Tallit and the Fringes
What is a Tallit? What do the Fringes Mean?
And a Ritual for Tying the Knots
By Rabbi Goldie Milgram
Tallit as a Jewish spiritual
practice is derived from a verse in the Torah: “God told Moses ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and guided them
throughout their generations to make fringes on the corners of their
garments.'" [Numbers
15:37-40]
The Tallit is a four-cornered prayer shawl with
specially knotted fringes, called tzitzit,
worn as a reminder to live a mitzvah-centered life.
The tallit is a portable spiritual home in which you
can wrap yourself at home, in synagogue or when you are away on adventures and
desire time for prayer, reflection or healing from a sore spot in your life.
A person generally selects or receives his/her first
full tallit during the process of preparation for bar or bat mitzvah.
Some Jews always wear a light-weight tallit under their
clothes called a tallit kattan,
"little tallit" and others prefer the full shawl-style tallit for
prayer and special occasions in life. For example:
-
A Jewish wedding canopy is often a large tallit, canopy of spirit, held
over the couple on four poles.
-
A Jewish person is buried wearing a tallis with one corner cut off and
laid atop the rest of the tallit.-An old tallit that is unsightly/torn/unusable
gets donated to the synagogue or a Judaic library and will be used to wrap worn
out or superfluous documents like photocopies with Adonai, the sacred name of
G*d on them in Hebrew script so that they can be buried with dignity in a
geniza, a Jewish cemetery section set aside for this purpose.
-
There was a time, when a child became sick, the parents would wrap
her/him in a tallit and pace the floors praying, sensing that the power of all
the prayers ever said under that tallit would intensify prayers of love and
healing for the child.
-
The Yemenite Jews have a practice of wearing an all black tallit at prayer
during a period of mourning. Some Jews have an all white tallit to wear on Yom
Kippur, symbolizing rebirth. Recently, tallitot [pl] have appeared in
many-colored varieties throughout the world.
-
On Simchat Torah many communities hold up a tallit canopy and invite the
children to stand underneath and receive a taste of honey or candy to symbolize
the sweetness of the experience of Torah in life.
-
Women wearing tzitzit is a revival of the Torah's guidance for all to
put fringes on their garments that had lapsed by the time the Mishneh Torah was
written.
The Talmud in Menachot 43a
reports that Reb Yehudah attached fringes to the aprons of women in his
household and there it reads: "All must observe the law of tzitzit,
Cohanim, Levites and Israelites, converts, women and slaves."
This section also records one
scholar, Reb Simeon, as declaring women not to be obligated to wear a tallit.
-
A tallit is never worn in a bathroom, it is a sacred item. [Nor are
tephillin; a kippah can be worn anywhere.]
-
People who are leading services usually wear a full tallit, the rest of
us only wear a full tallit at morning services with three exceptions: Kol Nidre
(the evening service of Yom Kippur), the minchah service of Tisha b'Av and if
you happen to be at a community where Torah is read on a Friday night.
Why only during the day? Perhaps
because there used to be a special blue dye, tekheylet, that would be applied
to one thread and when you could differentiate between the darkness and the
color of the thread then it was time to start morning prayers.
The Holy One, blessed be, surrounded Israel with the
commandment of tephillin for their heads, tephillin for their arms,
tzitzit for their clothing and mezuzot for their doors. [Talmud Menachot
43a-b]
Where can you find a tallit just right for you?
Local Judaica stores, many web
sites and synagogue gift shops and custom tallit makers await your visit. You
can buy a tallit ready-made, by custom order, or make one on your own by
choosing a favorite color, fabric, style and texture.
Some tallit makers will offer the
option of shipping yours with the fringes not yet attached, so that you can do
the knotting as a family or personal ritual. This is a very memorable thing to
do!
Meaning of the Knots on a Tallit, Tallis
The knots symbolize the 613
guidelines for conscious living through a Jewish lens that are found in the
Torah called mitzvot [pl, singular is mitzvah]. As the Torah says:
"You will see them [the fringes] and remember
all God's mitzvot and do them" Numbers 15:39
A easy way to remember this is through a math problem.
Every Hebrew letter has a numerical value, which means each word's simple value
is the sum of the value of each letter.
See of you can figure out the value of the word for
"fringes," tzitzit.
Now, there are eight lengths of silk or cotton in a
tzitzit corner [doubled over] plus 5 knots, that, according to a medieval sage
called the Ba'al HaTurim stand for each of the five books of Moses.
So when you take the right answer for the gematriya
(numerical value) of tzitzit which is 600 and add 8 plus 5, you come out with
613.
After each double knot except the last on your tallit
fringe are a specified number of windings. First 7, then 8, then 11, then 13.
In Hebrew the name of G*d that no one can pronounce
that is made up of many forms of the verb "to be" is . Write down the
value of each letter in this name.
Now, what do the first two letters, yud plus hey add
up to?
What do the next two letters add up to?
So the name of G*d matches the first three winding
patterns. And what about thirteen? That is the value of the word Ekhad,
"one" [please check the math],
Which is what Judaism's core prayer the Shema says,
that G*d is One. So when you hold all the fringes in your hand, you are
honoring the oneness and the sense that by doing mitzvot you are helping
to hold the holiness of the world together.
13 is a special number because when Moses recalls the
best qualities of G*d he finds 13 to mention, so holding the tzitzit can be
inspiration for you to remember your best qualities too!
Another teaching on the knots is that the five knots
equal the first five words of the Shema [some people use them like a Jewish
rosary] and since the last word is ekhad, "one," which equals the
last winding between the knots, that makes it all "one."
Creating a Tzitzit Tying Ritual
Sara Harwin, a Portland Oregon
designer of custom tallitot, kippot and Torah scroll covers (www.harwinstudios.com) teaches that the tallit
can:
a) be draped on the student and
then
b) the parent/guardians and
perhaps older siblings, close aunts/uncles and mentors can step up to help tie
the knots. [This is not difficult, just detail intensive, see below]. Sara
recommends reserving one corner for the student to ask for their own most
desired blessings.
As you complete each set of
windings and tie the knot that will hold them, give blessings from your heart
to the student.
These blessings can be written in
advance and also provided on paper to the student for their B-mitzvah memory
book.
The formal blessing given in the
Talmud for completion of this process is:
baruch atah adonai eloheynu melech ha-olam, asher
kid'shanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu laasote tzitzit
Literally: Blessed are you oh Lord, my
God, King of the universe, that makes us holy through mitzvot and commands us
to make fringes.
Figurative (based on R'Gikatilla, 14th century): I bend my knee at the Pond of Blessing, at the Threshold of Eternity, where holiness comes through the mitzvah-centered guidance to make tzizit.
Figurative (based on R'Gikatilla, 14th century): I bend my knee at the Pond of Blessing, at the Threshold of Eternity, where holiness comes through the mitzvah-centered guidance to make tzizit.
How to Tie Tzitzit
1. Practice first before you
start making real tzitzit, yarn works well for this purpose.
Start by cutting four pieces --
three short strings measuring 40 inches in length, and one long string
measuring 60 inches in length.
The long string is called the
shamash, or caretaker, like the extra candle in the Hanukkah menorah that is
used to light the others. The shamash string will be used to wrap around the
other strings.
2. Hold one end of all four
strings together evenly. Push them through a hole in a square of cardboard or a
key ring.
It really helps to have someone
holding the cardboard or ring while you do this project. Pull the strings until
the cardboard is dividing the shorter strings exactly in half. The shamash
string will remain longer on one side.
This will be the string you use
to wrap around the other strings. It may help you to remember which string is
the shamash by tying a single knot at the bottom of its long end.
3. With the four short even
strings in one hand and the three short strings and shamash in the other, tie
two knots about two inches from the hole in the cardboard.
In order to fulfill the mitvah of
tzitzit, it is customary for you to say "l'shem mitzvat tzitzit,"
"for the sake of doing the mitzvah of tzitzit," each time you tie a
knot.
4. Hold the shamash in one hand
and the other seven strings in the other. Tightly wrap the shamash around the
group of seven strings seven times.
Count the wraps very carefully.
Make sure that the wraps start and end on the same side.
5. Continue wrapping and tying in
the same order as in the picture-- two knots followed by eight wraps, two knots
followed by eleven wraps, two knots followed by thirteen wraps, and two knots.
Be sure to carefully check the
number of wraps before each pair of knots. 7 - 8 - 11 -13 is the order of the
wraps, with two knots between each.
Putting on Your Tallit and Putting it Away
1. Hold the tallit so that the
decorative collar, called the atarah, is facing you. Often these have the
blessing on them or a verse from Torah or prayer of deep meaning, or a
decoration. Let yourself feel what it means to enter this fabric sukkah, a
shelter of peace.
2. Some people kiss the tallit at
this point, the way you might put a kiss on a mezuzzah, realizing you are
crossing a threshold [the root word of Adonai, "adan" means
threshold] with the intention of experiencing and bringing love into the space.
3. Recite the blessing: Barukh
ata adonai eloheynu melekh ha olam asher kidshanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu
l'hitateyf ba-tzitzit.
Here's my explanation of what this means:
Blessed is our G*d, Governing Principle of the universe that makes us holy through guiding us to do the mitzvah of wrapping in a tallit.
Here's my explanation of what this means:
Blessed is our G*d, Governing Principle of the universe that makes us holy through guiding us to do the mitzvah of wrapping in a tallit.
4. Holding your tallit like a
cape by the atarah (collar section), fling it up and around and over your
shoulders. Some wear it like a cape, other folded into a neat column, and
others wear it like a shawl and if it is very large flip the corners up onto
their shoulders.
When it is time to take your tallit off, fold it
gently and return it to a pouch or giant baggie for protection from moisture.
May your tallit be a spiritual shelter for you, where prayers flow
easily, whether they be spontaneous or traditional. May your fringes caress the
Torah scroll at many aliyot when you come up to witness the reading of the
Torah and I hope, to share you own interpretations over the years.
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