Bar Mitzvah Tallit for the Not-So-Tall Bar Mitzvah Boy

In a recent email, I received the following inquiry:

Hello and good morning. I am looking for a tallit for my son. Do you have anything that is 18 by 64 inches?

That was actually the fourth time in the past few weeks that I received a request for a tallit less than 70 inches long, for bar mitzvah boys around 4’8″ or 4’10”.

One aunt buying a bar mitzvah tallit for her nephew, worded her inquiry as follows:

The bar mitzvah boy is on the small side,  about 4’8” and 80 lbs.  So, that was why I thought an 18 x 64 would be the best fit for him.  Do you agree or do you think he would be OK with a 20 x 72?  I don’t want him to feel like he is swimming in a too big tallit, but I also don’t want him to outgrow it within months.

Another customer said she didn’t want the tzitzit dragging on the floor, and recalled that she once saw a bar mitzvah boy trip over his tzitzit while walking down the aisle. “It was not a pretty sight,” she added.

However, we have longstanding relations with the hand-woven tallit makers we work with, so custom sizing is not a problem at all if you opt for a hand-woven tallit.

For options for bar mitzvah boys under five feet tall, look for the Size 25 for our Traditional Wool Tallits in various striping colors.

Traditional Wool Tallits with blue stripes
Traditional Wool Tallits with black stripes
Traditional Wool Tallits with white stripes