From: weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: Sexism
Date: 11 Nov 92 14:53:52 GMT
Reply-To: weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Organization: The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology
In-reply-to: warren@nysernet.org (Warren Burstein)

In article <2793@israel.nysernet.org>, warren@nysernet (Warren Burstein) writes:
>I've wondered how it is that a person who wears n different tk's, each
>following a different opinion, isn't according to each opinion wearing
>n-1 four cornered garments without kosher tzitzit?

They are all kosher, by all opinions.  The minimum for kosher tzitzit
is one knot each corner, tied l'shem mitzvot.  The rest are hiddurim.

In one unusual case I heard about, there was a sofek who had tied his
own tzitzit.  He could wear them, as a result, but no other Jewish man
was allowed to, and this way he was acting in accord with the opinion
that prohibited tzitzit on non Jews in case he weren't Jewish.  He
wondered how to render them kosher after his conversion, and was told
to add one knot to one corner l'shem mitzvot.  (I forgot to ask regarding
his t'fillin.)

>						     Wearing two pairs
>of tfillin (sequentially of course)

According to Ben Ish Hai, the two pairs should be worn simultaneously.
I once heard an Ashkenazi rabbi rail against jumbo t'fillin on just this
point.  He claimed t'fillin were supposed to be small enough to wear two
pairs simultaneously--the Talmudic discussion on this concerns the rescue
of two pairs on Shabbos.

>				     is not a problem because there is
>no prohibition against wearing unkosher tfillin.

There is a makhlokes regarding which t'fillin are kosher.  Rashi and
Rabbenu Tam, for example, engaged in the Spock-and-Kirk "the one vs
the many" dispute, and the ordering of the parshas reflects this.  So
those who wear two or more pairs do so to cover all opinions.  Those
who wear multiple tzitzit do so for reasons I cannot fathom.

>Furthermore, I've been told that one is not allowed to wear an invalid
>tallit of either size on Shabbat outside of a reshut hayachid, as the
>tzitzit serve no purpose and hence one is carrying them.  I haven't
>understood this, as I would think that invalid tzitzit might be
>considered a decoration,

What is a decoration is more or less based on cultural standards.  Since
the gentiles don't decorate their clothing with funny looking fringes, it
isn't a decoration.  Indeed, I've heard that this is what that sofek I
mentioned above would take advantage of on Shabbos--he would wander with
his sofek tzitzit outside somewhere.  So if he were Jewish, he was keeping
Shabbos, and if he were not Jewish, he was not keeping Shabbos.

>			  but would the same problem exist here - one
>would be carrying 4*(n-1) invalid tzitzit on Shabbat?

Even if this were a problem, it would not exist.  The people who wear
so many tk's of course live in communities with eruvim!

>Or do all n opinions consider the other valid, and is the disagreement
>about the *best* way to make the tallit?

Exactly.

>Finally, do those who wear n tk's also wear n tg's?

I have never heard of such.
-- 
-Matthew P Wiener (weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish