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Noahide prayer shawl?
#1
I've seen an 'approved' Noahide Prayer Shawl on a Noahide site. It has no tzitzit fringes and is in rainbow colours. To me it looks too 'loud' for a synagogue. Also, even though the rainbow is a sign of Hashem's covenant with us, it has been hijacked of late by certain groups, so I'm loathe to wear a 'rainbow' anything lest somebody think I'm with one of those groups.

Has anyone else seen it and what are your thoughts re: a noahide prayer shawl?

Toda,
Newman.
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#2
Sh'lom Newman,

Yes, I have seen this item (a shawl with NO tzitzit/fringes) advertised on some web sites.

1) It is not forbidden to be worn by Noahides, since it has no tzitzit fringes. Therefore a Noahide (man, woman or child) is free to choose to use it or not.
The problems with a Noahide wearing a Jewish tallis/prayer shawl with tzitzit fringes are addressed in our Forum thread at
https://asknoah.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=15

2) Interestingly, the person who first developed a rainbow-colored "Noahide prayer shawl" did so along with a proposed correspondence between the colors of the rainbow and the seven sefirot, or emotive attributes of G-d. Others subsequently picked up on that idea. However, it is innovative, and there doesn't seem to be any classic source for the particular matching of colors to attributes that he proposed.

A classic source which does discuss the concept of colors as analogies for spiritual attributes is the subject of our web page
https://asknoah.org/essay/the-rainbow-colors
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#3
In the Jewish context only the man wore the prayer shawl. Why then in the Noahide context the man, woman and child are allow to put on, does not gel or tally at all ?

Shalom !

Rebekah Giam
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#4
In the Jewish context, it is not really accurate to call a tallit a "prayer shawl." It would be more accurate to call it a "mitzvah shawl," because its purpose is to provide a Jewish man with the opportunity to fulfill his commandment to wear tzitzit fringes on a 4-cornered garment that he puts on. Jewish boys wear a small version (a tallit katan) to educate them about this mitzvah they will become obligated in when they turn 13 years old. Traditionally Jewish women, since they are not obligated in this mitzvah nor in its purpose, do not wear a tallit (a four-cornered garment with tzitzit fringes).

Post #2 above is NOT talking about a tallit for Noahides, which in fact has been discouraged because it amounts to adding on a new spiritual commandment to the 7 Noahide Mitzvot that are commanded by G-d. Rather, the post is saying that there is no prohibition against a Noahide (man, woman or child) wearing a 4-cornered shawl that does not have any tzitzit fringes (so it is not a tallit). However, an idea to do so might be arrising from a misunderstanding of the real meaning of the Jewish tallit, as Rabbi Shochet explained in his post on our forum page:
https://asknoah.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=15

Rabbi Schochet Wrote:Furthermore, tallis and tefilin, though somehow related in practice to Jewish prayer, actually are independent mitzvos and have nothing to do with prayer-services and do not add to them. They are distinct mitzvos on their own. Thus it should be emphasized that the only "enhancing tools" for prayer by Noahides are sincerity and submission to G-d.
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