Placing the Tallis and the Atarah
[1] (Halacha 1167)
Question: With a tallis gadol, must one be particular not to put it on reversed — that is, not to wrap oneself in the tallis reversed — so that the part of the tallis that is on the head always remains at the head side?
Answer: In the previous halacha we saw the words of the Maharshal1, who wrote: 'And for this reason my own practice is not to do any sewing on the tallis except with white threads; and even the atarah that the Ashkenazim make on the top of their tallisos for the sake of the mitzvah should be made only of something white, for this same reason. All the more so the corners, which should be made of the same material as the tzitzis; and accordingly, on a woolen tallis one should make only woolen corners. Even though the corners are subordinate to the body of the tallis, nevertheless, since the tzitzis hang [from within them], and it has already been said "the corner must be of the same kind as the corner," why should we deviate? And regarding the mitzvah of the atarah, let me tell you something new, which I received from my elderly father-in-law, the Maharik: that the reason is only as a sign, to know each time which part of the tallis merited to be on the head, and which side to the south and which other side to the north; for if he does not mark it, then the upper will be turned to the lower, and we ascend in holiness and do not descend, nor do we even change. And he brought proof from the Yerushalmi in Perek HaBoneh2 regarding the fact that they would mark the beams to know which was its mate, so that it would not be switched: Rabbi Ami said, the verse states והקמות את המשכן כמשפטו ("And you shall erect the Mishkan according to its manner") — what "manner" is there for wood? Rather, whichever beam merited to be placed in the north shall be placed in the north, and whichever beam merited to be placed in the south shall be placed in the south, etc. And he learns from there that the same applies to anything of importance and holiness. And that sage expounded this at the edge of the land of Yishmael and the exile of Sefarad, and they heard his words and agreed to make a clear sign on the tallis, to know the place designated for the head, so as not to change it'.
And the Shelah3 wrote: 'Regarding putting on the tallis, it is proper that those tzitzis which first came to the head side should always be at the head side; since they merited to be above, it is not proper that they descend from their elevated status. Therefore the practice is to make an atarah of splendor as a marker that it is the head part, so that one will not switch it nor exchange it, putting the upper ones below and the lower ones above. And proof of the matter is from what we say in the Yerushalmi, which the Ran cited in Maseches Shabbos, Perek HaBoneh, regarding what the Sages of the Mishnah of blessed memory said, that they would write on the beams of the Mishkan to know which was its mate. This is its language there: Rabbi Ami said, והקמת את המשכן כמשפטו ("And you shall erect the Mishkan according to its manner") — is there a "manner" for wood? Rather, a beam that merited to be placed in the north shall always be placed in the north, and likewise in the south shall be placed in the south; therefore they mark them so that they will not be switched, etc. And similar to this I found in the Maharil, in Hilchos Sukkah, how he saw that his teacher the Maharash would mark the boards of the sukkah walls alef, beis, gimmel, in order to see the order in which they stood, so as not to change them from year to year. End quote (Emek Bracha)'.
> Thus we have seen that the Maharshal and the Shelah4 cited and explained the minhag of making an atarah on the tallis, so that one knows which part is to be on the head, so that it will not be switched to below5.
However, there are those who wrote that one should not make an atarah for the tallis, for various reasons, as follows:
A) There is no reason to be particular that one fixed part be on the head, as the Arizal wrote6: 'And know that one need not be particular to place a sign on the tallis in order always to put one side of the tallis on the head, as the Ashkenazim are accustomed to do, for this minhag has no root'. And in Pri Etz Chaim7 he wrote: 'Also one need not be concerned about what the Ashkenazim are accustomed to do, making a sign on the tallis so that one always places that side on his head'.
B) To show that the main purpose of the tallis is not to cover the head, as the Levush wrote8: 'And one should not wonder, based on this, about our tallisos, which we make in order to fulfill with them the principal mitzvah of tzitzis, and we beautify them at the place that rests on the head and call it an atarah, as if the main purpose of the tallis was made only to place it on the head. The matter is not so, for it is draped over his shoulders and over his body, and that is principally what it was made for; rather, because there is extra modesty when it rests on his head, and also we hold that at the time of wrapping one must cover himself with it over his head so that it is a proper wrapping, as we said above — therefore we beautify the place that rests on the head, and not that it was principally made for this. This is not so with kepelish, which were principally made to cover the head, the ears and the neck because of the cold. Nevertheless, a fine minhag is the minhag of the lands of Yishmael, where they do not make atarahs for tallisos, to show that it was not principally made for this'.
And as halacha, the Magen Avraham wrote9: 'And the practice is to make an atarah from a piece of silk as a sign, so that those tzitzis which are in front of him should always be in front of him, as it is written: a beam that merited to be placed in the north is always in the north [Shelah]. And it is written in the Kisvei HaArizal: the Arizal was not particular, when putting on the tallis, always to place it on one side as many are accustomed to do; and in the Kavanos the version is: the Arizal was not particular always to place one side on the head as many are accustomed to do. End quote'.
And the Alter Rebbe10 wrote: 'The practice is to make an atarah for the tallis from a piece of silk, as a sign that those tzitzis which are in front of him will always be in front of him and he will not lower them below, for we ascend in holiness and do not descend; and the Arizal was not particular about this'.
And the Aruch HaShulchan wrote11: '..And there are also those who make a silver atarah at the top of the tallis that rests on the head, and this is not worthwhile, for through this it appears that the main thing is what is on the head, whereas in truth the main thing is what is on the body. Therefore, for this reason, some are accustomed to put a silver atarah also in the middle of the tallis [see Artzos HaChaim], but this too is not worthwhile, and many great ones refrain from this. And so it is proper to do, that there be nothing on the tallis but wool — what place do silver and gold have on a tallis? [And the Arizal certainly did not do so, for if so it would not have been possible to reverse it]'.
And in practice, the Chabad minhag is that indeed another white cloth is sewn on12, but on the inner side, so that the atarah is not noticeable, as explained in the sefer Ashkavta DeRebbi13: 'In any case, you will see from this that the Chabad minhag is truly the finest and most praiseworthy minhag. For on the one hand, they are careful that the side in front of him should always be in front of him, so as to satisfy thereby the concern of the holy Shelah, who brought support for this from the beams of the Mishkan. But on the other hand, on the contrary, they are careful specifically not to make an atarah that is noticeable to all, because of the concern that the Levush wrote, that it should not appear as if the tallis is principally for covering the head, for then the tallis would be entirely exempt from tzitzis; and consider this carefully'.
> Thus we have seen that in practice our minhag is that there is indeed a fixed side of the tallis which we place on the head, but we do not make an atarah that is noticeable from the outside; rather, the practice is to sew a piece of silk cloth on the inside, opposite the place of the head.
Notes:
1 Yam Shel Shlomo, Yevamos, perek 1, siman 3 ↩
2 Shabbos, perek 12, halacha 3 ↩
3 Maseches Chullin, Perek Ner Mitzvah [21] ↩
4 And see the previous halacha regarding the difference between the words of the Maharshal and the Shelah ↩
5 Note the words of the Shiyarei Knesses HaGedolah, Hagahos Beis Yosef, Orach Chaim, siman 10: 'Were it not that they are more expert in their practices than we are, and one does not say to someone who did not see the new moon, "come and testify," I would say that the reason they practice this way is because the place where the tallis rests on the head wears out more quickly than the rest of the tallis, so they put something else over it so that it would not wear out quickly; and since they needed this for reinforcement, for honor and splendor they make the atarah from other garments of fine material' ↩
6 Sha'ar HaKavanos, Inyan Tzitzis, Drush 2, at its end ↩
7 Sha'ar HaTzitzis, perek 1 ↩
8 Orach Chaim, siman 10, se'if 10 ↩
9 Siman 8, se'if katan 6 ↩
10 Siman 8, se'if 9 ↩
11 Siman 8, se'if 10 ↩
12 And see also the words of the Maharshal regarding the special merit of white specifically ↩
13 Ashkavta DeRebbi, p. 22, note 17. And see further there: 'Chabad Chassidim, although they too are meticulous that the tzitzis in front of him should always be in front of him, are not accustomed to make any atarah at all. And according to a story accepted among Chabad Chassidim, it appears that the Chassidim of the Alter Rebbe too were previously accustomed to make atarahs. As the story is known, that when they took the Alter Rebbe after the festival of Sukkos 5559 to the well-known imprisonment, and an enormous sum of money was needed for his rescue, the heads and leaders among the great Chassidim then decreed that each one of our brethren should remove the silver atarahs from their tallisos and donate them to the rescue fund — which shows that previously they were accustomed to make atarahs (and it is known that until the Alter Rebbe came to the Maggid, his manner of avodah was according to the holy Shelah, and this suffices for the wise). And in my estimation, it is truly from then that the minhag remained among Chabad Chassidim not to make atarahs'. However, see what is written in Chikrei Minhagim, chelek 1, siman 4, questioning this, and that it is difficult to say that our brethren changed their minhag entirely as a result of this ↩
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