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SHLACH 5783
We Need a Non-Slip Tallis Today
[Wear an old slippery tallis that will fall off your shoulders again and again.] I remember as a teenager my surprise at seeing many of the men in shul move away from the traditional tallis design of black or blue stripes or the folded-up silk tallis that looked much like a long scarf. It became fashionable—especially after one visited Israel—to wear a tallis designed by an Israeli artist. Some made their own tie-dyed tallesim with help from the Jewish Catalogue that had detailed instructions on how to make your own tallis.
Since then, nothing much has changed in tallesim until about 5 years ago. I shared with you then that I read about a new tallis which looked pretty traditional, but whose main feature was that the fabric was the product of new technology. What was so special about this fabric was that it doesn’t easily slip off one’s shoulders.
I was intrigued. Is it possible that technology has finally achieved a solution to the millennia old problem of the discomfort of trying to maintain concentration on one’s prayers while one’s tallis keeps on slipping off? I was so intrigued, that the next time I was in Israel—before Covid—I bought one, and you have seen me wearing it ever since. [Put on the non-slip tallis.] Though it’s my policy not to endorse products publicly, I have found that this non-slip tallis is a blessing to those who daven—a practical achievement long overdue.
A tallis that constantly slips off one’s shoulders during prayer is at best an annoyance … but it gradually grows into a distraction and a disturbance. When I would speak in shul—it was counter-productive to keeping the attention of my listeners when I constantly had to re-adjust my tallis—sometimes as much as 6 times in a short sermon. I think sometimes people became more fascinated by the slipping tallis than by what I had to say.
Today’s Torah reading ends with what became the last paragraph of the Shema which contains the mitzvah of tzitzit and wearing a tallis. Strangely, it follows the tragic incident of the sin of the 12 spies Moses sent to survey the Holy Land. There is even a linguistic link with these passages in the word tur as in latur et haaretz (to tour the land) as Gd commanded the spies (Num. 13:17). I suspect the English word “tour” is from this Hebrew word. And we find in the paragraph on tzitzit at the end of the parsha v’lo taturu (and you shall not tour—meaning stray—after your eyes).
The inference being “straying after your eyes” is what the spies did, and this caused them to sin in giving a bad report. The mitzvah of tzitzit at the end of the parsha—which includes wearing a tallis—tells us (Num. 15:38): uritem oto uzchartem et kol mitzvot Hashem (when you look upon it you shall remember all the commandments of Hashem). And so, this mitzvah of tzitzit is given after the sin of the spies to tell them and us a good way to avoid sin. The tallis has codes embedded in the tzitzit—with its fringes and knots—that would be a constant reminder not to stray from Gd.
For example: The word tzitzit has a gematria (numerology) of 600, there are 5 knots and 8 strings leaving a total of 613—the number of commandments in the Torah! So, when you look upon the tzitzit you’ll be reminded of the mitzvot of the Torah.
The blue turquoise thread in the Tzitzit, the Talmud (Sota 7a) tells us: “Resembles the sea, and the sea resembles heaven, and heaven resembles the thrown of Glory”—Hashem. So when you look upon the tzitzit you’ll think of Gd in heaven.
In our tradition there are a series of 4 windings in each of the tzitzit: 7, 8, 11 and 13. 7+8+11=26, the gematria of Hashem, and 13 is the gematria of Echad (one). So when you look upon the tzitzit you’ll be reminded of the one Gd!
The Torah tells us uritem oto, look upon your tzitzit. How should we do that. Looking with your 2 eyes is not enough. Jews have a 3rd eye. On Sukkot, wave the 4 species which, our Sages compare to parts of the body: the etrog resembles the heart, the lulav the spine, the aravot willows have leaves the shape of the lips, and the hadasim myrtle have leaves the shape of the eyes. The problem is that while we take one etrog representing one heart, one lulav representing one spine, 2 hadasim sticks representing 2 lips … the Sages tells us to take 3 aravot sticks. But we only have 2 eyes!
The answer is that we Jews have a 3rd eye—the eye that dreams, that sees beyond the surface, the eye that sees possibility while others see only what’s impossible, the eye that sees Gd in the world everywhere one goes. The spies didn’t use their 3rd eye. They only reported what their 2 physical eyes could see—the fortified cites, the giant size men. The command to look upon your tzitzit is a command to look beyond your physical 2 eyes and see with your 3rd eye. See that Gd is with you, watching you—that Gd has your back. And if Gd tells you that you can do something like conquer the land, you can do it. So, look at your tzitzit every day, kiss them, and you won’t stray.
Rabbi Berel Wein once remarked about the new non-slip tallis, that it might be a pretty good metaphor for the story of the Jewish people in our time. There’s no question that the tallis has slipped off the shoulders of millions of Jews today—so much so that many Jews never don a tallis anymore—not even on Yom Kippur! I’m not speaking about women because women don’t need to add a reminder like a tallis. They have an extra internal holiness in their ability to give life. But if they wear a 4-cornered garment, they should put tzitzit upon it. But the fact that so few male Jews wear a tallis anymore is troublesome. To add to that, the intermarriage rate is now 71%. And less than 1/3 of Jewish children today receive any kind of Jewish education. What’s going on?
We Jews need a non-slip tallis today. We’ve become so enamored with our uber-connected world—our smart phones, IPads, laptops, email, social networks, twitter and texting—that we have little room left for Gd and Torah. 90% of us are within 3 feet of one of our devices 24/7. Would that 90% be so close to their tallis once a day.
Clearly, the Torah looks upon the tallis as an important tool in avoiding sin. The Talmud (Menachot 44a) tells a great story about a man who was scrupulous in his observance of the mitzvah of tzitzit, but was not immune to the temptations of the world: He had heard of a certain prostitute in one of the towns by the sea who was so beautiful and skillful that she charged 400 gold denars for her services. He sent her the money and scheduled a time to be with her. When he was led into her chamber, she was lying on a gold bed fully naked waiting for him. He was so excited and began to remove his clothes when all of a sudden, the fringes of his tzitzit flipped up and struck him in the face. He jumped off the bed and sat on the floor. The prostitute was insulted and demanded to know what flaw he saw in her that caused him to do this.
The man explained, “Never have I seen a woman as beautiful as you. But there is a mitzvah that Gd has commanded us called tzitzit…Now the tzitzit appeared before me as 4 witnesses testifying against me.”
The woman demanded that he identify himself and his teacher and the name of the school where he studied Torah. This same woman came to his teacher, Rabbi Chiya, and studied with him for conversion and later married him.
Such is the power of tzitzit in preventing sin.
I’ve shared with you before the story of tzitzit and the War in Gaza in 2009. There was a great spiritual hunger among Israeli soldiers at that time—most of whom were from secular backgrounds. Before boarding buses into Gaza, a great many soldiers stationed at the border stopped to put on tefillin and were handed free tzitzit—a small tallis worn under one’s shirt. So many went into battle wearing their tzitzit under their uniforms that Israeli Army rabbis referred to them as, “heavenly flak jackets!” Miraculously, not one of them who wore those tzitzit was killed in battle!
The next verse in the passage of tzitzit answers the question of why we should wear a tallis: L’maan tizk’ru va-asitem et kol mitzvotai, v’hiyitem k’doshim leylokeychem, “So that you shall remember and do all My commandments and be holy onto your Gd.” Our tallesim pleads with us to keep our holy souls one with Gd and not stain them by straying from Gd and His Torah. So, if you’re a man, don’t let your tallis slip off. Appreciate its message. And if you’re a woman, think about getting the men you care about a non-slip tallis. It’ll make a great Father’s Day gift. Amen!
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