Copyright © 2022/5782 Garsan Judaica Ltd

Tying Tzitzits at Night

by Rabbi Ari Enkin Although many things can be done by machine, tying tzitzit strings is still not one of them. In order to render a tallit usable, the tzitzit strings must be hand tied by a God-fearing individual. What is amusing, however, is the largely mistaken belief that it is forbidden to tie the...

Sudilkov: The Tallis Shtetl

Sudilkov, a small town in Ukraine, is reportedly the shtetl Stephen Spielberg's family hail from. It has a history of Jewish settlement reaching back to the 17th century, but today there are no Jews there and almost no trace of the Jewish presence remains. The Jews of Sudilkov were renown for the tallits they made. "Talleisim...

The History of the Chabad Tallit

During a visit to Eretz Yisrael, the previous Chabad Rebbe came across a striping pattern in which the second stripe was wider, rather than the third stripe as in typical talleisim. He liked the pattern, bought the tallit and gradually many Lubavitch Chassidim followed suit and this design came to be known as the...

Tzitzit: Junior Tzitz

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin of Efrat offered an interesting interpretation of the word "tzitzit" in his article on Parshat Tetzaveh this week. "What is most jarring to the modern ear," Rabbi Riskin notes, "is the painstaking description of the eight special garments of the High Priest and the four special garments of the regular priests. Clothes Make...

History of the Yemenite Tallit

In our day, the use of the tallit is largely confined to times of prayer. Jewish sources indicate that the tallit was originally made of wool and that the person wearing it might treat it as an ordinary garment for various purposes – bundling up his wares in it or using it to cover himself or...

Bar Mitzvah Tallis, New York, circa 1940

This picture was just too irresistible. This photo of an intrepid bar mitzvah boy wrapped in his bar mitzvah tallis is from the Matson Collection. He is wearing his bar mitzvah tallis according to the German (and Yemenite) custom. Notice the sign in the background with its anglicized Yiddish. The Hebrew letters read: FERLANKT EKSPERIENSD DRESS MEKERINS TZU DRESSIS OIF...

Wool Tallit

If you step into a traditional Orthodox shul anywhere in the world or visit the Western Wall at Shacharit time, you'll see the traditional wool tallit draped down the back of dozens of men. They may all look pretty much the same, but upon closer scrutiny a number of distinctions come to light. Some of...