debka_notion (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
debka_notion) wrote2006-01-16 12:50 pm
debka_notion) wrote2006-01-16 12:50 pm
Minhag Finds and Questions
1. Does anyone know which community has/had the custom to wear a tallit gadol before bar mtizvah? I think it's a custom of one or several of the Sephardi communities but I'm not sure. It came to mind as I saw a boy who was maybe 9 years old, tops, wearing a tallit gadol at shul this week. (I also saw a little girl with a tallit katan with her tzitzit hanging out running around. It's the first time I've seen that, and made me rather hopeful.)
2. Apparently it is a tradition in the Old City of Jerusalem to light Channukah candles during the day without a bracha (blessing) as well as at night (with a blessing, of course). No idea how that tradition came to be or why. But it's an interesting one.
3. No one knows of a reason a tallit katan would have to be perfectly rectangular, do they? I'm presuming they don't, as long as they are 2/3 open at the sides and have 4 corners. (I.e. it wouldn't be a problem for the shoulders to be narrower than the rest of the garment, would it?)
2. Apparently it is a tradition in the Old City of Jerusalem to light Channukah candles during the day without a bracha (blessing) as well as at night (with a blessing, of course). No idea how that tradition came to be or why. But it's an interesting one.
3. No one knows of a reason a tallit katan would have to be perfectly rectangular, do they? I'm presuming they don't, as long as they are 2/3 open at the sides and have 4 corners. (I.e. it wouldn't be a problem for the shoulders to be narrower than the rest of the garment, would it?)
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I know that Ashkenazim are unusual in that we only give boys (and girls, in egalitarian settings) tefillin three months before they reach the age of majority. Could it be that most Mizrahi and Sefardi Jews do the same for tallitot? I know for a fact that none of them refrain from wearing a tallit before marriage.
2. Apparently it is a tradition in the Old City of Jerusalem to light Channukah candles during the day without a bracha (blessing) as well as at night (with a blessing, of course). No idea how that tradition came to be or why. But it's an interesting one.
The purpose of lighting the candles/lamps is to publicize the commemoration of the miracle. The mitzvah only applies at night, but there's no reason one can't take that beyond the letter. Sounds nice to me.
3. No one knows of a reason a tallit katan would have to be perfectly rectangular, do they? I'm presuming they don't, as long as they are 2/3 open at the sides and have 4 corners. (I.e. it wouldn't be a problem for the shoulders to be narrower than the rest of the garment, would it?)
I'd ask a rabbi on this one. I can't give a specific reason why it wouldn't be kosher (I'm not so well versed in hilkhot tzitzit), but the fact that every tallit katan I've ever seen has been perfectly rectangular suggests to me that there's a reason.
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Hmm- somewhere I learned 2/3 open, but perhaps there are different opinions, or it's 2/3 just to be safe or some such. (And in any case, I measured poorly, so this one at least won't be fastened on the sides at all... Maybe next time.)
Well, I was told today that they make tallitot k'tanot with t-shirt Sleeves, so it doesn't seem like perfect rectangularity is required after all... I'd guess that they might be rectangular mostly since that makes that much less trouble to make and they seem to fit men pretty well that way, although I wouldn't particularly know.
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(Anonymous) 2006-01-17 02:05 am (UTC)(link)I'd be careful of that. I've been told by a rabbi I trust that sleeves invalidate a talit katan. Better to look into it yourself than act on hearsay.
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