Author: BenG

We often get inquiries asking how to choose the right size wool tallit katan. If you already have one take a look just above the hem in front. If there are a series of pinstripes, count them. Some manufacturers make a Size 5 with five pinstripes, a Size 6 with six, etc. But if that’s not the case, you might need some help figuring out the right size. Here’s an inquiry we received this week:

Want to buy a striped tallit katan, don’t understand the sizing chart. Need an XL. Which one do I choose? Thanks,  Marc B.

Wool tallitot katanim are always quite wide, in fact sometimes too wide for people. (The reason has to do with the halachic requirements regarding the size and cut.) So really you just need to make sure the tallit katan is going to be the right length (i.e. height).

The easiest way to ascertain the right length is to measure yourself from your shoulders down to the bottom of your belt. If you measure 26 inches, get a size 7. It’s always better to go up a size than down a size; if it’s an inch too long you tuck a bit more into your pants, but if it’s an inch too short it may feel a bit awkward.

This week we received a question about Breslov tzitzis tying customs.

Hi Ben,
I noticed on your website you have two different ways to tie Breslov techelet.
http://www.tallit-shop.com/breslov-tzitzit/
https://llo.hak.mybluehost.me/website_abc55c1c/copy-of-13-chulyoth…
I’m intrigued to know the source/ community for each of them. Why are they different? I’m very interested in techelet.
Thank you,
Mario

My presumption is that Mario meant two different ways to tie Breslov with techeiles. I don’t know the ins and outs of Breslov customs very well. It’s hard to keep up. I have a neighbor who’s Breslov, and he enumerated five or six distinct streams of Breslov in Eretz Yisroel.

However, what I can say is that the Gemara, in describing how to tie tzitzis, very clearly states that you start with white and end with white (מתחיל בלבן ומסיים בלבן). According to most opinions, that means the very first and last windings are white, but according to other opinions (as you can see in one of the links above), the first and last chulyah of each of the four segments must be white.

We’re constantly getting inquiries about which size tallit to buy. Here’s a recent example:

I am looking for a tallit for my son’s bar mitzvah and not sure of the size he would need. Alison K.

My guess is that Alison did not come across our Tallit Size Wizard.

Also, if you do a Google search for “YouTube bar mitzvah tallit sizes” you’ll come across an amateur video we posted.

Here are the raw facts and figures:

– A size 24 tallit is designed to be worn resting on the neck, with all four corners in front, wrapping around the shoulders

– A size 36 tallit is designed to be worn resting on the neck, with all four corners in front, wrapping around the shoulders and upper arms

– A size 45 tallit is designed to be worn traditional-style, draping down the back, and is small, usually worn by people around 5′ tall

– A size 50 tallit is just like a size 45, but is meant for people around 5’1″ to 5’4″

– A size 55 tallit is another four inches longer and is meant for people around 5’4 to 5’6″

– A size 60 tallit is another four inches longer and is meant for people around 5’6 to 5’9″

– A size 70 tallit is another four inches longer and is meant for people around 5’9 to 6′

Note that some people will choose to go up a size (e.g. they want a long, elegant look for Shabbat use) or down a size (e.g. they like a smaller, more manageable tallit on their shoulders).

Also not that a few traditional black-striped, white-striped, Yemenite and Chassidic tallits also come in size 80 and sometimes even size 90.

Sometimes we get emails asking about ways to restore an old tallit. Invariable the tallis has a lot of nostalgic value, often because it was worn for years by a cherished grandfather.

For example, here’s an inquiry we received last week:

I am wondering if you can help with the restoration of an old European tallit that came from my wife’s late grandfather? In addition to needing tzitzit and fringes repaired, there are some stains from improper cleaning and damage to the edge of the atarah (I can email pictures). If not, are you aware of any resources for tallit restoration? I would like to be able to use this tallit again regularly without harming it. Thank you in advance for your consideration, David M.

David sent several photos showing the tallit, tattered corners, fraying tzitzit, some stains and an atara that has seen better days. All these problems are actually quite common. 

In his case, I’m not sure whether it’s worth trying to restore it. It’s a mitzvah to wear a nice tallit, and wearing a tattered tallit is unlikely to bring merit to the deceased.

The main problem, from my perspective, was the stains. There are a lot of stories of dry cleaners ruining tallits.

Regarding the corners, it’s easy to sew on new corner patches, but the problem is the reinforcement for the hole. That requires a special machine that the major tallit makers have. So to handle that, I would send it to one of the tallit manufacturers we work with, and ask them to add new corners.

Regarding the atara, I would just take it off and put on a new one. 

Regarding the tzitzit, I recommended that David buy a set of strings and teach himself how to tie them. The tzitzit are really the essence of the mitzvah of wearing a tallit, and learning how to tie them really connects you to the mitzvah. It should take about an hour.

Despite our Tallit Size Wizard, we still get a lot of tallit sizing questions. This week we received an inquiry from a visitor to our webstore who thought our sizing chart was all wrong.

Let me ask a question on sizing: You show the sizing as height first and then width. Are you sure that the height is first? The height should be longer than the width.

I know it’s counter-intuitive, but actually the width of a tallit is always longer than the height. 

The reason is that a tallit worn traditional-style, draping down the back, is designed to be worn such that much of the width is propped up on the shoulders. A medium size tallit is 73 inches (185 cm) wide, i.e. from one fringed side to the other. Obviously nobody’s shoulders are 73 inches wide, but rather in the neighborhood of 14 our 16 inches.

So the vast majority of that width is bunched up on your shoulders. Some people just fold each side in half, so that the tallit extends across most of the upper arms as well.

Just to be very clear, the height, therefore, means the edge with the atara (neckband) down to the opposite edge parallel to the floor when worn. This measurement is generally the more critical factor in tallit sizing. Typically people want a tallit to hang down to around mid-thigh in back (not including the tzitzit), although some people will go down a size to make the tallit very manageable, and some people will go up a size to make it long and elegant. In most cases, the difference from one size to the next is 4 inches (10 cm).

In discussing sizing, I used to speak of length and width, but once an engineer debated with me which should be called the length and which should be called the width. I realized that it’s a bit ambiguous, so I switched to “height” and “width.”

This ambiguity regarding tallit length and width is actually mentioned in halacha.