myTalit - Tallit

Shopping online for a prayer shawl or tallit is no different from shopping online for a perfume, article of baby’s clothing, or trawling eBay listings. It’s simply a matter of finding the right site for you that has a variety of prayer shawls that appeal to your taste.

The easiest way to begin is to use a major search engine such as Google or Yahoo! and enter a phrase that applies to what you are looking for. It is easy to think that that phrase might be simply “prayer shawl” or “tallit” however, if you know in what type of prayer shawl or tallit you are interested, then it will pay to use an appropriate descriptive word in your search term too as this will narrow down your search.

Possible search terms include “raw silk tallit”, “traditional tallit”, “designer prayer shawl” or similar. Should there be a specific artist or designer whose work you like, entering his or her name into the search engine along with the word “tallit” should return some results. Yair Emanuel is particularly popular. If, however, you don’t have any idea where to start then tallit or prayer shawl will be a good start.

There is a huge range of different types of tallitot available online, complete with photographs of the design of each tallit and a detailed description. Many of the sites that sell tallitot online also sell tallit clips, tallit bags, tefillin, and other religious accessories.

Another type of tallit that is highly sought after, is the hand painted tallit. Only a few artists specialize in this area, so it is worthwhile spending some time looking at the various sites returned on the search engine listings to see if one of them has what you want.

Another way to search online for your ideal tallit, is to make the most of Google’s “Image” directory. It is located above the word “Google” and next to the word “Web” at the top left hand corner of the page. Clicking on this will transfer you to the image directory and entering in the same search term “tallit” will return only pictures of tallitot. The advantage of this is that you can buy tallit with the design you like, click on it, and it will take you to the site displaying the picture.

Unfortunately, sometimes the picture will not be displayed by a shop but will be accompanying an article, in which case, you can save the picture to show to one of the online shops, to see if they have something the same or similar within their tallit and shofar collection, .

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Though it is has been written “talit”, “talet”, “taleth”, “tallis”, but maybe most frequently, “tallit”, the origin of the Jewish prayer shawl by this name, is definitely a source of interest for many.

Derived from a word meaning “cloak” or “gown”, rectangular in shape, and white in color, it was only worn during ancient times by men and looked very similar to a blanket. Knotted tassels, in accordance with the bible, were attached to each corner.

Possibly the tallit originated with the Bedouin people, bearing a vague resemblance to the linen or woollen “abbayah”, which they wore to protect themselves from the weather. However, with its finer qualities nowadays, it is more likely to have been influenced by the Roman pallium, the prayer shawl of the rabbis and scholars that were both rich and famous.

Traditionally, the length of a tallit is a handbreadth shorter than whatever garment is worn beneath it, however it should be large enough to cover a small child that can walk. It can be made from wool, cotton, or silk. Ideally, a tallit should be made from coarse lamb’s wool that is half-bleached.

Following the Jews’ exile from Erez in Israel, and the gradual introduction of clothing that did not have four specific corners, the tallit was no longer worn as part of the daily wardrobe. Instead, it became an integral part of religious rituals, requiring a blessing to be said once put in place.

It is compulsory for men who are married to wear a tallit, though it’s usual for many bar mitzvah males to wear them too. It is worn during morning services and often bears the blessing, which, after translation, can read as or similar to: “Blessed are You, O Eternal our God, Ruler of the universe, Who has sanctified us with your commandments, and commanded us to wrap ourselves in the fringed garment”.

Previously, the only decoration on the tallit was a series of black stripes. More recently, these have also appeared on tallitot (the plural of tallit) in blue. Although this is the custom, there is no hard and fast rule to dictate this, so theoretically, it is possible to have a prayer shawl with stripes of a different color.

However, today, many different and beautiful designs appear on prayer shawls, so much so, that despite great disapproval and concern that the tallit may be shown disrespect, many non-Jews have also taken a fancy to wearing a tallit.

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The Torah explicitly commands that Tzitzit be added to the four corners of garments. (Maimonides considered it one of the most important of the 613 Mitzvot); traditionally the wearing of Tzitzit began with this commandment, though biblical scholars consider it to be much older, and argue that the commandment reflected an already existing practice.

In early Judaism, Tzitzit were used for the corners of ordinary everyday clothing; most Jewish people at the time wore clothing which consisted of a sheet-like item wrapped around the body, comparable to the abayah (blanket) worn by the Bedouins for protection from sun and rain, and to the stola/toga of ancient Greece and Rome. As recorded in the Talmud, these were sometimes worn partly doubled, and sometimes with the ends thrown over the shoulders.

After the 13th century CE, Tzitzit began to be worn on new inner garments, known as Arba Kanfos, rather than the outer garments. This inner garment was a 3ft by 1ft rectangle, with a hole in the center for the head to pass through; the modern Tallit evolved from this medieval item. By modern times, the four-cornered sheet-like cloth fell out of fashion, and became regarded as impractical compared with alternatives; since most modern western clothing does not have four clear corners, the rule essentially became obsolete in daily life.

However, traditional Jews began to voluntarily wear a small tallit in ordinary life, in order to explicitely fulfill the commandment to wear Tzitzit; some Jewish commentators argue that it is a transgression to miss a commandment that one is able to fulfill. Tallit are also often worn during prayer for this reason, and this is practiced by a wider group of Jews. A tallit is often used as a Chuppah in Jewish wedding ceremonies.

Source: Wikipedia

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Judaism, one of the world’s oldest religions being practiced today, has several traditions, most of them stemming from text and prescriptions in the Hebrew Bible. One of their important traditions is the use of the tallit, or the Jewish prayer shawl. The tallit is one of the most iconic Jewish symbols, considered by many as one of the most authentic Jewish garments. The use of tallit further proves that the Jewish indeed has a deep faith and respect for their religious tradition.

The tallit is mainly used today as a prayer shawl, used normally by men when they recite the Shacharit, or their morning prayers. Jewish men also use tallits during Sabbath (or their day of praise) and during religious holidays. While not practiced by all Jewish communities, the talit is usually given by the father as a gift to the son, or by the teacher as a gift to the student, during the Bar Mitzvah. The tallilot is worn once the man reaches the age of 13, the age when a Jewish male is considered to have come of age and when they celebrate their Bar Mitzvah. At the age of 13, the Jewish male is respected to be responsible for their actions, and one of the implications here is the use of the tallit, which represents their awareness of the Jewish commandments.

This is because, basically, the tallit is worn as a reminder of their commandments. This is in accordance to one of the verses in the book of Numbers in the Hebrew Bible, saying the Israelites (who are Jewish) should wear fringes on their clothes’ corners. These fringes, according to the verse, shall by the reminder that they should observe the commandments so they should not follow their heart and eyes due to lustful urges.

These fringes are called the tzitzit. Before, they were placed, as the verse said, on the corners of everyday clothes. However, today, that is no longer possible; clothes today no longer have four corners. So as time progressed, the tzitzit was placed on the tallit. The tzitzit can also be found in other pieces of clothing, such as the tallit katan, which is a Jewish undergarment.

The tallit as it is known today is only used during the day, in accordance to the verse that the wearer of the talit should be able to see the fringes. This has been interpreted as one should only use it when the tzitzit is seen with the light of the day. Tallits are also personal by the Jewish. When a non-Jewish visitor goes to a Jewish temple, they are asked to wear prayer shawls. However, these shawls are not tallits, since the use of tallits are considered sacred, saved only for men who have reached the proper age.

As with tradition, however, the use of the tallit or the tallis can change according to communities, among other factors. For one, while majority of the Jewish wear tallits when they reach 13, some wear it in a much later date. Some communities also do not allow women to wear the talis, while some do. Nonetheless, the use of the tallis remains to be a precious tradition for the Jews.

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