[Avodah] atifat tallit

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Nov 08, 2010 at 12:10:37AM -0500, Zev Sero wrote:
> It's just a description.  Arabs of the Geonim's time wore their robes
> in a manner that's considered "atifa".

Clothing in the Middle East didn't change much over time. Moshe Rabbeinu
is described by Chazal as doing the avodah during the Yemei haMiluim
wearing a chaluq and tallis, and Yemenites came to Israel wearing a
galabiyah and shamla. Both a chaluq and a galabiyah are straight things
with neck- and arm-holes and one for your feet, and both a tallis and
a shamla require tzitzis.

R' Yosef el-Qafeh ("Kapach") has a teshuvah about using a shamla
to carry things, explaining that even though it has tzitzis, since
the shamla (unlike our tallis) is not speficially for davening,
the beged itself lacks qedushah. (Or perhaps he writes it doesn't
get an issur for personal use, I only got this off a web site
<http://http://www.chayas.com/morifolder>, don't make Brisker diyuqim
in this.)

In any case, atifas Yishmaelim might be describing halachic atifah
simply because it hadn't changed since the mitzvah of atifas tzitzis
was nigzeres. (Double-check: Atifah is derabbanan, right?)

BTW, we had a discussion about the change in atifah style in
<http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/getindex.cgi?section=T#TALIT%20AND%20ATIFA>
And atifah is on my list of things that the MB seems to conclude one
way (citing the Ari), but RMZaks reports the CC did the Litvisher
norm lemaaseh.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Education is not the filling of a bucket,
micha at aishdas.org        but the lighting of a fire.
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