Tallit – prayer shawl
The tallit is the most authentic symbol in connection to Jewish prayer. The Tallit is worn by men from the age of 13 when they have had their Bar-Mitzvah and are considered men.

The Tallit is made of either wool or silk (and sometimes linen, polyester or cotton). For many wool is the more correct fabric because they see the Almighty as a shepherd who looks after His beloved sheep. A man who wraps the Tallit around himself symbolically wraps the love of God around him when he prays.

The stripes on the ends of the Tallit are blue or black. The blue color is very similar to a special blue once derived from a certain snail that used to exist close to the Mediterranean Sea and today’s Tel-Aviv. That blue was used to color the threads woven into the fringes of the cloaks worn by men during the Biblical time. The black color serves as a reminder of the destruction of the Second Temple and the Diaspora of Jews around the world.

Today you can often see a design of the Israeli flag woven into the Tallit. Then the Tallit has two stripes of blue and the star of David in the middle. The first Israeli flag was a Tallit like this. At the upper edge of the Tallit there is a reinforced edge with the text: “Blessed are You, LORD our God, Ruler of the universe, who makes us holy with commandments, and has commanded us to wrap ourselves in the tzitzit.”

The Tallit is worn only during morning prayers or by the groom at wedding ceremonies and not in the afternoon and evening. It is only on Yom Kippur you are allowed to wear the Tallit at evening.