"Room" two hundred and two in the hall of Hayom Yom.
Thursday, 14 Sivan 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Behaaloscha, Chamishi, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, 14th of the month, say from chapter 72 to chapter 76 inclusive.
Tanya, today we continue chapter 4 in Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah. The daily shiur starts from the words "vehinei kemo" on page 79, and ends with the word "layeish" on page 158.
The daily passage deals with the practice related to the tallis katan and its bracha. We will preface by saying that the familiar bracha for the tallis is the bracha "lehitatef batzitzis," which is said during the wrapping. There is a whole procedure for how one must wrap oneself, and there is a required measure for wrapping in a tallis, and at the time of wrapping we recite this bracha. However, our tallis katan does not have sufficient size for wrapping, and therefore one cannot recite "lehitatef batzitzis" over it as one does for a tallis gadol. For this reason, the Sages instituted the bracha "al mitzvas tzitzis" for the tallis katan, rather than "lehitatef batzitzis".
But even this bracha over the tallis katan, as we will see shortly in the teaching, cannot always be recited. What does one do in a case where it is impossible to recite the bracha due to the conditions of the location? Later we will see how the Rebbe writes in another letter what the actual practice is in this matter.
Let us read the text. The Rebbe says: "When putting on the tallis katan in the morning" if the conditions of the place are suitable for a bracha "with clean hands and in a place where it is permissible to recite a bracha" - a person puts on the tallis katan in the morning, and if the conditions are appropriate for a bracha - with clean hands, having already washed his hands properly, and in a place where it is permitted to recite a bracha, where there is no urine or other such situations. If the conditions are appropriate for a bracha, then at the time he puts on the tallis katan, "one recites the bracha 'al mitzvas tzitzis'".
And why do we not say "lehitatef"? The Rebbe explains, "Since our tallis katan does not have the required measure for wrapping" - and since there is no required measure for wrapping in a tallis katan, therefore the bracha is not "lehitatef" but rather "al mitzvas tzitzis". It should be noted that this bracha currently appears in our siddurim, but in the past it did not appear, and only after this directive was the bracha "al mitzvas tzitzis" inserted into the siddur.
Continuation of the teaching: "If it is forbidden to recite the bracha" - meaning, if at the time the person put on the tallis katan he could not recite the bracha, whether because his hands were not clean or because the place was not suitable for a bracha - what should he do with the bracha that he needs to recite over the tallis katan? Regarding this the Rebbe says: "Then before davening, if he is not putting on a tallis gadol, he should handle his four tzitzis and recite the bracha then" - when he arrives at the shul and is already prepared for davening, certainly the place is suitable and his hands are clean. And if this refers to a person who does not have the custom to wear a tallis gadol, what should he do with the bracha for the tallis katan? He should handle his four tzitzis, touch them, and it will be considered as if he is putting them on now, and he should recite the bracha then. Even though he had already put them on earlier, and only now reached a situation where he can recite the bracha - he should handle the tzitzis and recite the bracha.
From these words it is understood, that if he does put on a tallis gadol - like the Ashkenazic custom that married men wrap themselves in a tallis gadol - then he recites the bracha "lehitatef batzitzis" over the tallis gadol, and he does not need to also recite "al mitzvas tzitzis" over the tallis katan, because the bracha of the tallis gadol, "lehitatef batzitzis", includes and fulfills the obligation for the bracha of the tallis katan as well.
In Igros Kodesh volume 16 there is a letter from the Rebbe, in which he writes that someone who has a tallis gadol should always exempt the bracha of the tallis katan through the tallis gadol - no matter what situation he was in when he put on the tallis katan, whether he was in a clean place and with clean hands or not, he should always exempt it. And for someone who does not have a tallis gadol, the Rebbe writes there that he should hear the bracha from a person wrapping himself in a tallis gadol, and have in mind to listen to his bracha, and ask him to discharge his obligation with the bracha "lehitatef batzitzis", which will also include his tallis katan. Thus the Rebbe writes in the letter in Igros Kodesh.
We will conclude with a connection to the sequence we are currently in, with a hint to the Rambam's Yad Hachazakah in Sefer Taharah. First of all, the general hint: the entire matter of Sefer Taharah, and especially the first halachos dealing with the impurity of a corpse and the general laws of impurity, and afterwards the Red Heifer - the whole topic here is wearing a tallis katan in a pure or impure place, and all the reference to the bracha depends on the purity of the place and the purity of the hands. This is the general hint.
And if we add, there is another interesting hint: in the third set of halachos in Sefer Taharah, Hilchos Tumas Tzaraas, in the final chapter, there is a reference to a case where a person took a pure tallis and brought it into a house that has impurity, whereupon the tallis becomes impure. Although in the plain meaning the intention is not the "tallis" in which we wrap ourselves - "tallis" is a general term for a garment - nevertheless, by way of a hint there is an additional reference here to the concept of a tallis being in a place that is the opposite of purity, and what the approach to it is. And this is also generally the content of the daily teaching.