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Comments on Do Felt Garments Require Tzitzit?
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Do Felt Garments Require Tzitzit?
Various halachic authorities (see e.g. Rabbi Tzvi Pesach Frank in Responsa Har Tzvi 1:9, and discussion here) exempt garments produced from sheets of synthetic materials (e.g. nylon) from Tzitzit, since they aren't woven. Some of these authorities (see above) maintain that if these materials are spun into fibers and woven, these have the status of a garment which is obligated in Tzitzit.
However, what about the reverse case? If one cuts a piece of felt, a non-woven material made from pressed fibers (which, for the sake of the question, we will say was originally produced from wool) into a four-cornered garment, would one be required to put Tzitzit on it?
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R' Etan Gilkarov lays out evidence for and against requiring tzitzit on a felt garment in Footnote 5 of a responsum entitled "בדין חיוב ציצית בתלית ניילון בצבע ירוק"1, originally published in Kotleinu #15 by Yeshivat HaKotel, in 5754 (1993 - '94).
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The Levush, in Levush Hatecheilet 10:4, seems to explicitly restrict the requirement for tzitzit specifically to woven cloths only, which would seem to exclude felt:
אין חייב בציצית אלא דבר הנקרא בגד דכתיב ועשו להם ציצית על כנפי בגדיהם ובגד הוא כל דבר הנארג באריגה ונעשה בגד
No [garment] requires tzitzit except a thing that is called "cloth," as Scripture says "And they shall make for themselves tzitzit on the corners of their clothes." And a cloth is anything which is woven through weaving and made into a cloth.2
In Beiur Letzion Responsa 1:33, R' Ben Zion Abba Shaul rules based on this inference from the Levush that felt does not, in fact, count as "cloth" with regard to tzitzit.
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The Rambam, in Mishneh Torah, Vessels 1:11, says
כָּל שֶׁהוּא אָרוּג בֵּין מִצֶּמֶר וּפִשְׁתִּים בֵּין מִקַּנְבּוֹס אוֹ מִמֶּשִׁי אוֹ מִשְּׁאָר דְּבָרִים הַגְּדֵלִים בַּיַּבָּשָׁה הוּא הַנִּקְרָא בֶּגֶד לְעִנְיַן טֻמְאָה. וְהַלְּבָדִים כִּבְגָדִים לְכָל דָּבָר:
Anything which is woven, whether of wool, linen, hemp, or silk, or other materials that grow on dry land - that's what's called a "cloth" regarding ritual impurity. And felts are [considered] like cloths for all matters.4
Does "for all matters," in the context of this discussion of the laws of ritual impurity, include tzitzit? In Footnote 8, R' Gilkarov points to Talmud Bavli, Shabbat 27a, where the sages compare and contrast the types of materials that can contract ritual impurity and those that are liable for tzitzit, as support for an assumption that these two realms of law share the same basic definition of "cloth." So, if felt is "cloth" for ritual impurity, it's presumably "cloth" for tzitzit.
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It wasn't obvious to the sages of the Midrash that felt automatically counts as a "cloth." In Sifra, Shemini 6:8 and Sifra, Kedoshim 4:18, they felt the need to find particular Scriptural support for including felt in the laws of ritual impurity and forbidden mixtures, respectively, for cloth.
R' Gilkarov suggests, contra R' Abba Shaul, that perhaps the Levush agreed with the position he ascribes to the Rambam that felt does require tzitzit, perhaps considering felt as "woven-like" and therefore close enough to woven. He doesn't come to a firm conclusion in the footnote regarding the requirement of tzitzit on felt.
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Regarding a Yeshiva student to whom the IDF had issued a camoflauge-green, nylon talit with white tzitzit strings, so he wanted to know if it sufficed for performance of the mitzva. ↩
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My translation. ↩
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I couldn't find the Responsa 1 volume online. If you have access to this volume and can verify this citation, please feel free to edit this post to add quotation and information. ↩
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My translation. ↩
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