Are/were there any halachic Jewish communities that do/did not have a daily custom of wearing a garment obligated in tzitzith (e.g. tallith katan/tallith gadol)?
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4It was common for the Italian Jewish community to not wear tzitzit or have a beard. For example, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto did not have either tzitzit or a beard. See this blogpost from one of my favorite Jewish blogs, "On the Main Line."– ezraJul 6, 2017 at 2:28
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The ר"י in says that it wasn't the minhag (connected to the problem of leog la raash), bought down I think in niddah, and mentioned by the Beis Yosef in hilchos Aveilus. I don't have the time to find it now, but if anyone wants to type it up...– Uber_ChachamFeb 27, 2018 at 17:15
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2 Answers
Rabbenu Avraham ben HaRambam implies (HaMaspik L'Ovdei Hashem, ed. Wincelberg p. 27) that in his place and time it was not common to wear a four cornered garment with tsitsit.
He is giving examples of behaviours that a person may inappropriately perform just in order to be perceived as pious, and he includes wearing tsitsit constantly. He includes this in the Sages description of yuhara arrogant expressions of excessive religious activity, (Berakhot 17b, Pesahim 55a).
This strongly indicates that wearing a four cornered garment with tsitsit on it was not common there.
Rambam's encouragement that pious people wear tsitsit complements this, (although does not prove it).
R. Eliezer ben Nathan has a responsum (Sefer Ra'avan siman 40) in which the question posed was, "why do the majority of Jews not wear tzitzit on a daily basis?"
שאלני חתני רבי אורי מצוה חמודה כמו ציצית שהיא שקולה כנגד כל המצות מאי שנא דמקילין בה רוב ישראל שאין מתעטפין בכל יום
This indicates that the widespread custom at the time was to not wear tzitzit on a daily basis.
