Tallit Katan

The tallit katan exists to solve a practical problem created by a change in ordinary clothing, and it is the garment that makes the commandment of the fringes a constant rather than an occasional observance.

Why it exists

The commandment attaches the fringes, the tzitzit, to a four-cornered garment, and in antiquity ordinary outer clothing had four corners, so the obligation was met simply by dressing. Once everyday clothing ceased to be four-cornered the fringes would have been worn only with the prayer shawl at morning prayer. The tallit katan, a small four-cornered garment worn under the shirt through the whole day, was adopted so that a man carries the fringes on his body continuously, which is the more stringent fulfilment favoured in observant practice.

Worn and shown

The garment itself is plain, a rectangular cloth with an opening for the head and fringes at its four corners, and practice varies as to whether the fringes are tucked in or left visible over the trousers, a difference that in some communities signals affiliation. It is put on with a blessing, and boys begin to wear it young. Where the prayer shawl marks the times of prayer, the tallit katan marks the whole waking day, and the distinction between the two garments is exactly the distinction between an occasional and a constant observance.

Two live disagreements attach to the tallit katan, and both are about how literally to take the verse behind it.

The first is visibility. Numbers 15 says of the fringes that you shall see it and remember all the commandments, and one reading takes the seeing seriously: the fringes should hang outside the clothing where they can actually be seen. Many Hasidic and Yeshivish communities wear them out for that reason, sometimes with the whole garment visible over the shirt. Another reading holds that the verse describes the purpose rather than imposing a manner, that the wearer knows the fringes are there, and that in a society where displaying them invites hostility or ridicule discretion is preferable. Modern Orthodox practice frequently tucks them in, and Sephardi custom in many communities does the same. Neither side treats the other as failing the commandment.

The second is material. The obligation in the Torah is stated of a garment, and the surrounding passage in Deuteronomy speaks of wool and linen. A body of halakhic opinion, including that associated with the Vilna Gaon, holds that the biblical obligation properly attaches only to a woollen garment, and that wearing a cotton tallit katan fulfils at best a rabbinic obligation, so that a person who wears cotton and recites the blessing may be blessing over nothing. Those who follow this wear wool year round, including in hot climates, and it is one of the more visible instances of a stringency adopted at real cost.

The garment itself is a modern solution to an old problem. The commandment attaches to four cornered garments, ordinary clothing stopped having four corners, and rather than let the commandment lapse a garment was devised whose only purpose is to supply them. It is also called arba kanfot, four corners.