Tallit Katan
The tallit was actually derived from a piece of clothing called the tallit katan, or the arba kanfot, which literally means four corners. The tallit katan, in turn, is a piece of undergarment, worn like a regular T-shirt underneath regular clothing (however, the tallit katan is never directly worn next to the skin, so basically another piece of clothing should be used underneath it). The tallit katan is mainly rectangular in shape, with a large hole where the wearer’s head goes through). According the Jewish Halakhah or their legal rules, this tallit should be 24 inches long and 18 inches wide, at least. More importantly, the tallit katan has tzitzit on the four corners of this rectangular piece of clothing. Unlike the regular tallit or tallis which is worn only during prayer and the Sabbath, the tallit katan is used everyday. In fact, a number of Jews in some communities do not walk more than four steps without wearing the tallit katan.
However, the tallit katan is also an evolution, a transgression due to the change in people’s lifestyles. This is because the Jews were actually not required by their commandments to wear the tallit or the tallit katan; instead, they are required to wear the tzitzit on the four corners of their outer clothing, in accordance to the verses on the book of Numbers and Deuteronomy. This outer clothing is just like the tallit katan, only it is not as an undergarment but placed over the regular clothes. When this style of clothing has been rendered out of fashion, the tallit katan took its place.
Just like the tallit that people know today, the Jews recite a blessing or a prayer before wearing the tallit katan. This blessing is not different from the prayer embroidered on the atarah of the modern-day tallit. Before, the tallit katan should still be worn even if one is already wearing the tallit gadol, a bigger type of tallit or tallis. However, anyone who uses the tallit gadol should no longer recite the blessing before wearing the tallit katan; instead, he should say the blessing wearing the tallit gadol. Also, in Jewish communities where the tallit gadol is not worn until after marriage, men are still allowed to use the tallit katan by the time he celebrates his bar mitzvah.
The practice of wearing the tallit katan also ceased its practicality when such undergarment became out of style. So the Jewish authorities chose yet another transgression in order to follow the mitzvah that requires them to wear the tzitzit. Therefore, the tallit or tallit that people know today was born. Of course, people do still use tallit katan today, and it is still an accepted practice by the Jews.
