Tzitzit: Difference between revisions

===Should Bochrim Wear a Tallit?===

<p class="indent">The Sephardic custom is to wear a tallit gadol from the age of [[chinuch]] in mitzvot.<ref>Kaf Hachaim 8:12, Chacham Ovadia Yosef (Yechave Daat 4:2), Chacham Yitzchak Yosef (Yalkut Yosef 17:4). Or Litzion (Chelek 2, 3:7) says that the age is around 5.</ref> Chacham Ovadia adds that this is true even for a boy studying in an ashkenazi yeshiva.<Ref>Rav Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron (Binyan Av Chelek 2, OC 7:1) agrees</ref></p>

<p class="indent">However, the minhag for most Ashkenazim seems to be not to wear one until one gets married unless one goes up to the Torah or leads [[prayers]]. Some achronim<ref>Tashbetz Katan 464, Sefer Hamanhig Chelek 2: Hilchot Nisuin pg. 539, and Maharil Hilchot Ishut 10</ref> quote a midrash which learns from the juxtaposition of גדילים תעשה לך and כי יקח איש אשה (Devarim 22:12-13), that a man should not wear a tallit until he gets married.<ref>Tzitz Eliezer 20:8 notes that the Maharil only meant that before getting married one does not wear a tallit gadol, but certainly one should still wear a tallit katan (i.e. Tzitzit).</ref> Piskei Teshuvot 8:10 writes that this minhag spread to several countries in Europe including Lithuania and Poland, while in other Ashkenaz communities it did not catch on. Later achronim<ref>Mishna Brurah 17:10 and Shiyarei Knesset Ha-gadol 17:2, cited in Ba'er Heiteiv 17:4, before him</ref> questioned these earlier achronim and simply do not understand why someone who is not married would not fulfill this mitzvah from the Torah of wearing Tzitzit. Rav Y.D. Soloveitchik (quoted in Mipninei Harav pg. 22) says that in the absence of a minhag otherwise, the correct minhag is for an unmarried boy to wear a tallit gadol</p>