PRELIMINARY MORNING SERVICE
Upon entering the synagogue:
How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, your habitations, O Israel![1]
By thy abundant grace I enter thy house; I worship before thy holy shrine with reverence. O Lord, I love thy abode, the place where thy glory dwells. I will worship and bow down; I will bend the knee before the Lord my Maker. I offer my prayer to thee, O Lord, at a time of grace.[2] O God, in thy abundant kindness, answer me with thy saving truth.[3]
PUTTING ON THE TALLITH[4]
Before putting on the tallith:
Bless the Lord, O my soul! Lord my God, thou art very great; thou art robed in glory and majesty. Thou wrappest thyself in light as in a garment; thou spreadest the heavens like a curtain.[5]
I am enwrapping myself in the fringed garment in order to fulfill the command of my Creator, as it is written in the Torah: “They shall make fringes for themselves on the corners of their garments throughout their generations.”[6] Even as I cover myself with the tallith in this world, so may my soul deserve to be robed in a beautiful garment in the world to come, in Paradise. Amen.
- ↑ אהליך, משכנותיך are interpreted in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 105b) to refer to synagogues and schools.
- ↑ עת רצון is taken to mean the time of public worship (Berakhoth 8a).
- ↑ Numbers 24:5: Psalms 5:8; 26:8; 95:6; 69:14.
- ↑ ציצית is a continual reminder of our obligation to keep God's commands. The purple-blue thread (פתיל תכלת) entwined in the tsitsith was originally its chief distinction. When, however, it became impossible to procure the special dye required, it was made permissible to use white threads alone. Why blue? “Because this color resembles the sea, the sea resembles the sky . . . (Menaḥoth 43b).
Four threads are taken, of which one (the shammash) is considerably longer than the rest, for each of the four corners of the tallith. The four threads are drawn through a small hole or eyelet and the ends brought together. A double knot is tied close to the margin of the tallith; the shammash is then twisted tightly 7 times round the remaining 7 threads, and another double knot is tied; then round 8 times, and a double knot; then round 11 times, and a double knot; and finally round 13 times, and a double knot. 7 and 8=15 equals the numerical value of י"ה, [and] 11=ו"ה, and 13=אחד, meaning: The Lord is One. Furthermore, the numerical value of the word ציצית is 600, which with the 8 threads and the 5 knots makes a total of 613, the exact number of the positive (248) and negative (365) precepts of the Torah. This explains the talmudic statement that the wearing of the tsitsith is of equal merit with the observance of the whole Torah (Nedarim 25a). - ↑ Psalm 104:1-2.
- ↑ Numbers 15:38.
