Do you have to wear the four-cornered garment and a skull cap to bed? If so, do you have to make a blessing on the cornered garments in the morning?
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Tsitsit in only obligatory on a four cornered garment. Without a four cornered garment, one need not wear tsitsit. See here. Wearing a skullcap is almost certainly only required to make blessings and the like, although it is a nice custom in general– mevaqeshCommented Aug 13, 2017 at 6:57
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@mevaqesh Minhag Yisrael Torah Hee– DonielFCommented Aug 13, 2017 at 8:00
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@DonielF Sourcing that (hint) and demonstrating its applicability here would make for an answer, just as sourcing my comment would.– mevaqeshCommented Aug 13, 2017 at 8:05
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1This article goes into an in-depth and well-sourced discussion of the question. chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3700205/jewish/…– BaruchCommented Aug 17, 2017 at 21:00
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1 Answer
The Gemara in Menachot 43a says that one is exempt from wearing tzitzit at night because of the passuk in Bamidbar 15:39 which says "and you shall see them." Thus one is not obligated to wear tzitzit at night, although it is permissible to do so.
So why would anyone wear tzitzit at night? As a sort of "protection" from the night, in addition to extra Yorei Shamayim. Wearing the kippah at night is the same. It is not obligation to wear the kippah during sleep. (Is wearing a kippah at all obligatory? Maybe "minhag Yisrael Torah hi.") Again, some people do indeed wear the kippah at night for extra Yorei Shamayim.
I have heard a story (I think it was actually somewhere here on Mi Yodeya) of someone who was in a Yeshivah and would take off his kippah during sleep, to which the Mashgiach said he should keep it on. The student said that the kippah always fell off his head at night and got lost to which the Mashgiach replied "you learned how to not fall out of the bed at night; you will also learn to have the kippah stay on at night"!
As for reciting the bracha over the tzitzit the following morning, the matter is a bit more complicated than a yes or no answer. It is preferable to have one tallit katan for the day and one for the night, that way one could don a tallit in the night before bed (in which a bracha would not be said) and in the morning take them off, put on his daytime tzitzit and recite the bracha on them. If however he only has one tallit katan for night and day, then a bracha is not recited. But if one is married, he does not recite the bracha on the tallit katan anyway, because he says the bracha over the tallit gadol during Shacharit.
See here.
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"So why would anyone wear tzitzit at night? As a sort of "protection" from the night" No need to fear the dark. || Why do you assume that mitsvot provide physical protection? According to Rambam that is the sort of idiocy that excludes one from the world to come: שאלו הטיפשים, לא דיי להם שביטלו המצוה; אלא שעושין מצוה גדולה... כאילו היא קמיע להנית עצמן, כמו שעלה על ליבם הסכל שזה דבר המהנה בהבלי העולם.– mevaqeshCommented Aug 13, 2017 at 7:02
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@mevaqesh - Doesn't stop people from being superstitious. Besides, some (gasp!) disagree with the Rambam.– ezraCommented Aug 13, 2017 at 7:04
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Some disagree: Sure! He is writing against an existing superstition; he didnt make up a superstition to rail against it. You dont have to agree with Rambam, or even cite him; but you do a disservice to your readers by casually passing off controversial superstitions as normal or normative, without comment.– mevaqeshCommented Aug 13, 2017 at 7:07
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This is terrible advice. If you have a tallit just for nighttime then it's completely exempt and wearing it is a waste of time. The only way to fulfill Tzitzit at night, which only works according to some, is by wearing daytime clothing– Double AA ♦Commented Aug 13, 2017 at 15:13
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@mevaqesh People who wear tzitzit at night do so not in order to have them on at night, but in order to have them on in the morning when they wake up. The Rashbi in Menachot 43b says people who are careful in the mitzvah of tzitzis will merit to see the face of the Shekina. Therefore I think it's completely out of line to call this practice "idiocy that excludes one from the World to Come."– SAHCommented Aug 29, 2017 at 2:20