It is common for people to have stripes on their tallits. Among Ashkenazi and Yemenite Jews, black (or dark blue) stripes are typical. Today, many Sephardic Jews use tallits with white stripes, yet some Sephardic authorities maintain that the original and authentic Sephardic tradition specifically favored black stripes.1

While not at all required by halachah, these stripes have been common for centuries, perhaps even millennia.

In 1960, archeologist Yigal Yadin led an excavation in the Judean Desert, exploring caves used by Jews during the Bar Kokhba revolt nearly two thousand years ago. Among the discoveries were tunics decorated with stripes strikingly similar to those seen on a modern tallit.

Similar designs also appear in the artwork of the ancient Dura-Europos synagogue, dating to the third century CE. In one depiction, Moses is shown wearing a garment adorned with dark horizontal stripes, closely resembling the striped tunics discovered from the same era.

While some suggest that the stripes on a tallit are simply for decoration,2 the fact that the tradition has been around for so long indicates that there are deeper reasons behind the custom.

Techelet: Blue or Black?

One of the more common explanations is that the blue or black stripes serve as a reminder of the techelet dye that was used for the tzitzit.

The Torah tells us that the tzitzit (fringes) on the tallit should include a thread of blue techelet on each corner of the garment.3

The sages teach that the techelet was blue, reminiscent of the heavens. The blue dye was extracted from the blood of a sea creature known as the chilazon. Even in ancient times, this creature was very rare, surfacing once every 70 years, which made its dye quite expensive.4

Sometime after the center of Jewish life shifted away from the Holy Land, the exact identity of the chilazon and the processes required to extract the dye were lost. For well over a thousand years, tzitzit have been made solely with white fringes.

Thus, some explain that the dark stripes are meant as a way to remember the techelet.5

This, of course, raises the question: why black and not blue?

The truth is that many do indeed have blue stripes, but two opposing reasons are given for why black is commonly used over blue.

Some explain that using black stripes follows Maimonides’s view that the true color of techelet more closely resembles black, like the night sky, not bright blue.6 Alternatively, some explain that, on the contrary, it is precisely because the techelet was blue that we make the stripes black, so that no one should erroneously believe that real techelet was used.

For more on techelet see: Why Do Most Jews Not Wear Blue Tzitzit?

Mercy and Judgment

Another, albeit somewhat similar, explanation comes from the Zohar, which states that the white background represents chesed (Divine Benevolence) and the blue (black, dark) stripe represents gevurah (G‑d’s severity).

To quote the Zohar:7

And this techelet represents judgment—the attribute of דין, associated with the Divine Name A-do-nai. “The law of the kingdom is law.” Two colors are marked upon the tallit: one white and one techelet. About these two colors, it is said, “And beneath His feet was like the appearance of a sapphire brickwork (Exodus 24:10).”

“Brickwork” alludes to the whiteness of the sapphire, which includes two colors: mercy and judgment, white and black—the dark shade of techelet.

Our sages also hinted to these two colors when they taught: “From what time of day may one recite the morning Shema? From when one can distinguish between techelet and white.” This is because the “daughter of the King,” the recitation of Shema—the unification of the Holy One, blessed be He—comprises these two colors, corresponding to the Divine Names “Havayah” and “A-do-nai,” mercy and judgment.

Just as the Holy One, blessed be He, encompasses these two attributes—Havayah and A-do-nai, mercy and judgment—there are two thrones: the throne of judgment and the throne of mercy.

Time for Tzitzit and Shema

Another explanation some give, which perhaps is also alluded to in the above-quoted Zohar, is that the mitzvah of reciting the morning Shema begins when it is light enough for one to distinguish between white and techelet. Since we no longer have the techelet, the black stripe in the cloth of the tallit can be used to ascertain whether the time for reading the Shema has yet arrived.8

Remembering the Destruction of the Holy Temple

Some explain that black is a sign of mourning, and the black stripes therefore serve as a reminder of the destruction of the Holy Temple.9

Joseph’s Tzitzit

Some mystics explain that the “tunic” Jacob made for Joseph was actually a small tallit with tzitzit. They explain that the word פסים (passim, which, according to one (minority) explanation, means “striped”) contains the letters of the name Joseph (יוסף), but without the letter vav and with the addition of the final mem (ם). In gematria, the final mem has a numeric value of 600, alluding to the numeric value traditionally associated with the word ציצית (tzitzit), which is 600. (together with the eight strings and five knots, this totals 613, corresponding to the 613 mitzvot of the Torah).10

Based on this, we see that stripes are associated with the tzitzit.

Why Just White?

Although we have explained the reasons for the striped tallit, we would be remiss if we didn’t explain why some have the custom of wearing a plain white tallit (or one with white stripes).

There is a halachic debate whether tzitzit must match both the fiber and color of the garment they're attached to — so a red tallit would require red tzitzit, a green tallit would need green tzitzit, and so on — or if only the fiber needs to match, but not the color. The halachah follows the latter view.

Nevertheless, in practice, white tzitzit are used even on a colored tallit. Some point to this as the reason to use only a pure white tallit without any black or blue stripes, so that there is no question at all as to what color strings to affix.11

Furthermore, we find in the Talmud that when G‑d demonstrated the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, He wore a tallit like a prayer leader, and Scripture describes His garment as “white as snow.”

Most, however, counter that the concern is only about the main color of the garment; as long as it is still a “white” garment, if it has a few black stripes, it is not of concern (and, according to many, it satisfies the kabalistic aspect as well).12

Ingathering of the Exiles

While we have explained the reasons behind the black stripes as either a reminder of the techelet dye that we no longer have during this time of exile, or as a form of remembering the destruction of the Holy Temple, it is worth noting that tradition explains that the four corners of the tzitzit garment allude to the ingathering of the exiles from the four corners of the world, while the tzitzit themselves allude to the resurrection of the dead, all of which will happen as part of the Final Redemption—may it happen speedily, in our days!13