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@noah-cochran

I would argue, though, that the way these laws were obeyed varied (such as some only using tassels during prayer–as I read somewhere),  and were stricter or took too far in different times (such as the Pharisees literally tying phylacteries to their foreheads).

You have a point. Observance varied from stricter to less strict, but even in the least strict situations, tzit-tzit would have been worn. There was barely any discussion about whether tzit-tzit should be worn or not, that was a given. The differences came in about the length, the color, the amount of strands, which garments it should be worn on, whether women should wear it, so on and so forth.

You did make one mistake, the “only wearing tassels during prayer” actually means only wearing a tallit during prayer. Tzit-tzit and tallit are not interchangable. Tzit-tzit are worn on regular clothing while tallit is a seperate garment worn only for prayer. (which does also have tzit-tzit)

(Don’t let the Chosen tell you different with the pharisees wearing their tallit all over creation, that was inaccurate.)

I can see where the confusion came in, because there’s a more modern tradition to wear an undergarment also called a tallit. I suppose that was to dodge the “should you wear tzit-tzit if your clothing doesn’t have four corners” by just adding a garment that does have four corners.

I don’t know when this started, but by what I found it’s after the middle ages because there’s documentation that specifies which garments it should be worn on in the Talmud so I’m assuming that didn’t exist yet.

Here’s a link to the document I used for the research. You don’t have to read the entire thing (It’s long, very particular and extremely boring) but if you need to figure something out you can extrapolate from there.

Tractate Tzitzit

Even if your character isn’t very observant, it would still be a given unless he had completely rejected judaism.

Yeah, tefillin is a bit more of a gray area, though it was commonly used in that time. The “Is Deut 6:6-8 literal or metaphorical” is still a commonly debated question among Messianics though most think it’s metaphorical for actions and thoughts.

Actually, making your character wear tzit-tzit has quite a few literary perks. (Most of my characters do and I have a good bit of fun with it)

A subtle way to mention it is by making it a character quirk to touch or hold them when they’re nervous, kind of how Joelle grabs her skirts when she’s nervous. It’s something I tend to do as well and so do my characters XD

You can also make it something that when the character is facing a moral struggle they unconciously touch it, it might be something they picked up because that’s what tzit-tzit are for, they’re a reminder of God’s presence.

(You can even make it a symbol that way, but making everything a symbol is one of my literary quirks so take that as you will XD)

If you need other characters to identify that character as Jewish, that’s a really easy way to do it since it’s always worn (usually visibly) and it’s very distinct. And on the contrary, when the character is trying to hide it for safety they might pin them up or wear them inside their clothes instead of on the bottom.

Basically, you can use it in a lot of ways! Honestly, even one passing mention would be more than enough. It’s one of those little things so many authors forget and even the fact that you knew what tzit-tzit were when I mentioned it is a lot better than most authors.