June 2011 – Ben's Tallit Shop

Black-striped tallitot: Origins of the custom

When the formula for the techelet dye was lost, some adopted a custom of adding a blue stripe to the tallit itself. Others opted to add a black stripe of mourning for the loss of techelet. The black stripe gained popularity in Europe of the 15th through 19th centuries, when black-and-white clothing was more...

Tallis: ‘We close our eyes to the visual world’

This week I came across a fabulous commentary on tzitzis by Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum. He writes that the tzitzis surround us on all four sides, "a visual reminder of G-d's presence everywhere. The blue techeles thread in the tzitzis is the color of the sea, which is a reflection of the color of the...

Tzitzit tying: How long should it take?

A few weeks ago I was standing in line at the post office (the truth is here in Israel, to most newcomers' utter dismay, at the post office people don't actually stand in line office, per se) when in came a friend who has been tying tzitzit professionally for several years. During the course...

Your son’s first tallit

Upon giving a bar mitzvah tallit to his son, Rabbi Menachem Creditor penned an insightful "meditation." "Maybe once you wear this tallit, perhaps on a day when no one else is watching, you and I will be able to talk about how it felt," he writes. He shares with his son "an understanding gained over...

A tallit katan…in Wolf Point, Montana?

Where is the last place in the world you would expect to come across a tallit katan? Judy Posen was headed for a scrabble tournament in Minneapolis and decided to make the excursion into a road trip. She set out from Seattle heading east, with her scrabble board, scrabble dictionary, road maps and and a...