The gemara says we affix tzitzis to a burial shroud because "One who mocks a pauper insults his Maker." Yet my notes say that in many communities today a man is buried in a tallis without tzitzis. How is this, given that the gemara says it is an effront to God?
Barry Epstein, Dallas, USA
Tosfos in Nidah (61b) asks your question. He answers that the practice to put Tzitzis on the shrouds of the deceased was only done in the times of the Gemara, when everyone wore Tzitzis. Hence, the deceased surely wore Tzitzis when he was alive, and if he was buried without Tzitzis, it would be a disgrace to him, as if mocking him that he cannot do Mitzvos (wear Tzitzis) because he has died. However, nowadays, writes Tosfos, when not everyone wears Tzitzis (either because four cornered garments went out of style, or because some Jews do not properly observe the Mitzvos), we do not put Tzitzis on the shrouds, because *doing* so would be a disgrace, as if mocking him that in his life he didn't do this Mitzvah, so now in his death he does it. And we cannot put Tzitzis on the shrouds of one who wore them in his lifetime, because then those who are alive will be ashamed and worried what will be when they are buried (as we find in Nidah 71a).
Y. Shaw