Shabbat Parashat Tzav 5786

Ask the Rabbi: Kittel at the Seder

Question: I am a recent ba’al teshuva. One of the practices I have not set my minhag for is whether to wear a kittel at the Seder. Can you help me understand the minhag and decide whether to adopt it?

Answer: Wearing a kittel is associated, for Ashkenazim, with four very different events.

Historically, the first is burial (the details of overlap between shrouds and one’s own kittel differ according to communal minhag). In this context, part of the minhag relates to it being inexpensive material (Moed Katan 27b). The cleanliness/purity element of pure white and its connection to the kohanim’s service may also be involved (see Gesher Hachaim I:10).

Next, conceptually and historically, is Yom Kippur. The Rama (Orach Chayim 610:4) reports the minhag of wearing a kittel and attributes it to being reminiscent of angels and because its association with burial encourages feeling the need to “humble one’s heart.”

From these solemn moments, we pivot to joyous settings. Ashkenazi chatanim wear a kittel at the chupa. Some connect this to cognizance of one’s death and the need for teshuva at this crucial/serious, albeit joyous, moment (see Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 147:4). Others connect it to Yom Kippur’s optimistic side, as they are both days of forgiveness; some mention the hope that the couple are being joined until death (see Nitei Gavriel, Nisuin 15).

The Seder-kittel connection is not found in classical Rishonim and Shulchan Aruch/Rama, but early Acharonim were familiar with it. The Magen Avraham (472:2) and Taz (472:3, who implies that some but not all followed the minhag) disagree whether a mourner should wear a kittel at the Seder. The Magen Avraham assumes that the reason is to rein in a possibly over-joyous Seder participant and reasons that the mourner does not require further dampening of the spirit. The Taz considers the possibility that the kittel is to enhance the festive atmosphere, which would be reason for a mourner to avoid increasing already sufficient festivity. However, the Taz prefers the approach that it is to dampen festivity but adopts the opposite philosophical approach from the Magen Avraham. He suggests that it is proper for the mourner to indeed wear the kittel and thereby ensure appropriate somberness.

Rav Soloveitchik is cited (Batei Yosef, Haggada p. 90) as giving two additional reasons to wear a kittel at the Seder, both supplying positives. One (invoking the Netziv) focuses on a special element of the Seder. We put ourselves in the mind frame of those who are eating the Korban Pesach as a central part of the celebration, and a white cloak was the type of honorable clothes worn while eating a korban. Another reason, in his father’s name, is that it is one more surprising thing to stimulate a child’s curiosity.

The different approaches to the minhag have advantages and disadvantages. It is surprising that with the many mandated Talmudic practices to increase festivity (e.g., four cups of wine, reclining), a late minhag would come to subdue festivity! We do have a concept of the fast of Behab, after Pesach and Sukkot, out of concern that festiveness might have led to sin (Shulchan Aruch, OC 272:1; Mishna Berura ad loc. 1). However, we wait until after Nisan and Tishrei, respectively. On the other hand, the Magen Avraham’s reason connects the minhag more naturally to the other usages of the kittel. Those who do not follow the minhag can be comforted if they find the reasons for this relatively late and not critical minhag not along lines they relate to.

In your case, if you follow Ashkenazi minhag¸ you may feel free to choose your preference on whether to wear a kittel at the Seder, or experiment with how you like it (with a stipulation that it is bli neder). There are also various minhagim as to whether it is done only by the one who leads the Seder, or by all married males, which is also a matter with little compelling logic either way. Technical, psychological, philosophical, and sociological (e.g., your peer group’s practice) factors may play a role in your decision.

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