Q&A: The Mystery of Tzitzit
The Mystery of Tzitzit
Question
What is the point of wearing a small tallit?
Is going with it or without it like the difference between going with one tzitzit fringe or two?
Is it like putting on tefillin five times a day?
And what is the idea of the large tallit? Why only during prayer? Why only after marriage? What is this whole story?
And is it only because we weren’t able to give up a commandment whose validity and time had expired?
Answer
I didn’t understand these questions. A small tallit is simply the practical means of fulfilling the commandment of tzitzit. As for the large tallit, I really am not sure what its point is. Apparently people saw value in wrapping oneself, which does not happen with a small tallit. Its validity and time have definitely not expired. See Maimonides, Sefer HaMitzvot, positive commandment 187.