Is there an issue with having a black Tallis Gadol?

 

Question:

Is there an issue with having a black tallis gadol with white strips, instead of the standard white beged with black strips? The actual tzitzis strings would remain white as normal.

 

Answer:

Strictly speaking, there are no Halachic requirements relating to the color of the garment. However, the Poskim, including the Alter Rebbe, write that it should be white and consistent with the Tzitzis strings, in order to fulfill the Mitzva according to all opinions.

The black stripes are also sourced in Halacha (although not required, and some insist that the garment be completely white without any stripes), as well as in Kabbala.

In my opinion, doing otherwise would be considered a change to the traditional manner and should not be done.

 

Follow up Question:

What if the person is asking because he is trying to follow a Yemenite custom from way back. Does that change what someone should do today?

 

Answer:

If he is indeed Yemenite and there are still currently Yemenite communities that do so it is okay. To the best of my knowledge, even Yemenite communities currently do not wear black talleisim. Even in the past, this was only done for the weekday tallis. (It is assumed that since they wore their tallis – which is very long in Yemenite tradition – all day it was extremely difficult to have it white which would make it very dirty. Even if they would make it white it would end up turning out black because they wore it even throughout work etc.).

See references below from Yemenite sources.

In any event, since the Yemenite custom was to make the tzitzis always white, it would be correct to make the Tallis this way too, in accordance with the Rambam – the key halachic authority for Yemenites – which maintains that tallis and tzitzis should always be the same color.

 

Sources:

ז”ל אדה”ז בשלחנו ט, ט: ומשום שאמרו חז”ל שנתעטף הקב”ה כש”ץ וכתיב לבושיה כתלג חיוור ראוי לכל מדקדק במעשיו לעשות ג”כ הטלית קטן וגדול לבנים כדי שיהיה יוצא לדברי הכל כשיעשה הציצית לבנים.

פסים שחורים: ראה זהר ח”ג רכז, א. פמ”ג או”ח אשל אברהם ט, ו. משנ״ב שם טז.  וראה בא״ח ש״א נח יא.  ועוד.

בחומר שינוי המסורה בצבע הטלית – ראה שו״ת מהר״י מברונא עג. וראה שו״ת מגדל צופים ב, ג.

מנהג בני תימן – ראה מעין קטן ב, ח. שם יב. שתילי זיתים ט, ז, וזית רענן שם. עריכת שלחן ילקוט חיים ט, לב.

 

 

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