Changing tzitzit during the day

Hi,

One who changes his tzitzit during the day does recite a new berachah, although there is room to argue that he should not recite a new berachah if he had intended to change it when he recited his initial berachah that morning.

(Rivivot Ephraim 1:23:7)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Overnight tzitzit

Hi,

One who does not remove his tzitzit at night, but instead sleeps in them, he should recite a new blessing on them in the morning. There is some debate on this point, though, and so it would be better to mentally include the tzitzit in the blessing he recites on the tallit.

(Code of Jewish Law Orach Chaim 8:16; Mishneh Berurah 8:42)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

If a tallit falls off

Hi,

If one's tallit or tzitzit fall entirely off, he must recite a new blessing before putting them back on. This is true even if he picks it up and puts it back on immediately.

Among Sephardic Jews, one who removes his tallit intentionally must recite a new blessing before putting it back on. Among Ashkenazic Jews, though, one who intentionally removes the tallit need not recite a blessing before putting it back on, so long as he did not travel far and did not wait a long time before putting it back on. It is difficult to define "a long time;" ask your local authority for more information.

(Code of Jewish Law Orach Chaim 8:14-15; Mishneh Berurah 8:40)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

One berachah for both tzitzit and tallit

Hi,

There is debate as to whether the blessing one recites on the tzitzit (tallit katan) in the morning can include the tallit he will don in the synagogue, because the two garments are donned in different locations. Therefore, one should recite separate blessings for each, and not try to include both in one blessing.

(Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 8:13; Mishneh Berurah 8:33-34)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Multiple tzitzit garments

Hi,

One who wears many four-cornered garments simultaneously is obligated to put tzitzit-strings on the corner of each of them. However, one who dons more than one such garment at the same time need recite only one berachah.

(Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 8:12)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

The berachah for tzitzit and tallit

Hi,

The general practice among Ashkenazic Jews is to differentiate between the berachah (blessing) recited on the tallit and the berachah recited on the tzitzit, because one cannot fully wrap himself in the small tzitzit garment.

Therefore, we recite a blessing thanking Gd for instructing us "al mitzvat tzitzit," "on the mitzvah of tzitzit," instead of the tallit berachah of "lehit'atef batzitzit," "to cloak ourselves in tzitzit."

(Code of Jewish Law Orach Chaim 8:6)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Berachah on tallit and tzitzit simultaneously

Hi,

Many maintain the practice of reciting a blessing only upon the large Tallit worn for Shacharit (the morning service), and therein including the Tzitzit, since the Tzitzit are donned fairly close to the time one puts on the Tallit.

One who does this need not enwrap himself in the Tzitzit before putting them on; he fulfills that practice when he enwraps himself in the Tallit.

(Mishneh Berurah 8:7)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Wrapping in the tallit

Hi,

We have said that one should wrap himself in his tzitzit garment when reciting the blessing. One should specifically wrap the garment around his head, as a means of inducing introspection and humility.

(Code of Jewish Law Orach Chaim 8:2; Mishneh Berurah 8:4)

Have a great day,
Mordechai