About two weeks ago, one day our shipping clerk called me over to his computer.
“Look, three of the packages are going to Boca Raton, Florida,” he noted. There was a total of about a dozen addresses on the list, so that number sort of defied statistics.
My guess is that someone was pleased with our products, and spread the word in his congregation.
We actually get a lot of tallit and tzitzit purchases from other parts of Florida – namely Miami, Palm Beach, Jacksonville, Fort Lauderdale and Delray Beach, to name a few – but this was the first time we saw such an influx from Boca Raton.
I took a quick glance at past orders to see what people are buying in Florida and saw a fairly even mix of wool and cotton tzitzit, and a range of tallits – black stripes, white stripes, blue stripes – as well as a significant number of Chabad talleisim.
Let’s say you want to spend a lot of money on tefillin. What are you paying for? There are various hiddurim (“enhancements”) regarding the construction of the battim (casements). Sometimes people look high and low to spend as much money as possible on tefillin, and an unscrupulous dealer might sell him battim with a certain stringency which leading poskim have said is so inconsequential that a dealer cannot charge more for it.
Then there’s the parchments. Either they’re kosher or they’re not, right? Well, yes and no.
Let’s say instead of a complete set of tefillin, you want to buy parchments directly from the sofer (ritual scribe), then take them to a tefillin maker and have him insert them. One sofer wants $300, another is asking $400, another $500 and another $800. What’s the difference?
There are hundreds of halachas regarding how the letters must be formed. In some cases, there may be certain questions about whether a certain letter is kosher. (To give a very basic example, a ר shouldn’t look like a ד and a ד shouldn’t look like a ר). And there can be various opinions as to how to rule on a certain question. A set of inexpensive parchments might rely on a leniency by one of the Rishonim or Achronim; on the other hand, a very expensive set of tefillin will meet the requirements of all of the approaches among the Rishonim and Achronim, even stringent opinions.
And there’s another factor: the aesthetic quality of the writing. This is partly a matter of training and experience, but moreover, of inate talent. Some sofrim were simply born with a good hand, capable of producing very attractive writing (after extensive training, of course). This factor should not be equated with the halachic issues regarding the formation of the letters. The aesthetic caliber of the writing is not a matter of “more kosher,” but more attractive.
Is there any reason to spend good money for more eye-pleasing writing? Actually yes:Zeh Keli v’anveihu, which means we are enjoined to perform mitzvahs using attractive mitzvah objects. For some people that means a very attractive mezuzah cover, for others a beautiful atara on their tallis or for others a fabulous set of tallis/tefillin bags. Or it could mean using a very nicely polished shofar or a finely crafted menorah or a challah cover with exquisite embroidery work.
Many tallits leave the manufacturer with thin, machine-spun tzitzit tied on according to the Ashkenazi tying custom. Many customers opt to upgrade to all-white hand-spun tzitzit strings because they want thicker strings, because they want a tying custom other than Ashkenazi (e.g. Sephardic, Yemenite, Chabad, etc.) or based on halachic considerations. In these cases the machine-spun tzitzit are simply snipped off and we tie on the replacements from scratch.
And of course today many tallit buyers opt for techelet tzitzit.
High-end black-striped and white-striped tallits typically leave the factory without tzitzit.
The difference between thin and thick is fairly noticeable, but now that medium thickness is also available, the difference between thin and medium or medium and thick is a bit hard to discern without close examination.
Comparing thin, medium and thick tzitzit strings can get tricky, because different tzitzit makers have different standards. One company might make their thick just slightly thicker than another company’s medium.
For example, Mishkan Hatchelet strings makes their their medium almost exactly the same as most companies’ thick, and the Mishkan Hatchelet thick is noticeably thicker, so that I would really call it “extra thick.” Whether this is a plus is a matter of debate: some people really like very thick tzitzit, while others might say the knots look a bit too bulky.
When it comes to techelet tzitzit, both Ptil Tekhelet and Chabura Techeiles make their “thick” somewhere between medium and thick. The only way to tell for sure is to take a look at the label on the packaging. If you see the word עבה that means it’s thick. If the thickness is not mentioned on the packaging, then it’s thin.
If you’re one of those people who continues to keep up-to-date on the never-ending techeiles debate, you might be interested in two sources posted on the Techeiles Chabura website.
Participant: I know the Rav’s stance on techeiles is we shouldn’t wear techeiles. The Rav is going into more of an explanation —
Rabbi Weiss: I never wrote we shouldn’t wear. I wrote we don’t have to wear. There’s no down side to wear techeiles. But I don’t wear techeiles. Because to me, to do something it’s not enough that there’s no down side, the question is do we need to wear techeiles or not. In my opinion we have not found techeiles, and I doubt we will find it until Moshiach comes. So I made my opinion very clear in Sheilos v’Tshuvos Minchas Asher, that I don’t believe in what is considered present-day techeiles, but anyone that wears techeiles and he asks me should I stop, no reason to stop. There’s no down side.
Participant: [Inaudible]…Bal Tosif.
Rabbi Weiss: It has nothing to do with Bal Tosif. Any mitzvah or chumrah that you perform, based on a chumrah — maybe this is what we should be doing — would never be considered Bal Tosif.
The second new source is an article published in Hamishpacha Magazine. The article presents a list of arguments against Murex trunculus written by Rabbi Yisrael Reisman, who has written and spoken against Murex trunculus on many occasions over the years. You could say he’s something of an anti-Murex spokesman.
The article then presents a list of pro-Murex arguments by Rabbi Chaim Klein.
And finally, Techeiles Chabura presents Rabbi Klein’s point-by-point rebuttal to Rabbi Reisman.
We’ve received a few inquiries over the years about the availability of cotton tallits. Some people need to avoid wool because of a skin allergy, and a few are hardcore vegans who don’t want to use animal products at all.
Very recently, a high quality cotton tallit, similar to traditional wool tallits, became available. I was quite impressed by the design and the weave. It’s made by a long-established, highly reputable tallit and tzitzit maker in Jerusalem. Until now, the only cotton tallit option I know of is a hand-woven cotton tallit made by Gabrieli or another hand-weaver. But hand-woven is not really an option for those who want a very traditional design or an affordable commercial tallit.
The introduction of the cotton tallit is a big boon. For decades, acrylic has been offered as a low-priced alternative to wool. But it’s quite problematic from a halachic standpoint, to the extent that a few years ago Mishkan Hatchelet, one of the world’s leading tallit makers, abandoned their line of acrylic tallits, although they were hot selling items within certain market niches.
The new cotton tallit offers quite a good solution for those who want to avoid wool for whatever reason, or want a very affordable option that is not a big compromise from the standpoint of halacha and quality. In fact, we’ve even seen some interest among kollel men.
The manufacturer, KeNesher Tallitot, which is based in Jerusalem, is a reputable, longstanding company. KeNesher (formerly Hershkovitz) points out that their cotton tallit does not require dry cleaning, and can tolerate ironing.
How long will your tzitzit last? That depends on both the tallit katan garment and the tzitzit.
I ordered a tallit Katan recently, and I’d like to order another soon, but out of curiosity I was wondering how long the usual lifespan of both the shirt and the tzitzit usually are if I wear it daily. Thanks!
A wool tallit katan usually lasts quite a while. Worn every day, I’d say six months or a year or more. It doesn’t need much laundering, because wool doesn’t absorb sweat and odors readily. The fringes in front might not hold up so well, but the rest of the beged should last.
A tallit katan garment made of cotton will not normally last as long, but is still likely to outlast the tzitzit strings.
Obviously if you are wearing the same tallit katan almost every day, even though it’s protected under your shirt, it’s still getting a lot of use.
The tzitzit strings will inevitably start to look dingy after not too long. The question is at what point will the loss of whiteness start to bother you. Also, the tips might crimp and/or fray. You can snip off the tip (very little, say half a centimeter) several times, which will renew them significantly. See this post.
Thick tzitzit are likely to hold up a bit better than thin.
And if you have the initiative, you can certainly buy new strings periodically and tie them yourself. It’s a fairly easy 30- to 60-minute job, depending on how nimble your fingers are.
How long the tzitzit strings hold up depends on a bit on the strings used, and a lot on the wearer. A six-year-old who’s constantly sitting on the floor is likely to have fairly dirty tzitzit within a few weeks. At the other extreme, a man who wears a suit much of the day can expect his tzitzit to remain sparkly white for quite a while. Most people are somewhere in between.
