question

[desh]

Should I start wearing tzitzit?

Comments

[yolachka.livejournal.com]

Do you feel a closer connetcion to G-d and the Jewish people when you do? I personally think that is the only reason to start observing a mitzvah you weren't brought up observing. Done for any other reason, I believe, it will be a chore and you will eventually either stop or resent your religion for it.

[desh]

I'm not sure if I do; I haven't tried it! Though I think my relationship with my religion is healthy enough that I won't start resenting it due to this practice. If it's not working for me, I'll stop.

[tobeginagain.livejournal.com]

Why?

[desh]

Because all my friends are doing it.

Because it's a mitzvah aseh I think I could handle doing, which is perhaps reason enough absent any reason not to. Because I have friends who find it meaningful for them, and it might be for me but I wouldn't know unless I tried. And (related to the first two) it would give me a reason/motivation to say a bracha on the 6 days a week that I usually don't say any.

[tobeginagain.livejournal.com]

Sounds like some well thought-out reasons. You may as well give it a shot.

[alanscottevil.livejournal.com]

HOT!! Totally do it!

..wait, do you mean wearing tzitzit *with* your regular clothing, or *instead of* your regular clothing? ;)

[desh]

Yes, instead of. And not even with a tallit katan. Just the tzitzit.

[alanscottevil.livejournal.com]

NIIIICE!!
hubba hubba! ;P

[outcastspice.livejournal.com]

LOLZ

[myq.livejournal.com]

Seems like it'd get hot in the summer.

[desh]

Actually, that is something I'm worried about.

Anyone?

[outcastspice.livejournal.com]

yes.

[arctic-alpine.livejournal.com]

you better before you get smote, or whore after other gods, and forget the commandmenats, etc.

but seriously? why ask? do what feels right to you? you can start, see if you like it, stop again

[desh]

That's a fair point. Whoring after other gods has been a major life issue for me lately.

[smarriveurr.livejournal.com]

Do you wear many four-cornered garments? It'd be a little... weird... to cut the tzitzit off a tallit to put them on e.g. your jacket.

Feeling somewhat Seussian...

[smarriveurr.livejournal.com]

If you swap the tzitzit off a tallit to a jacket (on a bracket), would they call it a tallit-tzizit jacket transmit?

[(Anonymous)]

huge. tzitzit. fan.
I like polyester mesh or (if you hold that it needs to be a natural fabric and are willing to make it yourself) silk in the summer-- they both wick well! And when I have a largish shawl or wrap I hem up a corner so it's not a corner. -joannaShmoanna

[desh]

I think part of the reason I never considered this sooner is because I associated kippah with tzitzit, and I don't really want to cover my head all the time. But now I've met people who wear tzitzit who don't cover their head all the time (and I was about to say "of which you were the first", but now I can't remember if you actually do cover your head or not...), so it's a choice I'm now more interested in.

[leftyjew.livejournal.com]

The main reason I came here was that I was confused. Why in desh's livejournal is a question asked and no lj poll?

[desh]

Ha! I guess I forgot.

[sleepsong.livejournal.com]

Seconded.

Desh, it sounds like you have some very good, very well-thought-out reasons for this. It also sounds like you have a very well-decided point for when you would want to stop if it was becoming a chore. I say go for it.

[smarriveurr.livejournal.com]

You mean, why is this desh query different from all other desh queries?

[jessebeller.livejournal.com]

as someone who 1. used to wear tzitzit and 2. doesn't have the patience to read all 35 comments right now, so may well be repeating what someone else has said:

wear them if you like, but be careful, and ideally tuck them in. i know in some respects this may be seen as defeating the purpose, but on another level, i feel like tzitzit are too easily become a chip on the shoulder and a rub-in-the-face to everyone who isnt. you know what you're wearing and you know why, no need to flaunt your piety.

[jdcohen.livejournal.com]

I'm gonna second that. It doesn't seem to me like you need to prove your devotion to Hashem, plus they don't seem to me to be an ideally comfortable undergarment.

--Jeff

[groovyjew.livejournal.com]

As for the summer - My brothers wear mesh tzitzit in the summers, and though you might not think they count (as per being a garment) there are people who think they do. That way the tzitzit add very little weight to your ensemble. Or, if you're on vacation (don't go to work like this) I have a friend who simply cuts up a couple of shirts and adds tzitziot to the corners. Then he's wearing a sort of weird shirt with slits in the sides, but he tucks it in so ii doesn't flap around, and it works alright, if you're just hanging around and not trying to look adult.

If you want to, go for it! if not, dont. Or change your mind in the middle. Whatever.