Tallit

A white tallit according to some Sephardic traditions

A tallit with black stripes according to the Orthodox Ashkenazic tradition

A tallit^[a] is a fringed garment worn as a prayer shawl by religious Jews. The tallit has special twined and knotted fringes known as tzitzit attached to its four corners. The cloth part is known as the beged ("garment") and is usually made from wool or cotton, although silk is sometimes used for a tallit gadol.

The term is, to an extent, ambiguous. It can refer either to the tallit katan ("small tallit") item that can be worn over or under clothing and commonly referred to as "tzitzit", or to the tallit gadol ("big tallit") Jewish prayer shawl worn over the outer clothes during the morning prayers (Shacharit) and worn during all prayers on Yom Kippur.^[4] The term "tallit" alone, usually refers to the tallit gadol.

There are different traditions regarding the age from which a tallit gadol is used, even within Orthodox Judaism. In some Sephardi communities, boys wear a tallit even before their bar mitzvah. In some communities, it is first worn from bar mitzvah (though the tallit katan is worn from pre-school age). In many Ashkenazi circles, a tallit gadol is worn only from marriage, and in some communities it may be customarily presented to a groom before marriage as a wedding present or even as part of a dowry.

^ Jacob Rader Marcus (1990). This I Believe: Documents of American Jewish Life. J. Aronson. p. 269. ISBN 0-87668-782-6.
^ Jennifer Heath (2008). The Veil: Women Writers on its History, Lore, and Politics. University of California Press. p. 211. ISBN 978-0-520-25040-6.
^ Ilana M. Blumberg (2009). Houses of Study: A Jewish Woman Among Books. University of Nebraska Press. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-8032-2449-0.
^ Rabbi Daniel Kohn. "My Jewish Learning — Prayer Services". Archived from the original on September 22, 2008. Retrieved September 28, 2012.

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[1] Jacob Rader Marcus (1990). This I Believe: Documents of American Jewish Life. J. Aronson. p. 269. ISBN 0-87668-782-6.

[2] Jennifer Heath (2008). The Veil: Women Writers on its History, Lore, and Politics. University of California Press. p. 211. ISBN 978-0-520-25040-6.

[3] Ilana M. Blumberg (2009). Houses of Study: A Jewish Woman Among Books. University of Nebraska Press. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-8032-2449-0.

[5] Rabbi Daniel Kohn. "My Jewish Learning — Prayer Services". Archived from the original on September 22, 2008. Retrieved September 28, 2012.

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