Tefillah 046
of the Rabbinical Assembly in Israel
HALAKHAH STUDY GROUP
THE HALAKHAH OF TEFILLAH
In the morning [the worshipper] recites two benedictions before it [the Shema] and one after it, and in the evening two before it and two after it – one long and one short. Any place where they [the sages] said it should be long one is not permitted to make it short and [any place where they stipulated that it should be] short one is not permitted to make it long; [any place where they stipulated that] one should conclude one is not permitted not to conclude and [any place where they stipulated that] one should not conclude one is not permitted to conclude.
EXPLANATIONS (continued):
95:
We now turn our attention to the third parashah of the Shema [Siddur Sim Shalom page 113, Siddur Va'ani Tefillati page 339 at the bottom]. There are two topics in this parashah: firstly there is the commandment concerning tzitzit:
God said to Moses as follows: Speak to the Israelite people and instruct them to make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments throughout the ages; let them attach a cord of blue to the fringe at each corner. That shall be your fringe; look at it and recall all God's commandments and observe them, so that you do not follow your heart and eyes in your lustful urge. Thus you shall be reminded to observe all My commandments and to be holy to your God. [Numbers 15:37-40]
This rather singular – not to say curious – commandment is repeated quite succinctly elsewhere in the Torah:
You shall make tassels on the four corners of the garment with which you cover yourself.[Deuteronomy 22:12]
96:
The original intention of the mitzvah is clear. In ancient times, right up to Talmudic times and beyond, people (both male and female) would wear a simple cloak as their outer garment. This cloak was a four-square or oblong piece of cloth that could shroud the whole body. For very poor people this was not only their only garment but it also served as their blanket during the night. We can see this clearly in one of the more touching of the commandments of the Torah:
If you lend money to My people, to the poor among you, do not act toward them as a creditor; exact no interest from them. If you take your neighbour’s cloak in pledge, you must return it to him before the sun sets; it is his only clothing, the sole covering for his skin. In what else shall he sleep? Therefore, if he cries out to Me, I will pay heed, for I am compassionate.[Exodus 22:24-26]
It is upon such a garment that we are commanded to add fronges or tassels; and these tassels are to serve as a constant reminder of God and His commandments.
97:
Gradually styles and habits changed and people no longer wore such a cloak as their habitual clothing and there was a danger that it would no longer be possible to observe this commandment. Jewish ingenuity soon provided the solution to the problem: a special cloak upon which these four tassels could be attached could be used over all other garments, even if only when engaged in prayer. Since in mishnaic and talmudic times the original garment was called a tallit this term has persisted to this day for the special four-cornered cloak that is warn during morning prayers. (Later on we shall see why I have specified morning prayers.)
98:
We should note that the original command of the Torah requires these tassels to consist of fringes – presumably white – which also contain one thread of blue. By tradition, this thread was died blue using an extraction from a certain mollusc; when tradition could no longer identify with certainty which mollusc was to be used the dying of one of the threads died out and only white fringes were left. When we studied Tractate Berakhot I wrote:
In mishnaic times the tzitzit [tassels, fringes] of the tallit [prayer-shawl] still had one blue thread among the white threads… The dye used for staining the white woolen tassel blue was extracted from a sea mollusc – possibly the same one from which the Romans were wont to extract the dye for their 'purpur', the dye that stained the edges of the togas of the aristocracy 'royal purple'. All we know is that the mollusc was called in Hebrew ĥilazon, but its identity was lost very early on, and for centuries now the tzitzit of the tallit have been left pure white.
in modern times several scholars believe that they have identified the creature and the technique of extracting its dye. Probably the most prominent among them was Rabbi Isaac Herzog, Chief Rabbi of Ireland and then of Eretz-Israel, and the father of Israel's late President Chaim Herzog. Here and there one can see tzitzi'ot with a blue thread entwined round the white ones, but the overwhelming majority of people have not taken up this option.
99:
In the commentary which forms part of the siddur Va'ani Tefillati the following comment may be found (in Hebrew) on page 7:
In the Mishnah (Tractate Kiddushin, Chapter 1, Mishnah 7) it is established that women are excused commands which are both positive and time-specific: these are mitzvot which require a certain act to be performed at a certain time. Throughout many generations most Jewish women used this excusal of the Mishnah also with regard to wearing the tallit and laying tefillin (though there were always women who did not see themselves as excused). According to Jewish law a woman can ignore the excusal and require herself to wear a tallit and to lay tefillin and also to recite the benedictions associated with these mitzvot. In the Conservative Movement there is also an halakhic view that requires every woman who has reached the age of mitzvot to observe all the mitzvot, including the mitzvah of tzitzit.
100:
If we examine the text of the biblical command we find that the purpose of the command of the tzitzit is to "look at it and recall all God's commandments and observe them". The sages who developed the oral tradition took the command to "look at it" at face value and decided that the requirement to wear a four-cornered garment with tassels attached applied only when it would be possible to see the tassels in natural light: that is to say, daylight. Thus the tallit is not worn at Arvit [the evening prayer] and on most days of the year it is not usually worn at Minĥah [the afternoon service] either.
To be continued.
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