If you've ever seen a Jewish man with strings hanging out of his clothing, this is probably what you were seeing. There is no particular religious significance to the tallit (shawl) itself, other than the fact that it holds the tzitzit (fringes) on its corners.
Sound pressure or acoustic pressure is the local pressure deviation from the ambient (average, or equilibrium) atmospheric pressure, caused by a sound wave. In air, sound pressure can be measured using a microphone, and in water with a hydrophone. The SI unit of sound pressure is the pascal (Pa).
The Sound Exposure Level (SEL) describes the cumulative noise exposure from a single noise event for its entire duration. In calculating SEL the noise exposure is normalized to a time duration of one second so that different noise events can be compared in terms of their sound energy.