How It Is Worn, and by Whom

Practice differs from group to group in ways that members notice at once. Some communities put the gartel on only for the prayers and remove it afterwards; others wear it through the day. The number of times it is wound around the waist varies, one, two or three turns being usual, with the number and the manner of the knot fixed within each group. In some circles it is worn only by married men, in others by all adult men, and in some only when leading prayers or on Shabbat and festivals.

Outside Hasidic communities the object itself is uncommon. Non-Hasidic Orthodox Jews meet the same halakhic requirement with an ordinary belt, and Sephardi practice generally does not use a separate prayer belt at all. Its visibility in photographs of Hasidic life therefore overstates how widespread the object is, while understating how widespread the requirement behind it is.

A word of caution about the term. The strip of cloth used to bind a Torah scroll after it is rolled is also called a gartel, and in some communities the binder is made from the swaddling cloth used at a boy's circumcision, embroidered and presented to the synagogue. That object and the prayer belt share a name and nothing else, and confusing the two is an easy mistake to make in a catalogue.