A Tallit of Many Colors

When my son is called to the Torah for his bar mitzvah in May, he will not wear the universally recognizable and traditional black-and-white tallit. His prayer shawl will be teal, with rows of gold, red, and orange diamonds, separated by black bands and small yellow triangles. Wearing a colorful tallit is not that uncommon these days, at least among non-Orthodox denominations -- thanks to my uncle Everett’s friend Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (1924-2014), who upended the black-and-white tradition in the 1960s.