment is considered one of the most important commandments. Today though, there are no four cornered garments as was common in the time of the Bible and so people wear a tallit, that has four corners and to these they attach the strings.
The tallit and the tzitzit are not the same thing however they are connected to each other. The most important one is the tzitzit as it is what changes a regular garment into a holy garment. By adding the four fringes we turn a regular piece of cloth into a special holy garment.
There are two different types of tallit. There is a
tallit kattan and a
tallit gadol. The
tallit kattan is the under garment which is worn under regular clothing. The four fringes are attached to it. This tallit allows one to carry on their everyday tasks without the bulk of the tallit as it worn under the clothes. Some Orthodox Jews wear the strings tucked into their clothes so as not to hang out and others let them hang out, each to their own preference.
The tallit gadol on the other hand, covers the whole body, including the head and is the preferred tallit to be used for during prayers. So in order for the tallit to be considered valid, it needs to have valid tzitzit on the corners of the garment, whether it is a tallit kattan or gadol. On the four corners of the tallit, are the tzitzit.
According to Sephardi custom, a tallit is worn in prayer once a boy turns 13 and has a bar mitzvah whilst the Ashkenazi custom is that the chatan, the groom, wears the tallit for the first time at his wedding.
While the tallit is a garment that nowadays is worn by both men and women, the tzitzit is only worn by men. Another difference between the two is that we say a blessing on the tzitzit and not on the tallit. This is the reason why the tzitzit is only worn by men as it is a time bound mitzvah and therefore according to Jewish Law, women are exempt from time bound commandments. In the past, in keeping with the verse from the Bible, blue tzitzit was worn but only by the nobility as it is an expensive item. The blue dye was obtained from the chilazon, an elusive sea creature. Nowadays no one knows the whereabouts of this sea creature though there have been some rabbi’s who have claimed to have found the creature and have sold blue dyed tzitzit however this is not a general accepted practice. Some believe that the chilazon will return when the Messiah comes. Until then white tzitzit fringes are the accepted norm. While this is a most important commandment, it is also a personal one, one that helps us form our connection with God as well as the world around us.
