|
| Praised
are you O' Lord our God King of the Universe who sanctified
us and commanded us to wrap ourselves in the tzitzit. |
Barukh ata adonai
eloheinu
melekh haolam asher
kidshanu b'mitzvotav vitzivanu
Lihitattef Batzitzit. |
This blessing can be found on page 4 of Siddur
Sim Shalom.
This bracha is
recited when one put on a tallit. The Shulkhan Arukh specifies
the way in which a person is supposed to pout on the tallit. It
explains that the individual must wrap his head in the tallit
completely covering his head and then recite the bracha. The Shulkkhan
Arukh also instructs us that a person must keep the tallit in
that position for a minimum of the amount of time that it would
take to walk four cubits, the equivalent of four yards. The reason
for this is that a person has a sense that they have been in enveloped
in by the tallit.
Today we have two types of garments that have tzitzit,
ritual fringes. One of the garments is like and undershirt and
is traditionally worn underneath the shirt, even though there
are communities of Hasidim that wear this garment over their shirts.
The second is the Tallit that we most commonly see in the synagogue
though is worn every morning and only in the morning during the
prayers of that time of the day. (With two exceptions, on Tisha
B'av the tallit is worn in the afternoon and on Yom Kippur at
the Kol Nidre service it is worn as well.) The Biblical injunction
for this mitzvah, commandment, is found in the third paragraph
of the Shema (Numbers 15:37-41) in which the tzitzit are discussed
at great length. The Rabbis have understood this paragraph as
a requirement to place tzitzit on any garment that has four corners.
The tzitzit have come to represent all of the 613
mitzvot in the Torah as well as the entirety of the Jewish people.
In the line just prior to the Shema in the morning we ask God
to gather the Jewish people from the four corners of the world.
While reciting that line we gather the tzitzit from the four corners
of the tallit, in symbolic gesture. During the third paragraph
of the Shema each time we say the word tzitzit we kiss the tzitzit
symbolizing our embrace of the commandments and our love for our
people. So too, when we recite the bracha initially we envelop
ourselves in the hopes that we are able to surround ourselves
with the mitzvot.
The physical experience of wearing a tallit is a
visceral one and one that has been enhanced through creating beautiful
designs for tallitot (plural for tallit). For many the tallit
has gained greater personal significance because a specific tallit
was made or purchased by a loved one. In some cases a tallit has
been passed down from generation to generation. Some have even
used a special tallit as the huppah at their wedding. Like many
ritual objects the tallit can grow to mean more than the original
ritual could have ever imagined.
The mitzvah of putting on a tallit has become the
very uniform of the adult Jewish male in prayer, while many women
have chosen to add this mitzvah to their repertoire. While different
streams of Judaism actually begin wearing the tallit at different
times of their adult life, it is the tallit that has become the
most noticeable symbol of Jewish prayer. By wearing tzitzit as
an undergarment and on a tallit we remind ourselves regularly
of what it means to be a part of a people that is involved in
the commandments God has set before us.
Copyright © 2001 Rabbi
Yohanan Stein. All rights reserved.
New Jersey Region United Synagogue
of Conservative Judaism
PO Box 390; 1025 St. Georges
Ave
Linden, NJ 07036-0390
Phone: 908-925-USCJ (8725)
/ Fax: 908-486-USCJ (8725)
E-mail: njersey@uscj.org
Copyright © 2000 -
2003 New Jersey USCJ. All rights reserved.
Last Updated: July 2003
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