A Colored Tallis or Colored Tzitzis Strings (Plus Decorations on a Tallis)
Question: Is a colored tallis acceptable?
Discussion: The Gemara (Menachos 41b) teaches that the tzitzis strings must be of the same “kind” as the tallis they are tied to. According to some Rishonim, this includes a requirement for the tzitzis strings to be of the same color as the tallis. Therefore, if the tallis is white, the tzitzis strings must also be white; if the tallis is green, the tzitzis strings must also be green. The essential halachah does not follow this view, although Shulchan Aruch (9:5) teaches that the meticulous do make a point of adhering to it. According to this approach, one may make the tallis any color he wishes, as long as he uses strings of the same color.217 Rema (9:5), however, states that Ashkenazic custom is to use only white tzitzis strings, regardless of the color of the tallis – and he states that one should not deviate from this custom. In order to, on the one hand, adhere to Ashkenazic custom, while, on the other hand, cater to the approach that the tzitzis strings should be the same color as the garment – Mishnah Berurah (9:16) states that the meticulous will make a point of specifically wearing a white tallis with white strings.218
Many tallis garments have some colored stripes on them (usually black, and sometimes blue).219 This does not conflict with the preference of having a white garment, since most of the tallis is white.220 Nevertheless, many Sephardic Jews have the custom to use a tallis that is purely white.221
Question: Sometimes a woolen tallis turns yellow with age. Does that conflict with the preference of having a white tallis?
Discussion: The yellowed color of an old white, woolen tallis does not conflict with the directive of using a white tallis, since the tallis was originally white.222
Question: What is the significance of the silver adornment that some people have attached to the top of their tallis gadol?
Discussion: It is a longstanding custom to have a strip of silk, or the like, marking the part of the tallis that is worn on the head. This marking is referred to as the atarah – “the crown.” The reason for having this marking is that it is preferable for the each set of tzitzis strings to be in the same position every time the tallis is worn, and marking the place of the head facilitates this.223
Some people will have a silver decoration attached to the atarah, to further beautify the mitzvah. Some Poskim held that this should not be done, so as not to create the impression that the top of the tallis is the most important part.224 However, in practice, it is permitted,225 and either way is perfectly acceptable.
217 Therefore, Yalkut Yosef (9:10) rules that if army personnel can only wear a green four-cornered tallis kattan, he should tie on green strings.
218 Mishnah Berurah (ibid.) cites an additional reason to specifically prefer a white tallis: in a vision shown to Daniel (see Daniel 7:9), he perceived Hashem enwrapped, as it were, in a garment “as white as snow.” The “white garment” is presumed to be referring to a tallis with tzitzis, which Hashem is described as praying with (see Rosh Hashanah 17b). We therefore make our tallisos white as well. Additionally, there are Kabbalistic reasons to make the tzitzis strings specifically white (see Me’asef L’chol Hamachanos 15:51).
219 The source of this custom is not clear. Minhag Yisrael Torah (2) suggests that it is in remembrance of the techeiles strings. Although techeiles is not black (but rather bluish), Migdal Tzofim (II:3) suggests that black is chosen because the solution in which the techeiles was processed was a blackish color. Alternatively, we use a color that is similar to, but not identical to, actual techeiles, so that the ignorant will not come to think that one fulfills the mitzvah of techeiles by coloring the garment.
219In a simpler approach, R’ Chaim Kanievsky says that the stripes are simply there for decoration (Da’as Noteh, II, 285).
219See Piskei Teshuvos (9, fn. 48) who states that the stripes should not be at the very edges of the garment, since some Poskim maintain that the directive of having the color of the tzitzis strings match the garments applies specifically to the corner of the garment. Hence, the corner of the garment should not be of a different color.
220 Mishnah Berurah 9:16.
221 Based on Sha’arei Teshuvah (9:4), citing Yam Shel Shlomo (Yevamos 1:3). Yalkut Yosef (Shabbos, Chapter 281, fn. 5) states that this is the custom of Sephardic Jews.
222 Eishel Avraham (Buczacz) 9:5.
223 Mishnah Berurah 8:9.
224 Artzos Hachaim 8:4, Aruch Hashulchan 8:10.
225 Igros Moshe, Orach Chaim V, 20:3.