Q&A: Obligation of Tzitzit on a Button-Down Shirt
Obligation of Tzitzit on a Button-Down Shirt
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I heard that there is room for doubt regarding the obligation of tzitzit on contemporary button-down shirts (since they have four corners, and the buttoning is not a full stitching). I also heard that some people are stringent and round off one of the corners. What is your opinion on this matter?
Best regards,
Answer
I haven’t heard of this, nor have I thought about it. On first thought, it seems to me there is no need to be stringent. Even if you open them up, it is not really four corners but only two.
Discussion on Answer
The upper parts (at the collar) usually are not sharp. To the extent that one can even view this as a garment that is a rectangular piece of fabric at all.
Suppose we are talking about a shirt with a sharp collar—what would the ruling be then?
As I noted above (“to the extent that one can even view it this way”), it is not clear to me. Simply speaking, people do not regard this garment as a square piece of cloth. It has a fairly complex structure. Beyond that, the two upper ends do not hang downward. In a regular four-cornered garment they all hang downward, while the neck and sleeves are above. I do not have time right now to check, but based on reasoning it seems to me that it is exempt from tzitzit.
Why should it matter whether it is square? Even an octagonal garment is obligated in tzitzit, and seemingly also a garment with a complex structure enough that it has 4 corners.
As for the direction of the ends, that really is a line of reasoning that appears in the later authorities (Acharonim), though it seems more aimed at explaining what happens after the fact, because it is hard to find a source for such a distinction in the Torah or the Talmud (especially since for most people a tallit gadol has 2 corners on top).
By reasoning alone—because of the sleeves.
When you wear a button-down shirt with sleeves in the normal way people wear it, even when it is unbuttoned, you cannot spread out the upper part, and therefore it is not a corner (a corner of a garment is a part that can be spread out like the wing of a bird. “Spread your wing over your handmaid, for you are a redeemer.” Try fitting someone under the collar).
That is unlike a tallit, where even its upper part can be spread out and pulled downward, because it has no sleeves getting in the way.
Attached is a link to a picture of a button-down shirt spread out on a table. Why do you see only 2 corners here?