a Tallit (in Yiddish sounds like Tallis) is a shawl worn when saying prayers in Jewish ceremonies.On an unrelated note, in Ian McEwan's novel Atonement, the protagonist is named Briony Tallis, and as a WWII nurse is called by her last name. To remain at a professional distance, she is not allowed to tell anyone her first name. She cares for a dying French soldier and tells him her name, "Tallis." "Tallis. That's very pretty.' The way he pronounced it, it was." and before he dies, he says her name: “……She could still hear his voice, the way he said Tallis, turning it into a girl’s name…”
It's a lovely moment in the book, and more interesting that the fact that Tallis is an English surname meaning "clearing in a wood."