Ben – Page 3 – Ben's Tallit Shop

No tzitzit in Jordan

Jewish tourists in Jordan have often been instructed by Jordanian security personnel to hide any outward signs of their Jewishness, ostensibly for security reasons. This week a large delegation of Jews traveling to Jordan, including local government officials, were compelled to cover their kippah and remove their tzitzit. A large group of Israeli deputy mayors...

Rabbi Sacks: Is anybody watching me?

by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks You are driving ever so slightly above the speed limit. You see a police car in your rear view mirror. You slow down. You know perfectly well that it is wrong to exceed the speed limit whether anyone is watching or not, but being human, the likelihood of being found out...

Tzitzit to Latvia

We don't get a lot of tzitzit orders coming out of Latvia. Now I think I know why. The Daugavpils Ghetto numbered as many as 14,000 residents The shipping address listed on the order info looked quite odd to me, so I did a Google search for the city, Daugavpils. On the Wikipedia page that...

Choosing the right mezuzah case

Buying a mezuzah case is not very complicated, but a few technical tips and aesthetics pointers will help. How big? Most mezuzah cases are designed to fit a mezuzah scroll that measures 6 cm, 7 cm, 10 cm, 12 cm or 15 cm. The two smallest sizes should be avoided, because it's very hard for a...

Traditional tallits: What qualifies?

I've often scratched my head wondering exactly which tallits should be categorized as traditional, and which should not. In practice, all of our black-striped, white-on-white, blue-striped, nonslip, chassid and Yemenite tallits are categorized under a parent category called "Classic Tallit." So what does that leave? The only other tallit categories we list are "Modern" and...

Buying a tallit bag: Materials and prices

Who needs a tallit bag? A tallit bag makes an a bar mitzvah gift or a birthday present for a husband who already has a nice tallit he fond of, but keeps stored in a mediocre or old tallit bag, or none at all. Sometimes a tattered velvet bag can be hard to part...

Kosher tzitzit: Is there such a thing as machine-tied tzitzit?

Our web store lists machine-spun tzitzit and hand-spun tzitzit as options on many of our tallit and tallit katan products. Some people mistakenly think this refers to the tying process. For example, we received this inquiry today: Also your traditional Tallit Katan for 5.90$ says it has hand-spun tzitzit by a Ben Torah. However when...

Should I wear my kippah and tzitzit visibly in public?

What is wearing a kippah all about? The distinctiveness of the kippot is alluded to in Birkot Hashachar, the start-of-the-day blessing that thanks God for “crowning Israel with splendor” (Brachot 60b). Wearing a kippah is a reminder of G-d (Kiddushin 31a) – a recognition that there is Someone “above” us who watches our every...

Fairtrade Tallit

Okay, I admit it, fair trade is new to me. And I don't really get it. Today I came across hand-woven challah covers on a website called Fair Trade Judaica, and over the years I've come across fair trade tallits and challah covers sold by a Chicago-based distributor called MayaWorks (a few years ago MayaWorks...

Pitum Hak’toret

Many people have a custom to read the Pitum Haketoret passage, hand-written by a scribe in Torah script on leather parchment. According to Seder Hayom, "One who fears for himself and for his soul should put great effort into this matter, namely to write the entire text of the ketoret on kosher parchment in ktav ashurit...

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