The Meaning of Tallit

The Meaning of Tallit [Tallis]

Tallit as a Jewish spiritual practice is derived from a verse in the Torah:

          The Tallitis a 4-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 homein 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 b-mitzvah. Some Jews always wear a light-weight tallit under their clothes called a tallit kattan, "little tallit" and others prefer the full shawl-styletallit 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 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 atallit 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!
 

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

          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:

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"   [go ahead, check my 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, it is detail intensive, see below]. Sarah 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.

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 9th. 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 Reb Goldfish's explanation of what it 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.

Why a Kippah?

      A Jewish person who is wearing the little round beanie called a kippah, or a yarmulke, or scull cap is doing so as an expression of his/her deep desire to live a mitzvah-centered life. This person is willing to be seen in public as a Jew and to have her/his actions reflect on the Jewish people's values and practices.
      Wearing a kippah is a reminder to yourself that your actions in the world matter; that you can personally bring a sense of God, of holiness and all the possible goodness into the world by how you live.

Some of the History of the Kippah

      If you are wearing your kippah and get attracted to do something that wouldn't be good for you or others, you might remember you have your kippah on, and just that Godly "tug" of what you really believe in may stop you from getting into trouble. [This idea is found in the Talmud Shabbat 165b] That's why Reb Goldfish keeps her head covered, with one of her many colorful kippot or a cool hat, depending on her mood that day.
       Here's a surprise for some readers, regular Jewish people in biblical times and even as recently as medieval times did not wear a kippah. It is a practice that has evolved to be normal over time, in fact for women it has only been an accepted custom in most Jewish circles for about twenty or thirty years.
     Covering the head is spoken about in connection with the official garments of the High priest in Exodus 28:4, 37 and 40. He wore a type head ornament called a mitznefet, while the ordinary priests had a kind of hat, migba'at. That those in mourning would cover their heads and veil their faces is revealed in the books of Samuel, Jeremiah and Esther. This custom continues during Greek and Roman times. The Talmud reports that some who felt great awe for the experience of a Divine Presence in the world would also veil their faces and cover their heads, especially while praying or studying. [Hag. 14b; RH 17b; Ta'an. 20a].
     It gradually became the custom for Torah scholars to cover their heads, but this is clearly stated to be optional and reserved for established authorities and may have been a status symbol. [Nedarim 30b, Kid 29b]. For those who would lead services and give the priestly blessing a head covering became normal among the Jews of Babylonia, though not so much so in other regions.
     The great medieval commentator known as the Maharshal ruled a head covering during prayer to be optional, although Maimonides equates an uncovered head with a person who does not take living seriously enough [Yad, De'ot 5:6].  It is not until R. David Halevy of Ostrog in the17th century that we read about one of the differences between Christians and Jews is that Jewish men would cover their heads during prayer.
     It takes courage to wear a kippah in some parts of the world; in a few neighborhoods in Israel it even makes some Jews angry and aggressive to see a woman wearing a kippah. Remember, Judaism does not want you to follow a practice that could put your life at risk. It's fine to put your kippah in your pocket if it could result in any danger to you. The Torah says we are to live by our traditions, not die by them.

Does Everyone Have to Wear a Kippah in Synagogue?

     There are a lot of regional customs about this and people have very strong opinions that their customs must surely be laws. If you're a visitor, I suggest asking the person handing out the prayer books what the local custom is. You'll even seen non-Jews given kippot in certain synagogues. Notice that politicians pop them on when they come through the door of a synagogue. In other places when someone who isn't Jewish pops one on [unless they're famous] the gabbai [care taker] will ask for it back.
     Quick story: In Europe at one large reform synagogue, Reb  Goldfish was allowed to keep her tallit on but required to take her kippah off - "We don't allow kippot in here!"  Why? In the old days the Reform movement "modernized" by dropping customs like tallit and kippah, keeping kosher, and such. That particular temple had gotten as far as restoring tallit as a practice, kippah for them was going was too far!

What Color is Your Kippah?  Orange you glad you have a choice?

      For most contemporary Jews the decision to wear a kippah every day is a religious choice. It means we really care about being Jewish, that we are studying, observing many of the practices and getting a lot of joy and meaning from living a Jewish life. Some people only wear their kippot to make blessings at home, or at a service. There are many ways to express being Jewish - if it's not your usual practice, wearing a kippah for a while is a nice religious experiment to try during your bar/bat mitzvah preparation year(s) - see how it changes how you experience the world and how the world experiences you.    
        Kippot are available in endless shapes, sizes, designs and colors. There's lots of information in a person's choice of kippah - a big plain black one usually means the person lives a very observant, traditional life - a tiny colorful handmade one often signifies an active, spiritual, liberal Jew. Or maybe someone just was attracted to a kippah and chose it or made it. What color would you like your next/first kippah to be?
       Oh, a really nice thing to do at your b-mitzvah is to have enough kippot for everyone to be able to take one home. Be sure to put a bowl of bobbie-pins out to help hold them on, contrary to what some people think, humans don't have Velcro on the tops of our heads!

Understanding Tephillin

First a story from Reb Goldfish:

As a child of maybe seven, while exploring the basement of our suburban home, I found a curious item, a velvet bag containing little boxes with long black leather straps attached to them.  Hauling them upstairs I asked my father if I could use the straps for a craft project.

He took the package from my hands and drew the objects out tenderly. "I have not used these since the beginning of the war," is what I recall him to have said. He continued: "I used to keep kosher, say the Shema at bed time every night, and pray with these every morning."   I regarded this latter statement with surprise.  We went to Friday night synagogue together occasionally, lit candles, had a Hanukkah menorah and a Seder, not much else.

"These are called Tephillin," he explained. "They contain hand-written scrolls with verses from the Torah about love and the importance of keeping the mitzvot as a way of showing love. During my term of service in World War II the horrors that I saw following Patton, left me bewildered. Because of my army experience I stopped praying, wearing a tallit kattan and using these." 

My father was a first sergeant in the Signal Corps, I later learned, and as a consequence was in Auschwitz the day after it was liberated. Dad wandered off with the Tephillin. We did not discuss them again.

A year later my Yiddish-speaking Grandfather Benjamin came for an extended visit.  Every morning he would go to the dining room and mumble for an hour, putting on a similar set of boxes and straps (his boxes are much tinier than my father's) and a tallit prayer shawl.  My mother says at first I would watch him intently and after some weeks she found me beside him everyday, with a ribbon wrapped around my arm and a towel over my shoulders.

One day "Pop Pop" turned to me for the first time in the midst of his prayer, took off his Tephillin and wound them properly onto me, uttering urgently in to me incomprehensible Yiddish. He went home the next day and entered a "rest home" not long thereafter.

Due to the issues of certain rabbis in Germany in dealing with the presence and participation of women, all sorts of restrictions got imposed in the 13th century that have only recently been lifted, so I was surprised by what my grandfather did. Often I've wondered, given my pixie hair cut in those times, did he think I was a little boy?  Or sensing his mortality and knowing I was the only family member drawn to Judaism religiously, had he made a strategic decision? Or, since he was a scholarly man did he know that many great rabbis have ruled that females can perform this mitzvah? For example Rabbenu Tam, Rabbi Zerahia HaLevi and the Rashba said so and in the Talmud we read that "Mikhal the daughter of King Saul wore Tephillin and the sages did not protest." [Eruvin 96a.]

Pop Pop's Tephillin became my own. One day they even returned to the Ukraine with me, their and his place of origin. The spiral of spirit continues because when I discovered that they are a  spiritual tool to help me meditate and connect my heart and head to healthy living, Tephillin practice became an important part of my life. [Except Shabbat, when we don't wear them].  Once Tephillin even got me out of trouble at airport security [I'll post that at the end of this section as a treat.]

How are Tephillin made?

Tephillin are a set of two leather boxes filled with parchments on which a scribe has written specific verses from the Torah, then attached the boxes to leather straps, each knotted so that one can go around your head and one around your weaker [non-dominant] arm. It is quite complex to make Tephillin, and one is best served by buying good quality ones made by a scribe.

The same verses are in each box, only the ones on the arm [shel yad] are on one parchment, and those for the head [shel rosh] are done on four parchments and each paragraph gets its own room in the little bayit [house-like box].

In the paragraph after the Shema, we read the section that most clearly describes the basis for Tephillin. Tephillin also contain verses from Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and 11:13-21, and also Exodus 13:1-10 and 13:11-6.

How to Put On Tephillin:

Each step of Tephillin practice has meaning. By putting the "shel yad" on your weaker arm, the message is for this mitzvah to strengthen you. By the way, Tephillin are worn only during the day, and not on Shabbat, and never in the bathroom - they have real Torah inside! They're not only expensive, they can be damaged by moisture, extreme temperature and misuse. If you're using an inherited set, check with a Judaic shop or a scribe to see if they need maintenance.

Soon we'll have a video up showing how to lay Tephillin. It's much easier to learn by watching someone.

l. The shel yad is first. While standing, unwrap the coiled straps, leaving any knots or straps that have been slipped through a knot in place. Take off the little silver metal or cardboard box that protects the bayit [house-like box].

2. Pull up your sleeve (or wear short sleeves) and open the leather loop wide so you can slide your arm in and tighten the loop over your biceps. The knot ought to be touching the bayit, many have the bayit pointing somewhat toward the heart, which is part of the point of this practice, connecting your heart to the mitzvot and the Source of Life.

3. Say the first blessing, barukh atah adonai eloheynu melekh ha olam asher kidshanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu l'hanee-akh tefillin, "that guides use to holiness through mitzvot, by putting on tefillin."

4. If you don't have a large bicep, it will help to wind above and below the bayit on the flat edge underneath the box to hold it in place. Most females need to do this or everything falls down around the wrist, most men can just do one additional turn on the bicep.

5. Now wrap seven times around your lower arm, some communities have the custom of wrapping toward the body, others away. Each of the seven turns has a meaning, there are many interpretations. I like to think of each turn as one of the 7 qualities the Jewish mystics believe are like a hologram, happening inside of us and the Big Picture of the Universe as we do it.  These seven qualities are:

Khessed: Unconditional loving-kindness.

Gevurah: Strength and discipline.

Tiferet: The beauty that is compassion.

Netzakh: Endurance, ambition, drive, focus.

Hod:  Working on the quality of something in your life, containment.

Yesod: Transmitting, sending something on that is ready.

Malkhut:Letting go of control, see what will be after you've done all you can to prepare.

6. Wind the rest of the leather strap around your palm, you'll get back to it.

7.  Take the covering off of the bayit of the shel rosh, and put it over your head so that the box sits just below your hairline, the knot behind your head just above your neck. Let the two straps hang loosely on either side of your head, over your shoulders.

8. Recite the second blessing,  barukh.....al mitzvat tefillin....that guides us to become holy through the mitzvah of tefillin. There are meditations for now in many prayer books, one often printed asks G*d to fill you with wisdom and to satisfy the desires of all living things.

9. Now keeping the seven windings in place on your arm, unwrap the length of strap around your palm and bring it over the top of your hand between your thumb and pointer finger down to the middle finger.

10. Wrap three times around the middle finger and then go back around your palm until you've used up the slack and can tuck the end in. The picture below shows how you end up with one of the sacred names of G*d - Shaddai - "Nurturing One,"  Shin, Daled, Yud.  [insert image here]

11. The blessing that is said now is the same one from the prophet Hosea that is said at a Jewish weddings, because tefillin is a commitment between you and the Source of Life, with each of the seven windings being like a journey to prepare yourself for this moment in every week day.

V'eirastikh li l’olam           I am engaged with You forever.

V’eirastikh li b’tzedek        I am engaged with You in justice.

U’v’mishpat                      and I will stay with You to get it right

U’v’khessed                      and with loving-kindness

U’v’rakhamim                    and with compassion

v’eirastikh li b’emunah       I have faith in this relationship

v’yahdaht et Adonai.         Though me, You will know God.

Sometimes people rest their head on their arm while praying or thinking, connecting the head and the arm tefillin that is adjacent to the heart.

After you've finished your morning prayers you can take your tefillin off or keep them on for a time of meditation or Torah study. When you take them off, first remove the strap around your fingers, then wind it around your palm, take off the shel rosh [head set], wrap it up with its covering box back in place, put it away in the tefillin bag, take off the rest of the shel yad and pack it up too.

Here's the other Reb Goldfish tefillin story that I promised you:

I didn't spend a penny on my last trip to Canada and so I noted that on the customs form. The smiling agent stamps a big red word "Extest" onto my form and sends me around the corner where all the people with large suspicious boxes go. Ugh. A zillion overseas trips and today, winging my way back to my beloved, to get stuck in bureaucracy.

"Oh," the agent says. "It just means you are number 100. We randomly check every one hundredth person to validate our existence to the US government, plus I'm in training."

He starts gently looking through the piles of handouts, books about Sinai, covenant, mitzvot and then starts on my stack of hats. "Did you list the value of this merchandise?"

"I didn't buy the hats in Canada."

"You can't just carry stuff in and out to sell without declaring the value."

"They're not for sale. I wear them for religious reasons." Looking skeptical he continues the search.

He gets to my tallit and tephillin. Unwinding the tephillin he comments, "kinky. Tell me madam, you note your purpose in Canada was business, exactly what was your business in Canada?"

"I'm a rabbi, I came to teach a synagogue retreat in the mountains." (Uh, oh...wait til he gets to the spices in the Havdalah box.... agricultural goods?)

"May I see some form of professional identification please?" (Guess who gave away all her business cards on the retreat.)

"Kind sir, since you are in training and I am not aware there is anything illegal about carrying hats and leather across state lines, could I speak with your supervisor please?"

The supervisor comes over with a flock of trainees. He looks at the mountain of once carefully compacted stuff and then at me and then does a double take at the pile:

"Do you know what that is?! Tephillin shouldn't be tossed around like that!"

Needless to say it was smooth sailing there-after.