Askmoses-A Jews Resource
What's the significance of the Seven Days of Rejoicing?
Browse our archives


Scholar Online:

Type in your question here:

Why doesn't a woman wear a tallit?

by Rabbi Naftali Silberberg


Library » Mitzvot » Tallit and Tzitzit | Subscribe | What is RSS?


In Judaism, men and women occupy different, but equally important roles. The woman’s role exempts her from any Mitzvah which has a time contingency. (See Why are women exempt from time related Mitzvahs?) This includes such Mitzvahs as: hearing the Shofar (for the Mitzvah is only on Rosh Hashanah), Lulav and Etrog (Sukkot), saying the Shema (morning and night), etc. Although women are exempt from all these Mitzvahs, they may - and many do - perform them anyway.

Tzitzit (the Mitzvah of Tallit) is also a time related Mitzvah, for the obligation to wear Tzitzit is only during the daytime. With regard to this Mitzvah, however, women are not only exempt but are actually discouraged from doing so. Here's the reason why:

Tzitzit is different than all the abovementioned Mitzvahs, for Tzitzit is not mandatory for men either. The Torah only says that if you happen to wear a four-cornered garment, then you must put fringes on the corners.

In other words, the very idea of wearing a special garment (Tallit) in order to be able to wear Tzitzit is in its own right going beyond the call of "biblical duty". Thus for a woman to wear a Tallit she would be going beyond her biblical call of duty in two regards: specifically wearing the particular garment, and fulfilling a time related Mitzvah. This type of "extra righteousness" is considered hubris and improper.

[There are many actions which are prohibited because they appear to be hubris (Mecheze Kiyuhara). For example: In a locale where it is customary for everyone except Torah scholars to work on Tishah b'Av, it is forbidden (according to the majority of Halachic opinions) for a layman to abstain from work, because it is perceived as arrogance.1 Another example: It is forbidden for one to wear clothes which are reserved for mourners, as a symbol of mourning for Jerusalem and the Temple, for this, too, is considered arrogance.2]

Judaism is obviously not out to deprive people of getting closer to G-d, so the fact that women are exempt from this Mitzvah demonstrates that due to their heightened spiritual awareness they do not require it in the first place. (See also If women are important why can't they do the same things men do?)


  • 1. Talmud tractate Pesachim 54b
  • 2. Talmud tractate Baba Kama 59b and see Tosafot




Women and Tallit

Posted by: x ben x on Sep 05, 2006

Kabbalistically speaking, men cannot connect to their surrounding light (or mekif) until he is married. This is why the bride circles the groom seven times at the wedding, to awaken his surrounding light (basically his spiritual potential). Men wear a tallit to connect to their surrounding light.

Women do not need such things. They are able to connect to their Or Mekif naturrally, even without being married, and without wearing a tallit. As such, it derives them no benefit to wear a tallit.

Miracles and Wonders


Daily Life » Clothing » Tallit and Tzitzit
Women & Judaism » Women's Mitzvot » Obligations/ Exemptions

Pertaining to Jewish Law.
Rosh Hashanah
A prayer shawl. A large four-cornered woolen garment with fringes attached to its corners in a specific manner. This garment is worn by males during the morning prayers, fulfilling the Biblical obligation of attaching fringes to four-cornered garments.
Literally: the fringes which are attached to four cornered garments, as Biblically mandated. Normally this word refers to a t-shirt sized four cornered garment which contains such fringes, and is usually worn beneath the shirt.