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The Tallit 
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The tallit is a garment one can wear to create a sense of personal space during prayer. By wrapping yourself in it, or by covering your head with it, the intention and direction of your prayers can be enhanced. The tradition is that the tallit is worn only during the morning prayers, except for the Kol Nidre service during Yom Kippur. The garment can be made out of linen, wool, silk or synthetics, so long as the biblical prohibition against the wearing of clothing combining linen and wool is observed. |
| It is not the garment itself, whether beautiful and adorned or plain and simple, that makes the prayer shawl special. What transforms a piece of cloth into a tallit are the tzitzit, the fringes on its four corners. The Torah instructs us to wear these fringes on the corners of our garments as a way of remembering and doing all God’s commandments (Numbers 15:37-41). The mitzvah is to remember God, to further holiness in our lives, and to keep the commandments, assisted by the visual reminder of the tzitzit. The tallit is therefore not worn at night because we are supposed to see the tzitzit by daylight. |  |
 A Tallit Bag is used to store the tallit when not in use. |
Should you be thinking of wearing a tallit, many meditations are available to increase consciousness and awareness. Verses from Psalm 104 are often spoken: "Bless Adonai, O my soul. Adonai, My God, You are very great, Your are clothed in glory and majesty. You have wrapped yourself with a garment of light, spreading out the heavens like a curtain." |
Tallit Clips keep
the tallit around the shoulders.
Since everything worth doing should
be preceded by a blessing, we say the following as we put on the
tallit:
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Baruch atah,
Adonai eloheinu, melech ha-olam, asheh kid’shanu
b’mitzvotav, vitzivanu l’heetatayf ba-tzizit.
Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Ruler of the universe, who has sanctified us with Your commandments, and commanded us to wrap ourselves in tzitzit. |
| For Further Reading: | Blessings |
Religious Objects is produced by Steve
Butterfass and Eric Bonnell