Shulchan Arukh Orach Chayim · Siman 8

Shulchan Arukh Orach Chayim 8 — English translation

Section numbers match the Hebrew text above.

1. 1He shall wrap himself in a fringed garment and make the blessing over it while standing up.
2. 2The order of wrapping is like the way that a person covers his head for work. Sometimes his head is covered and sometimes his head is exposed. And it is correct to cover the head with the fringed garment.
3. 3Small fringed garments (talit katan) of ours that are customarily worn, even though they are not wrapped, they fulfill our obligation for fringes. And it is good that one places it over one's head, the long way, and wrap it. He should stand this way wrapped for at least the amount of time it would take to walk four cubits. After this he can pull it over his head and wear it normally.
4. 4One should return two of the fringes in front, and two behind, in order to be surrounded by the commandments.
5. 5One should bless "to wrap oneself in fringes". If two or three are wrapped as one fringed garment (that is, each in their own but garment but at the same time) they each bless. If they want, one can bless, and the others can answer Amen.
6. 6...On a small fringed garment (talit katan) one can bless "to wrap oneself" even though there is no wrapping rather wearing. Ramah: There are those that say ones should bless on it "on the commandment of fringes", and this is the custom and do not change this (Kol Bo Siman 22, and the Nimukei Yosef, Hilchot Ketanot Page 66:)
7. 7One must separate the strings of the fringes from each other.
8. 8...One should have this intention in wrapping: That God commanded us to wrap ourselves in it in order to remember all of his commandments and to do them.
9. 9Before making the blessing, one should check the strings of the fringes to ensure that they are fit, so that he will not be making a blessing in vain.
10. 10If one put on the a small fringed garment (talit katan) while his hands are still unclean, he should put it on without a blessing, and when he [eventually] washes his hands, he should move around the fringed garment and then say the blessing on it. Or when he puts on another fringed garment, he should say the blessing in it and have in mind to exempt also this one (the original fringed garment) [from the blessing], and there is no need to move around the original fringed garment.
11. 11The main part of the commandment of the small fringed garment (talit katan) is to wear it on his clothes, so that he will always see them and he will be reminded of the commandments.
12. 12If one has many four cornered garments, all of them are obligated to have fringes. And if one puts them all on without a break, and has in mind from the beginning about all of them, he only makes a single blessing. And if he does make an interruption between them, he needs to make a blessing on each one of them. And this is the law if he didn't have in mind from the beginning about all of them, that it's as if an interruption was made between them. Rema: And so too if he removed the first [garment] before putting on the second [garment], he needs to return and make [another] blessing (T"H siman 45).
13. 13One who puts on a small fringed garment (talit katan) and makes a blessing on it, when he goes to synagogue and wraps himself in a large fringed garment (talit gadol) he needs to make a blessing on it (the large fringed garment), because walking from his house to the synagogue is considered an interruption. And if he prays in his own house, if his intention from the start was [for the blessing to be] also on the large fringed garment and he did not make an interruption between them with conversation or with other things, he does not need to go back and make a blessing on it (the large fringed garment).
14. 14And if he take off his fringed garment, even if his intention was to go back and to wrap himself in it immediately, he needs to make another blessing when he goes back and wraps himself in it. Rema: There are those who say that he does not make a blessing if his intention is to go back and wrap himself in it (Agur, siman 34), and there are those who say that [the ruling that he does not make another blessing] is precisely when there remains on him a small fringed garment. And this is what the custom is (ibid.), see later on in siman 25, seif 12.
15. 15If his fringed garment fell off without his intention and he goes back and wraps himself in it, he needs to make a blessing, and this is when it completely fell off. But, if it didn't completely fall off, even though most of it fell off, there is no need to make a blessing.
16. 16One who slept in his fringed garment at night needs to make a blessing on it in the morning, even if he did not remove it. And it's good to move it around at the time of the blessing. And so too does one do who puts on his fringed garment before the light of the day (HGM"YY in the name of Sefer HaTerumah and the SM"G and the SM"K and the Mordechai in the laws of Tefillin).
17. 17One who covers himself in a garment that requires fringes, and does not place fringes on it, he has nullified a positive commandment.