Prayer shawl, usually of silk or wool, sometimes banded with silver or gold thread, and fringed at each of the four corners in accordance with biblical law (Num. 15:38). The wearing of the tallit at worship is obligatory only for married men, but it is customarily worn also by males of Bar Mitzvah age and older. Occasionally it is spread over the marriage canopy or used as a burial shroud. In recent years, some women have begun to wear tallits.