Ben – Page 4 – Ben's Tallit Shop

Malaysia tefillin fiasco

A few months ago we received an order for tefillin, tzitzit, mezuzah and kippot from a customer in Malaysia. As you might imagine, we don't receive a whole lot of orders that ship to Malaysia. Little did I know that it would turn into a protracted shipping ordeal that I would almost call a...

Does a tallit (or tallit katan) have to be white?

Last week I was a bit surprised to get an inquiry asking whether we could provide someone with a camouflage tallit. Hi. I’m a soldier (U.S.) and was thinking of getting a tallis in a camouflage pattern, or that somehow incorporates it. I spoke with a frum chaplain and he knew of one supplier, but...

Tallit Square Patches for Do-It-Yourself Tallit Makers

Mothers and aunts and grandmothers making a tallit often come to our website to get outfitted with needed supplies. We have sold ataras and tzitzit strings for years, but recently it occurred to us that making tallit corner patches available might be a big help. We now have four or five different designs, and plans...

Should your tefillin be refurbished or replaced?

Good tefillin gassot can last a lifetime, but typically they could use some refurbishing every 10 years or so. A customer who came to me for a tallis and tallis bag later told me he was considering the possibility of replacing his tefillin. What would it cost for a new set of tefillin? I will...

How to choose a Chabad tallis

Yesterday we had four separate Chabad tallis orders on our hands. It got quite confusing: a size 70, regular fabric, with cotton lining and no atara a size 60, nonslip fabric, silk lining, white atara a size 60, regular fabric, cotton lining, no atara a size 80, nonslip fabric, silk lining, no atara, techelet...

Tallit & tzitzit solutions for people with wool allergies

Every once in a while we get inquiries from people with wool allergies, or wool sensitivities. The good news is that one leading tzitzit maker in Jerusalem recently introduced a very high quality 100% cotton tallit in a few different designs, including a black-striped cotton tallit and a light blue-striped cotton. Today we received an...

Weekday Siddur without Additions

There's a siddur I'm waiting for someone to publish. A few years ago a friend of mine gave out mini siddurs to the guests at one of his son's bar mitzvah. He had formatted and printed them himself. The idea was that it contained only the weekday Shmoneh Esreh prayer, with none of the additional...

How kosher are your tzitzit?

When you want to know whether the chicken you eat is kosher, in some ways the question is straightforward. Assuming you used a kosher species and did the salting right and no issues came up during shechita, if there is any uncertainty whether the trachea and esophagus were cut properly, you take it to...

Menachos: How big does a tallis katan have to be?

Were you to tie tzitzit on a super small beged, obviously everyone would agree you can't carry out the mitzvah of tzitzit with a tallis katan that small. What, then, is the size requirement for a tallis katan? The answer is a bit complicated. In Masechet Menachot and the Shulchan Aruch (O.C. 16, 1) we find...

Fabulous S&P tallet

Ever since I first wrote about the S&P tallet three or four years ago, I've been searching for a weaver who could create a tallit that closely reflects the old tradition, and along the way, several people who adhere to S&P customs have sent me inquiries. Now, we've finally found it. If you're unfamiliar with the...

Entries by Ben