Introduction

For some time, Frieda Birnbaum came to morning prayer at the Orthodox Lincoln Square Synagogue with a tallit^* in her briefcase.
She had been scared to take it out and put it on.
She had been scared to buy it. ("For my nephew," she mumbled to the salesman.)
Davening^** alone at home, she wore the tallit. But she couldn't summon up the courage to wear it in shul and would end up "shlepping" it on the subway to her job as a computer programmer.
One morning, Frieda Birnbaum said to herself: "Dammit! If I can daven in my tallit at home, I can sure as hell daven in my tallit in shul!" And she did. A friend of hers arrived, and she did too. These were the first women known to wear tallesim^*** in shul in the New York area. Revolutionary heroines." ¹

In the early 1970s, as the women's movement was gaining strength in the United States, Jewish women were simultaneously struggling for equal rights within the Jewish community. The tallit helped to define this struggle: by putting on tallitot women loudly and visibly proclaimed themselves equal members of the Jewish community. By changing the appearance of prayer shawls -- by wearing tallitot of colorful silks, for example -- women claimed these ritual objects as their own.

There has been an ongoing debate in the Jewish community about whether appropriation of male-associated rituals and objects is a fitting or useful way to demonstrate equality. Those who argue against it say that to co-opt "patriarchal symbols" is demeaning. The debate concerns the definition of equality. Does it mean that women have the right to participate in the same rituals as men? Or should women create their own rituals, which men may or may not choose to join? By both wearing and redesigning tallitot women have done a little bit of both; they have taken a male-associated ritual garment and refashioned it into an object with a new look and, arguably, new significance.

The debates about how meaningfully to appropriate a tradition are being played out in many contexts across America and elsewhere. For example, the American gay and lesbian community has questioned the need for federally sanctioned same-sex marriages even as they fight for them. The issues surrounding tradition and ownership are currently being tackled by nearly all American Jews. This paper, however, will examine a single example of this ongoing discourse through the experiences of a small number of Conservative Jews.

This paper will focus primarily on the Washington D.C., Conservative community with some attention to Jews elsewhere, especially in New York City. However, although we are studying one small community the implications are broader than might be assumed. ^****

This paper will look primarily at tallitot since women began wearing them 25 years ago. After considering the historical developments leading women to adopt them, , we will examine how the appearance of tallitot has changed as well as the motivations for wearing them. Ultimately, this paper will see how a few women have become deeply committed to the principle of tallit, and turned this affinity into an art form.

I. Historical Development

"The Lord spoke to Moses and said, "Speak to the sons of Israel and tell them to put tassels on the hems of their garments, and to put a violet cord on this tassel at the hem. You must have a tassel, then, and the sight of it will remind you of all the commandments of the Lord." (Numbers 15:37-15:39)

Tallitot, according to the Encyclopedia Judaica, are "usually white and made either of wool, cotton, or silk … [with] black stripes"; they are "worn by males during the morning prayers … as well as all Day of Atonement services". According to Jewish law a tallit can be almost any four-cornered piece of cloth to which specially tied fringes called "tzitzit" are attached. The tallit is merely a device that allows the wearer to don tzitzit. These fringes were attached to the four-cornered outer-garments worn regularly by Jews thousands of years ago. The fringes are mandated in the Bible, (Numbers 15:37-15:39 as above) .

The fringes may originally have served as a cultural marker--a way to easily identify other Jews. The blue or violet thread woven into the tzitzit was colored with dye from a certain mollusk, the identity of which has been lost. The animal may have become extinct, the dye may have grown too expensive, or the ancient Romans may have lost control over the area of the Mediterranean where this mollusk was found; in any case, Jews seem to have stopped using the blue thread sometime between 500 and 750 C.E.

Even without the blue dye mandated by the Bible, the tzitzit and the tallit have both taken on great symbolic as well as cultural significance. The tzitzit are primarily a reminder of the 613 mitzvot, or commandments, given to the Jews in the Bible. Gathering the four sets of fringes together symbolizes both the four corners of the earth and "God's Oneness" - the basic tenet of monotheism. The blue fringe represents the heavens, where God dwells², or God³.

Not only are tzitzit meaningful, the act of wearing the tallit is significant as well. "He who observes the duty of tzitzith well will reach to behold the face of the Omnipresent God," say the sages.⁴. Since the tallit is an item of clothing, it serves to distinguish mankind from the animals. The tallit is a sign that the wearer is one of the "chosen people": "In those days [of the Messianic Age], ten men of each language will grasp the corner of [a garment containing Tzitzith, worn by] a Jewish man, and they will say, 'Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."⁵ But tallitot are most important as reminders of God and the commandments.⁶

The laws concerning tallitot are complex and have undergone much interpretation. The law of tzitzit mandates only that any four-cornered garment must have fringes attached. As 20th century Americans do not regularly wear four-cornered clothing, the tallit has become a contrivance that, at least in Conservative communities, is worn only for prayer. According to modern rabbinical injunction the wearing of tzitzit is considered a commandment.

At least since talmudic times (200 B.C.E. - 500 C.E.), rabbis have raised the question of whether women should wear tzitzit. The complex arguments center on the idea that the tzitzit may be considered a "time bound" commandment, meaning that they only have to be worn at certain times. Tzitzit should be worn during the day, but never at night.^***** Women are traditionally exempted from most time-bound mitzvot, presumably because they have important family duties which would interfere with fulfilling these commandments.

During talmudic times some women did in fact wear tzitzit. "The Sages…claim [that women are] obligated [to wear tzitzit]… It is interesting to note that at least two later talmudic rabbis tied tzitzit on the garments of their wives because, like the Sages, they held that tzitzit is a non-time-specific commandment…"⁶ Fifteen hundred years ago the argument that women were not only allowed but required to wear tzitzit was already being promulgated.

* A Jewish prayer shawl, traditionally worn by men.
** Praying.
*** Ashkenazic Hebrew and Yiddish plural form of tallit. The Sephardic plural "tallitot" will be used throughout this paper.
**** In the 1960s Conservativism spawned the Havurah movement. "Havurah" simply means "fellowship within synagogue." Although havurah groups frequently decline to label themselves Conservative, a large number of those participating in havurot (the plural of havurah) are, in fact, Conservative. Therefore, havurot have been included in this study.
***** Some Orthodox Jewish men still wear tzitzit all day attached to a garment underneath their clothing. Conservative Jews wear only the tallit, which is put on for prayer.