Mark Twain noted that “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society.” Anyone who has been to a traditional Jewish worship service quickly notices that while people may no longer be attired as formally as they were in earlier times, the men nonetheless dress in special garb for the synagogue. Every man has his head covered usually with a small cap and, at a morning service, a prayer shawl is draped around his shoulders. On weekday mornings, a pair of leather boxes attached to leather straps are worn as well on the head and on one arm by many of the participants to complete the ensemble. Increasingly, in Conservative congregations like Temple Israel, women may also choose to wear some or all of these ritual garments during prayer, though we do not require them to do so. By dressing appropriately for prayer we hope to have some influence on ourselves and, perhaps, on the Almighty as well.
The most familiar of these prayer garments is the small cap known as a kippah (plural, kippot) or, by its Yiddish name, yarmulke. This cap may be made of satin or velvet or some other material. Some are crotcheted in solid black or more colorful hues or they may have decorations or Hebrew letters incorporated into a design. More recently, some enterprising folks have created a leather kippah in various colors, decorated for children with emblems of sports teams or various television cartoon characters like the Simpsons or the Sesame Street gang. In fact, there is no special requirement for the appearance of a kippah; it has no religious significance in itself. Rather it is required for its function, the covering of a person’s head as a sign of modesty and humility in the presence of God. In a pinch, I’ve seen paper napkins used to fill the bill. They have been twisted on both ends to create a hat and hastily placed on a person’s head. In Israel, a box of black cardboard kippot, frequently will be found at the entrance to sacred shrines for the use of those who do not already have a head covering.
Some people, particularly rabbis and scholars, though not exclusively, may choose to show deference to God at all times, by constantly covering their heads, while others wear the kippah only during times of prayer and religious study or when entering into the synagogue or other sacred space. Since it has no intrinsic religious significance, we do ask non-Jewish male visitors to wear a kippah when they come to the synagogue as a sign of respect to God and the congregation. Any hat will do, but in the synagogue, the kippah is the least conspicuous hat for a stranger to put on.
We do not, however, ask a non-Jewish visitor to wear a tallit (plural tallitot) or prayer shawl. This garment does have religious meaning and is only to be worn by Jewish people as a reminder of our obligations to fulfill God’s 613 commandments. The practice of wearing a tallit is mentioned in the book of Numbers where Moses instructs the Israelites to put fringes on the corners of their garments. The Israelites are to include a blue thread along with the other white threads. God tells them that when they see the fringe they will be reminded to fulfill the commandments of the Lord and not go astray after their eyes and hearts. The blue thread is missing from most modern tallitot since, for centuries, it was uncertain exactly which mollusk produced the special blue die required that was known as techelet. In recent years, scholars and archaeologists have determined precisely which type of snail was used for this purpose, but after so many centuries, few modern Jews are running out to purchase blue fringes for their tallitot.
The blue dye, we are told, is to remind us of the sea and the heavens and God’s throne of glory and thereby encourage us to show obedience to God as do the waters of the sea and the heavenly bodies above and thereby lead us to cleave to God’s throne. Without the techelet, however, we still can remember our obligations. The fringes on the four corners of the tallit, known as tzitzit, utilize a sacred macramé to remind us of the commandments. Each Hebrew letter has a numerical value and together the five Hebrew letters of the word tzitzit total 600. Adding to that the eight strings and five knots used in the fringe on each corner of the tallit, we get 613, the traditional number of commandments in the Torah. So when we look at a fringe, we remember all the commandments of the Lord. Not only this, but the longest thread on each of the four tzitzit is wound around the other threads a specific number of times in the four spaces between the five knots. The specific number of windings is 7,8,11, and 13. These numbers put into Hebrew letters produce the message, “Adonay echad,” the Lord is one, the fundamental teaching of Judaism.
God Himself is pictured by the rabbinic sages as wrapped in His own tallit, a prayer shawl made of the very heavens. Standing in prayer with a kippah on his head and a tallit around his shoulders, a Jew should feel as if he is enveloped in the Divine Presence while engaged in prayer.
On weekdays, at our morning services, many of the men wear tefillin, sometimes translated as “phylacteries,” an archaic term which is not terribly helpful in describing these ritual items. Tefillin are two leather boxes held in place by leather straps. One box is attached to a fixed loop which rests on the forehead with the box centered at the hairline, the knot of the loop resting opposite on the back of the skull, and the ends of the straps hanging down and then draped over the shoulders in front. The second box has an adjustable leather loop which runs through the top of the box and is tightened on the lower part of the left bicep with the remaining strap wrapped seven times around the lower arm and then several times around the hand and fingers. These boxes contain small strips of parchment inscribed by hand like Torah scrolls with four biblical passages that each include the instructions “you shall bind these words upon your hand and place them as frontlets above your eyes.” The passages, two from Exodus and two from Deuteronomy, speak of the unity of God, the responsibility of observing His law, the importance of remembering the Exodus, and the significance of dedicating ourselves to God’s service. The four passages are written in biblical order on a single scroll and placed in the box on the arm. The box on the head has four compartments and each passage is written again on a single slip of parchment and placed in order in one of these compartments. The idea is to consciously subjugate one’s mind, heart, and strength to the service of God. As one wraps the end of the strap around one’s finger three times, one recites a verse from Hosea that speaks of God’s symbolic betrothal to the Jewish people. As we bind the tefillin on our bodies, we imagine ourselves bound tightly to God Himself.
As with the tallit, so with the tefillin, the early rabbis pictured God attired in a pair of His own. His tefillin, however, do not contain biblical passages to remind Him of His own unity, but rather they include verses that speak of the unique relationship God has established with the Jewish people. When Moses asks to see the Divine Presence after the Lord has forgiven the people for the sin of the Golden Calf, God tells him that no one can see the face of God and live. Instead, the Almighty places Moses in a crevice on the mountain and passes by so the prophet can see “His back.” The rabbis claim that what Moses saw at that moment was the knot on the back of God’s tefillin.
Some Jews wear tzitzit not only in prayer, but throughout the day on a smaller tallit known as the arba kanfot (the four corners) or a tallit katan (a small tallit). This cloth poncho has the same four fringes that the larger prayer garment has, but it is worn under one’s shirt with the fringes tucked into the trousers. In some communities the fringes are worn outside the pants and in others, the entire garment is worn over one’s shirt. However one chooses to wear the tallit katan, it is intended to help one remember one’s commitment to the commandments throughout the day. In earlier times, some Jews wore the tefillin throughout the day as well, particularly those who were engaged in all-day study of sacred texts. Nowadays, the vast majority of Jews who wear tefillin do so only at the weekday morning service. On the Sabbath and major holidays, tefillin is put away, since the holiday and the Sabbath serve the same function of binding us to God on those special days.
Women were traditionally exempted from the wearing of tallit and tefillin since they were among the positive commandments performed at a particular time of day, from which women were relieved in order to allow them to take care of their homes and their children. Some of those positive commandments women never gave up, while tallit and tefillin remained a man’s practice for the most part. In recent years, however, female rabbis and cantors have taken on the practice of wearing tallit and tefillin and some women among the laity have joined them in one or both of these practices as well.
As with all ritual items, these prayer garments help us to focus our attention on the purpose of prayer and place us in the proper frame of mind to enter the presence of God and offer our praise and thanksgiving and humbly seek our needs. We stand in humility, surrounded by God’s presence and reminders of our obligations to the Lord, literally bound to the Almighty and His sacred Word.