Q. Kvod Horav; In regards to the mantle covering the bima, even the parts of the mantle like the corners, where the Sefer Torah is not placed, are still prohibited for private improper use and you regard the whole mantle as one single equal unit. However, when it comes to a tallis, you place an atarah so that the front tzitzis stay there; as well a retzua of tefilin shel yad, you can’t change the top where the kesher yud is, to be the bottom by the hand. Why don’t we regard the whole retzua or tallis as a single equal unit in all its parts?”
A. Shulchan Aruch (O.H. 154) and Mishna Berura (ibid. 28) do mention restrictions on the use of the mantle covering the bima, on which we don’t say that the “heart of the Beis Din will condition its use,” and they apply to the complete mantle.
Mishna Berura (8: 9) quotes Magen Avrohom that it is tradition to place an atara, “crown” or decorative crest on the talis as a sign which tzitzis are placed on front and which on the back. This is similar to what the Sages teach in regards to the boards of the Mishkan, that the one merited to be on the north side should always be placed there and not be demoted to a lesser location. (Although the Arizal disagrees, you will be hard pressed this days to find a tallis sold without an atara).
Similarly Magen Avrohom (42: 3) places restrictions on turning around the top side of the retzua with the yud kesher annexed to the bayit, towards the lower end arranged at the hand, since he maintains that you will be demoting the higher kedusha.
Eliahu Rabbah (ibid.) disagrees with the Magen Avrohom as he maintains that we consider the retzua as being one single unit, where there is no difference to the top or lower part. As a proof to his principle, he mentions the Talmud (Chulin 91b) in regards to Yaakov Avinu’s night at Har Hamoriah, where the stones disputed each other, claiming that the tzadik should place his head on it, and then they were turned into a single stone, and it did not matter anymore.
Shaarei Teshuva (42: 2) comments that a miracle may be different since indeed each particle of the new unified stone could have been recreated out of the molecules of all the prior singular stones.
Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit’a explained that even when we are dealing with a single unit, some restrictions still apply. We see the above in regards to a human being, where Halacha dictates on which hand tefillin are placed, the order of washing one’s body or which hand does netila first, which foot chalitza etc.
Unlike the mantle of the bima, where there are no Halachik difference to the various sections that it is constituted from, on other bodies and items such as tefilin or a tallis, they do exist.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit’a
Important Numbers
