David Golinkin is a rabbi, author and President of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, Israel. He is a major halachic authority in the Masorti (Conservative) Movement in Israel. Rabbi Golinkin is a Conservative rabbi, and a member of the Rabbinical Assembly. He is the editor or author of eighteen books, and over 150 responsa, articles, and sermons. He is the Jerome and Miriam Katzin Professor of Jewish Studies, where he teaches Talmud and Jewish Law at the Schechter Institute and was the chair of the Va'ad Halakha, the law committee of the Rabbinical Assembly of Israel.
WHY DO WE WEAR A KITTEL AND USE WHITE TORAH MANTLES, TABLE COVERS AND ARK CURTAINS IN THE SYNAGOGUE ON THE HIGH HOLY DAYS?
In memory of grandma Esther Perlberg z”l
who exemplified the simple piety of the Jews of Eastern Europe, on her 40th yahrzeit.
Question:
Asked by Rabbi Rachel Schwartz on the behalf of a pupil at a Hebrew school in the United States: Why is the kittel worn on the High Holy Days? When were Torah scrolls first dressed in white for the High Holy Days and what prompted this change?
Responsum:
I) The sources for wearing a kittel or white clothes on the High Holy Days
According to the Talmud Yerushalmi (Rosh Hashanah 1:3, fol. 57b and parallels) (1), Jews on Yom Kippur “wear white and cover themselves in white”. This passage in the Yerushalmi, to which we will return below, is quoted in various ways by nearly twenty Rishonim (medieval authorities).(2)
Most of these Rishonim merely quote the passage without adding anything. However, R. Yehiel b. R. Yekutiel in 13th century Italy includes a halakhic ruling on this matter (Tanya Rabbati, end of paragraph 78, ed. Bar-On, p. 319) based on another source:
One dons clean white clothes, as it says (Shabbat 119a): "What is the meaning of the verse "The Lord's holy day honored" (Isaiah 58:13)? This refers to Yom Kippur, on which there is neither eating nor drinking. The Torah says: honor it by wearing clean garments.
The word “white” does not appear in the printed editions of the Talmud and seems to be R. Yehiel's addition.
R. Yisrael Isserlein (Neustadt, d. 1460), wore “a white tunic over his clothes” on Rosh Hashanah (Leket Yosher, Part 1, p. 130).
R. Moshe Isserles cited this custom in the 16th century in his Darkhei Moshe Ha'arokh (to Tur OH 610:2) as well as in his glosses to the Shulhan Arukh (OH 610:4):
It was the custom of some people to wear clean white clothing on Yom Kippur, in emulation of the ministering angels. Likewise, it is the custom to wear a kittel which is white and clean and also the garment of the dead; this makes the human heart submissive and broken.
This custom is subsequently mentioned in many Ashkenazic sources.
R. Ya'akov Emden refers to it in the eighteenth century: "It is customary to wear clean white clothing and the outer garment of the dead”. The latter phrase refers to the kittel or sargenes -- see the explanation below.
R. Avraham Gumbiner (Magen Avraham on Shulhan Arukh OH, ad loc.; Poland, 17th century) deliberated whether women wear white or not, but R. Ephraim Zalman Margaliot writes in his Mateh Ephraim in the early 19th century that “women are accustomed to wear white on Rosh Hashanah” and Yom Kippur, though without gold or silver ornamentation (also quoted in the Mishnah Berurah to OH 610, subparagraph 16).
R. Margaliot, as well as Rabbi Yehudah Dov Singer in our time (p. 156), both report that there are different customs as to who wears a kittel – the entire congregation or only the cantors, shofar blower, and the one who calls out for the shofar blower. On the other hand, among German Jews the kittel is worn by the entire congregation (Wassertil, pp. 75-76), as can also be seen in an illustration from Prague from 1734 (Rubens, plate 220).
This custom was also widespread among Sephardic Jews and Jews in the Islamic world:
R. David Ibn Zimra (Egyptand Eretz Israel, d. 1574) tells of an ancient custom in Egypt “that they wear white” on various special occasions “and also on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur... and it is a nice custom” (Responsa Radbaz, New York, 1967, Part Two, No. 693).
R. Shemtob Gaguine reported in the mid-twentieth century that
the custom in all the cities of Eretz Israel, Syria, Egypt and Turkey, and in the cities of Morocco, is to wear pressed white clothing on Rosh Hashanah, and here [=London or England?] they wear black and black silk hats like on all other holidays.
R. Joseph Kafih and Moshe Tzadok attest to the practice of Yemenite Jews before they immigrated to EretzIsrael. Rabbi Kafih reports that on Erev Yom Kippur
people "wear silk clothes or beautiful white clothes and flock to the synagogue".
In describing the customs of the Jews of Algiers in 1889, R. Eliyahu Guedj recounts that as a young man he would pray on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in the Great Synagogue with a certain well-known rabbi "and he would wear a white kittel, standing on the platform just like an angel of the Lord of Hosts".
However, in some places it was not customary to wear a kittel. For example, in Jerusalem in the late 19th century, they did not wear the kittel because the men of the Old Yishuv wore white every day, nor did they dress the dead in a kittel (Luncz; also quoted by Agnon, p. 244, without a reference).
II) On what other occasions is the kittel worn aside from Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur?
Before answering the question as to why we wear white clothing on the High Holy Days, it must be emphasized that it is customary to wear a kittel or white clothing on many other special occasions: