Q&A: Is There an Obligation to Wear Tzitzit Nowadays?
Is There an Obligation to Wear Tzitzit Nowadays?
Question
Hello and blessings. It is known that our clothes are exempt from tzitzit because they do not have four corners, but even so many people continue to wear a four-cornered garment and thereby obligate themselves in tzitzit. I heard a justification for this from the story of Rav Kattina in the Babylonian Talmud, Menachot 41a: he wore a garment that did not have four corners in order to be exempt from tzitzit, and an angel came from Heaven and criticized him for this, saying that at a time of divine anger people are punished for it. This justification always sounded very strange to me—are we really continuing to wear tzitzit just because of a mystical story like that? Are there additional reasons why it is worthwhile to wear tzitzit? (I saw that the Rabbi wears tzitzit.) I would be glad to hear your detailed opinion on the matter, and I would also be glad to know your opinion on whether one should leave the tzitzit hanging outside or keep them inside.
Answer
That story probably never actually happened. It comes to teach that there is value in obligating oneself to wear tzitzit. Simply speaking, that is just in order to gain a commandment. Tosafot wrote that the punishment applies only in a place where people customarily wear a four-cornered garment and he avoids doing so in order not to become obligated in tzitzit. But in our regions, where people do not wear such a garment regardless of tzitzit, it does not apply to us. And the custom to wear one is in order to gain a commandment. One can also go without it. Whether the tzitzit should be outside depends on local customs. Simply speaking, it says, “and you shall see them,” so it is reasonable to wear them outside.
Discussion on Answer
See Mordechai on Menachot, sec. 941.
Thanks.
What other commandments are there in this style—where there is no deficiency if you do not fulfill them, but if you do fulfill them you “gain a commandment”?
Grace after meals, for example. Ritual slaughter. And many others.
What do you mean by grace after meals?
Is there no obligation to recite it?
And if so, can you provide a source for that?
If you do not eat bread to the point of satiety, there is no obligation to recite it. Exactly like if you do not wear a four-cornered garment, you are not obligated in tzitzit.
But rabbinically there is an obligation to recite it if you ate an olive-sized amount and were not satiated, no?
So what?
Meaning that there is an obligation to recite it if you are Orthodox and not Karaite or something, so it is not merely in the category of a recommendation or an extra practice like the commandment of tzitzit.
And also, if the rabbis enacted that one must do it, then if you do not recite it you are neglecting a positive commandment, which is not what happens if one does not wear tzitzit.
There is a very basic misunderstanding here about Jewish law. We are not dealing with whether something is Orthodox or not. The question is about Jewish law, not sociology.
There is an obligation to recite it if you ate the required measure. If you ate less than the required measure but at least an olive-sized amount, there is a rabbinic obligation. If you did not eat an olive-sized amount of bread, there is no obligation at all to recite it. Therefore this is a commandment that is not obligatory in all circumstances, exactly like tzitzit. There is no difference at all. The question whether there is a rabbinic layer or not is irrelevant to the discussion.
Both of these are conditional obligatory commandments. There is another discussion about existential commandments, meaning commandments that there is no obligation at all to perform, but if one does perform them then one has fulfilled a commandment. Note the difference: in commandments like grace after meals or tzitzit, there is an obligation to do them, but it is conditional on certain circumstances being met. In existential commandments there is no obligation at all. The difference is that with existential commandments there is never any situation of neglecting a positive commandment, because there is no obligation. By contrast, with conditional obligatory commandments, there is neglect if the circumstances existed and you did not perform the commandment.
I discussed this at length in my column series on commandments: 414–418. You can read there.
In Tosafot, under which heading?