My ds's rebbe told his class that wearing tzitzis is a mitzva that you do not have to do. If your mother is sleeping and you cannot find them, or if they are not kosher, you should not wear any and just go to school.

I was under the impression that wearing tzitzis is a mitzva that is not one of choice.

Can someone shed some light on this for me?

The Mitzvah is to wear them on a 4-cornered garment, so if you're not wearing one then you don't need Tzitzis. However, the Rabbis directed that one should wear a 4-cornered garment so that one will be able to fulfill the Mitzvah.

If you have no Tzitzis (and ones that are not kosher are not Halachically Tzitzis at all, merely bits of thread) then obviously you can't perform the Mitzvah. In those circumstances, however, one shouldn't wear any 4-cornered garment.

In the first case you mention, I would say that disturbing one's mother from her sleep would constitute a transgression (e.g. "stealing" someone's sleep) in order to perform a positive Mitzvah which is something to be avoided.

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in order to perform a positive Mitzvah

The beginning part of your post would seem consistent with seeing Tzitzis as more a of a negative mitzvah -- as in:

Do not wear any 4-cornered garment by day unless you have tzitzis attached to all 4 corners of a 4-cornered garment; and on Shabbos by day if already wearing it, you do not need to take it off simply because the tzitzis might inadvertently get damaged.

Is the actual Torah mitzvah of tzitzis then a positive as your concluding phrase calls it?

Or is there a related positive opportunity recommended by rabbis to put oneself into the position, and this is the positive mitzvah to which you refer?

...

Speaking of which, if I happen to be wearing two four-cornered garments, each with proper tzitzis, by day, on a weekday, and something happens to tear off the tzitzis of just one corner of one of the garments, leaving the corner intact...

How can I know definitely whether I am transgressing the mitzvah since I am still wearing at least one 4-cornered garment with 4 proper tzitzis?

Could it be that I am still fulfilling the mitzvah since I am wearing a garment with tzitzis, and all other 4-cornered garments I am wearing are thereby covered?


Perhaps this was a married adult who had already davened shachris with his own tallis that day, reciting the bracha for wrapping with tzitis, and happened to visit a pet store with lots of kittens, one of whom tore off the tzitzis.

quote:

Could it be that I am still fulfilling the mitzvah since I am wearing a garment with tzitzis, and all other 4-cornered garments I am wearing are thereby covered?

The Mitzvah is on each Beged that you wear. On each one you are obligated. It's like by Mezuzah, if you put one of them up, it doesn't help the other doorposts

quote:

Is the actual Torah mitzvah of tzitzis then a positive as your concluding phrase calls it?

The Rambam counts it as a Positive Mitzva.

Rob,
I'd like to clarify and summarize, without disagreeing with anything the others wrote.
Tzitzis if definitely a positive commandment. The obligation min ha Torah is conditional on wearing a four cornered garment. Just like birkas cohanim is a mitzva, but only if one is a Cohen.
There is also a negative aspect that wearing a four cornered garment without tzitzis is a "bitul asei", meaning that one was in a situation where one should have fulfilled a positive mitzva but did not. This applies to many positive mitzvos
Each garment a person wears is judged independently.
Therefore, if you were wearing two pairs of tzitzis and one became pasul, you would be fulfilling one complete mitzva and simultaneously getting one "bitul asei". Therefore you would still have to remove the pasul garment immediately.
Did I make myself clear?
Peretz

rob, the postive mitzvah extend to every garment one wears that have four connors. which is about every male weather married or not. in the event that his tzitzit are completely torn off some how by the cat or other means, then teh first chance he get's he should remove it and put on the tzitzit again (the important is at least to remove the garment).

It is a postive mitzvah one of doing as it is stated "make for themselves tzitizit on the corners of their garment". as such one who does not wear it according to the mitzvah but their own desire then trangress a postive mitzvah.