[Avodah] Taking A Hat Into A Bathroom

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Jan 23, 2011 at 12:42:25PM -0500, Prof. Levine wrote:
> Please see http://tinyurl.com/6zqfn8g
...
>> By wearing specific garments for prayer you are elevating them into
>> tools for religious worship. It is your task to treat your tools with
>> the care and respect they deserve."

Which is why we take a tallis off when going to the men's room, but not
a tallis qatan.

R' Yosef el-Qafih (Kapach) writes about the shamle, a four-cornered
outer garment worn all day as part of traditional Teimani Jewish
clothing. They are also often used to carry things, by bunching up
the cloth into a sack. So, he was asked whether it is permissable,
despite the samla having tzitzis on it. He answers that it's no problem,
because the qedushah of a tallis is that it's meyuchedes for tefillah,
not because of it carrying tzitzis.

(Sidnote, the shamle is typically brightly colored, with matching strings
in the tzitzis.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "The worst thing that can happen to a
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