“Shawl”. In Italian-Hebrew this name is pronounced ‘talled’. A square or rectangular shawl with four fringes (tzitzit) attached to its four corners, worn by men during morning prayers and on certain holidays. The tallit is usually made of wool, silk or cotton, with blue, black or purple stripes as a reminder of the cord of blue that was once part of the fringes. The tradition of wearing the tallit is to fulfil a Biblical commandment: “They shall make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments… to remember all the commandments of the Lord, so as to do them”. Orthodox Jews also wear a small undergarment called a tallit katan (literally a small tallit). When a person dies the body is wrapped in a tallit, on which one of the fringes is cut off. The corpse is buried in the tallit.