Why Do Jews Wear a Tallit and Tzitzit? A Bible Study
Taught with Parashat Shelach, where the Torah commands tzitzit and the thread of blue (Numbers 15:37–41). Six short parts, each ending with a quick quiz and questions for reflection, then an FAQ and review questions. Part of our free B’nei Mitzvah self-study lessons.
Quick answer: Jews wear tzitzit because the Torah commands fringes on the corners of our clothes, with a cord of blue, so that we “look upon it, and remember all the commandments of Hashem, and do them” (Numbers 15:38–39). The tallit is the four-cornered garment that holds them. The Gospels show Yeshua (Jesus) wearing tzitzit.
Studying on your own?
Read each part, take the quizzes, and answer the reflection questions and the review questions at the end. Have a question? Book a private guidance session with your Rabbi or Morah on Zoom by texting (469) 608-9944. See the fees.
What are a tallit and tzitzit?
A tallit is a prayer shawl with fringes, called tzitzit, tied to its four corners. The fringes are the actual commandment. The shawl is simply a four-cornered garment to hold them. Many also wear a small tallit (tallit katan) under their shirt all day.
Who is this study for?
This study is for anyone who has asked, “Why do we do this?” That includes a boy getting ready for his bar mitzvah, a parent, or a new member of a Messianic congregation. Asking why is a good thing. In Deuteronomy 6:20, a son asks his father what God’s commands mean, and the father is told to explain, not to say “Because I said so.”
This study comes after our tefillin study and answers the question in six parts. Each part ends with a quick quiz and questions for personal reflection or group discussion.
| Part | Question | Main texts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Where does the Bible command tzitzit? | Numbers 15:37–41; Deuteronomy 22:12 |
| 2 | What is tekhelet? | Numbers 15:38; Menachot 38a, 44a |
| 3 | What do the sages say? | Talmud, Rambam |
| 4 | What do Yemenite Jews teach us? | Yemenite tradition |
| 5 | Did Yeshua wear tzitzit? | Matthew 9:20; 14:36; 23:5 |
| 6 | How do you put on a tallit? | Siddur, blessing |
Where does the Bible command the tallit and tzitzit?
Quick answer: Numbers 15:37–41 commands fringes on the four corners of our clothes, and Deuteronomy 22:12 repeats it. The tallit exists to carry the tzitzit.
Numbers 15:37–41 commands tzitzit, fringes on the four corners of our clothes, and Deuteronomy 22:12 repeats it. The Torah never says “wear a prayer shawl.” The tallit exists to carry the tzitzit, which are the real commandment.
Read Numbers 15:37–41 and notice four things:
- Who is commanded? “The people of Israel… throughout their generations” (v. 38). Not only priests or rabbis.
- What goes on them? A cord of tekhelet, a special blue (v. 38). Part 2 tells its story.
- Why? “So that you may look at it and remember all the commandments of Hashem and do them, and not follow after your own heart and your own eyes” (v. 39).
- What is the result? “…and be holy to your God” (v. 40).
Verse 39 answers the “why.” Every person, young or old, gets pulled by what the eyes see and what the heart wants. Tzitzit are a visible reminder at exactly those moments. You see them, you remember who you belong to, and you choose to obey.
One fringe, 613 reminders. Rashi (on Numbers 15:39) notes that the Hebrew word ציצית adds up to 600 in gematria, the Hebrew number system. Add the 8 strings and 5 knots on each corner and you get 613, the traditional number of commandments in the Torah. That is how one fringe can remind us of all of them.
Because the Torah says to look at them, many people gather and kiss the tzitzit each time the word tzitzit is said in the Shema.
Quick quiz: Part 1
Pick the best answer for each question. You will see right away if you got it right, and your score when you have answered them all. To try again, press Start over.
Your answers and score are saved on this device only, so they will be here when you come back. Press Start over to clear them.
Reflection
- Numbers 15:39 names two things we tend to follow. What are they? Give an example from everyday life.
- Why would God give a reminder we can see instead of one we only remember?
- If the tzitzit are the commandment, what is the tallit for?
What is tekhelet, the blue thread?
Quick answer: Tekhelet is the blue the Torah commands on the tzitzit. It was dyed from a sea snail, the knowledge was lost for centuries, and it has been made again since 1988.
Tekhelet is the blue the Torah commands on the tzitzit: “put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue” (Numbers 15:38). The Talmud says it was dyed from a sea creature called the chilazon, which was rare, so the dye was costly (Menachot 44a).
Lost for centuries. Some time after the Talmud was finished, the knowledge of how to make tekhelet was lost, and for well over a thousand years Jews wore only white tzitzit. That was still kosher, because the Mishnah teaches that the white strings do not depend on the blue (Menachot 38a).
Found again. In 1887 Rabbi Gershon Henoch Leiner of Radzin made a blue dye from a cuttlefish. Tests later showed the blue came from a chemical reaction in the dyeing, but Radzin and Breslov chassidim still wear it today. In 1913 Rabbi Isaac Herzog, later the Chief Rabbi of Israel, suggested a sea snail now called Hexaplex (or Murex) trunculus. In the 1980s chemist Otto Elsner found that the snail’s dye turns blue instead of purple when it is exposed to sunlight. In 1988 Rabbi Eliyahu Tavger dyed tekhelet from the snail for tzitzit, and a few years later the Ptil Tekhelet Association was founded to make tekhelet available to everyone (tekhelet.com).
How it is tied. Each corner has four strings folded to make eight. The Rambam dyes half of one string blue, the Raavad one whole string, and Tosafot two whole strings. Your Rabbi or Morah can show you how to tie them in a guidance session.
Getting one. At Benei Avraham, boys and men wear a tallit with tekhelet. Ptil Tekhelet sells tekhelet strings and ready-made tallitot (tekhelet.com/shop).
Respect for those who wear white. Many faithful Jews today still wear only white tzitzit, and they have their reasons. Some rabbis teach that tekhelet needs an unbroken tradition passed from teacher to student, and that tradition was lost. Others are not yet sure the snail is the true chilazon. The Mishnah teaches that white tzitzit are fully kosher (Menachot 38a), so we do not fault anyone who wears only white.
What matters most: the color or the source? Our Breslov rabbi teaches that what matters most is the color the Talmud describes, like the sea and the sky (Menachot 43b), so he would wear even a synthetic tekhelet if it matched. Other rabbis hold that the dye must come from the true chilazon, because the Talmud warns against kala ilan, a plant blue that looks the same (Menachot 42b–43a; Bava Metzia 61b).
Quick quiz: Part 2
Pick the best answer for each question. You will see right away if you got it right, and your score when you have answered them all. To try again, press Start over.
Your answers and score are saved on this device only, so they will be here when you come back. Press Start over to clear them.
Reflection
- Some Jews wear tekhelet again today, and others wear only white for their own good reasons. How can we keep our custom and still respect theirs?
- Why might God have chosen a color that was rare and costly?
What do the Jewish sages say tzitzit mean?
Quick answer: The sages teach that tzitzit lift the eyes to God, guard against sin, and stand for all the commandments.
The sages teach that tzitzit lift the eyes to God, guard against sin, and stand for all the commandments.
| Source | What it teaches |
|---|---|
| Talmud, Menachot 43b (Rabbi Meir) | The blue thread is like the sea, the sea is like the sky, and the sky is like God’s Throne of Glory. Looking at the fringe lifts the eyes upward. |
| Talmud, Menachot 43b (Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai) | Numbers 15:39 says “you shall look upon it,” but the Hebrew can also be read “look upon Him.” Whoever is careful with tzitzit is like one who greets the Divine Presence. |
| Talmud, Menachot 43b | Whoever has tefillin on his head and arm, tzitzit on his garment and a mezuzah on his door is protected from sin, like a soldier in armor. |
| Talmud, Menachot 44a | A man who was careful about tzitzit was about to commit a serious sin. His four tzitzit struck him in the face, he stopped, and he turned his life around. |
| Rambam, Hilkhot Tzitzit 3:12 | A person should always be careful with tzitzit, because the Torah weighs this one commandment against all the others: “remember all the commandments of Hashem.” |
Quick quiz: Part 3
Pick the best answer for each question. You will see right away if you got it right, and your score when you have answered them all. To try again, press Start over.
Your answers and score are saved on this device only, so they will be here when you come back. Press Start over to clear them.
Reflection
- Rabbi Meir links the blue thread to God’s Throne. What reminds you of God during an ordinary day?
- In Menachot 44a the tzitzit stopped a man just in time. When have you needed a reminder like that?
What do Yemenite Jews teach us about the tallit?
Quick answer: Yemenite Jews kept some of the oldest customs. They wore the tallit all day, not only at prayer, and their boys wear one from childhood.
Yemenite Jews preserved some of the oldest Jewish customs because they lived cut off from most of the Jewish world for centuries. A 2026 overview in The Jewish Link calls Yemenite halakha the most conservative of all the streams of the Jewish people.
| When | Event | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| 1172 CE | Rambam’s Letter to Yemen | Begins a deep bond between Yemenite Jews and the Rambam, whose rulings on tefillin and tzitzit they still follow. |
| 1949–1950 | Operation Magic Carpet | About 49,000 Yemenite Jews were flown to Israel, bringing their ancient customs with them. |
| Today | Yemenite (Teimani) communities | Still keep these mitzvot in some of the oldest forms that survive. |
- The tallit all day. In Yemen the tallit was worn the entire day, not only at prayer (Wikipedia). Rabbi Othniel Mansoor writes that many Yemenite men followed the Talmud’s example of a sage who never walked four cubits without tzitzit or tefillin (net-sah.org).
- Young people take part. Yemenite men still read their own Torah portion when called up, instead of having a reader do it. Yemenite congregations often call a boy under bar mitzvah age to read one of the last aliyot. Like Sephardi boys, Yemenite boys wear a tallit without waiting until marriage.
- The tallit in grief. Yemenite Jews are the only community still covering their heads with a tallit at funerals, as the Talmud describes.
Quick quiz: Part 4
Pick the best answer for each question. You will see right away if you got it right, and your score when you have answered them all. To try again, press Start over.
Your answers and score are saved on this device only, so they will be here when you come back. Press Start over to clear them.
Reflection
- Why is an isolated community like Yemen good evidence for what older Judaism looked like?
- Yemenite men kept a tallit with them all day. What would change in your day if you did that?
Did Yeshua (Jesus) wear tzitzit?
Quick answer: Yes. The Gospels show people reaching for the tzitzit on his garment, and his only criticism was about showing off, not about wearing them.
Matthew 9:20–22. A woman who had been bleeding for twelve years touched “the hem of his garment.” The Greek word is kraspedon, the same word the Greek Septuagint uses for tzitzit in Numbers 15:38. She reached for his tzitzit, and she was healed.
Matthew 14:36. In Gennesaret, sick people begged “that they might only touch the hem of his garment: and as many as touched were made perfectly whole.” It is the same word again.
Malachi 4:2 (3:20 in Hebrew). “Unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings.” The Hebrew word kanaf means “wing,” and it is also the word for the “corners” where tzitzit go (Numbers 15:38). Many Messianic teachers see a link to why people reached for his corners. This is a meaningful connection, not something the verse spells out.
Matthew 23:5. Yeshua criticizes leaders who “enlarge the borders of their garments” to be seen by others. He does not say to stop wearing tzitzit. He says not to wear them to look holy.
This shows the right way to wear a tallit: not to impress anyone, but to remember God and obey Him. That is the heart of Numbers 15:39 too.
Quick quiz: Part 5
Pick the best answer for each question. You will see right away if you got it right, and your score when you have answered them all. To try again, press Start over.
Your answers and score are saved on this device only, so they will be here when you come back. Press Start over to clear them.
Reflection
- Why do you think the woman reached for his tzitzit and not his sleeve or hand?
- In Matthew 23:5, what exactly was the problem? Could we make the same mistake today?
- If Yeshua is our example, what does his wearing tzitzit say to his followers?
How do you put on a tallit?
Quick answer: Check the tzitzit, say the blessing, wrap the tallit over your head for a moment, then let it rest on your shoulders.
On weekday mornings the tallit goes on first, before tefillin. The sages’ rule is that the mitzvah done more often comes first, and tzitzit are worn every day, while tefillin are not worn on Shabbat or festivals. Customs differ a little between communities, so follow your congregation’s siddur.
- Hold the tallit open and check that all four tzitzit are whole.
- Say the blessing: Barukh atah Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha’olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu l’hitatef ba’tzitzit. (“Blessed are You… who commanded us to wrap ourselves in tzitzit.”)
- Wrap it over your head for a moment, then let it rest on your shoulders.
The small tallit. Many also wear a small tallit (tallit katan) under or over their shirt all day, so the tzitzit are with them wherever they go.
A good place to start: wear a tallit katan every day, and put on your tallit for the morning prayers. When you say the Shema, gather the tzitzit and look at them, just as Numbers 15:39 says.
Quick quiz: Part 6
Pick the best answer for each question. You will see right away if you got it right, and your score when you have answered them all. To try again, press Start over.
Your answers and score are saved on this device only, so they will be here when you come back. Press Start over to clear them.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a tallit and tzitzit?
Tzitzit are the fringes the Torah commands. A tallit is the four-cornered garment that carries them: a large one for prayer, or a small one (tallit katan) worn all day.
Do tzitzit need a blue thread (tekhelet)?
The Torah commands a cord of blue, tekhelet, on each corner (Numbers 15:38). For centuries the dye was lost, and the Mishnah teaches that white strings alone are still kosher (Menachot 38a). Now that tekhelet is made again from the sea snail the sages described, boys and men at Benei Avraham wear a tallit with tekhelet. Many Jews still wear only white, for their own good reasons, and we respect that.
At what age do boys start wearing a tallit?
Customs differ. Sephardi and Yemenite boys often wear a tallit from childhood, while many Ashkenazi men wait until marriage. Many boys begin at their bar mitzvah, when they are first called up to the Torah.
Do women wear a tallit?
Most Jewish authorities teach that women are not required to wear tzitzit, because it is a commandment tied to daytime, but many allow it.
Why do people kiss their tzitzit?
Because the Torah says to look at them (Numbers 15:39). During the Shema, many people gather the four tzitzit and kiss them each time the word tzitzit is said.
Is wearing tzitzit legalism?
No. Legalism is trying to earn God’s love by rules. Tzitzit are a response to God’s love, a way to remember Him. Yeshua said he did not come to abolish the Torah (Matthew 5:17–19). His warning in Matthew 23:5 was about showing off, not about obeying.
Review questions
After working through this study, you should be able to answer “Why do Jews wear a tallit and tzitzit?” in three sentences, without notes. These questions will help.
- What does Numbers 15:39 say tzitzit protect us from?
- What is tekhelet, and why did Jews wear only white tzitzit for so long?
- How does one fringe remind us of all 613 commandments?
- What did Yemenite Jews do with the tallit that most Jews today do not?
- Why did people reach for the corners of Yeshua’s garment?
When the reasons are clear, the tallit stops being something we have to wear and becomes something we get to wear.
Sources
- Ptil Tekhelet: tekhelet.com (tekhelet.org); store: tekhelet.com/shop
- Wikipedia, “Tekhelet”: Tekhelet; “Jewish religious clothing”: Jewish religious clothing
- The Jewish Link, “Introduction to Yemenite Practice”: jewishlink.news
- Rabbi Othniel Mansoor, Tsitsith Through the Lens of the Rambam & Hazal: net-sah.org
- Classical texts (look up on Sefaria): Talmud Menachot 38a, 43b and 44a; Rashi on Numbers 15:39; Rambam, Hilkhot Tzitzit 3:12
Scripture quotations follow the King James Version, with Hashem for the Divine Name (LORD), Hebrew names such as Shaul (Paul), and Yeshua for Jesus. Rabbinic sources are given in short translation or paraphrase. Part of the Bar & Bat Mitzvah training at Benei Avraham; see our Statement of Faith.