A Beautiful Tallis

We know that there is a concept of beautifying mitzvos – hiddur mitzvos – such as to use a nice lulav and esrog. The source of this comes from a verse in parshas Beshalach, that can be understood as, "This my G-d, and I will beautify Him." Interestingly, Rashi (Bava Kamma 9b) mentions a nice tallis as an example of hiddur mitvzah. This example is not mentioned in the gemara (Shabbos). Seemingly, the lack of mention is understood. The tallis itself is not the mitzvah, rather the tzitzis on the tallis are the mitzvah. Therefore it would seem that the concept of hiddur mitzvos, to beautify mitzvos should not be relevant to the tallis, only to the tzitzis (Dvar Avraham – quoted)!

The idea behind the example of tallis for hiddur mitzvah is that it refers to a tallis used for davening. Since it is worn for the sake of fulfilling the mitzvah of tzitzis, it has the status as an item of a mitzvah and therefore hiddur mitzvah is appropriate. (Iggros Moshe – quoted)