The term “cotton tzitzit” can be confusing because generally in use it means a cotton tallit katan garment with wool tzitzit strings tied on. But sometimes when people say ‘cotton tzitzit’ they really mean what they say! Here’s a question regarding the latter, which we received yesterday.

Do you sell, or know anyone who sells, heavy-duty cotton tzitzit strings (to put on a cotton poncho)? I’ve two reasons for asking:
(1) The Opinion of the Alter Rebbe (Lubavitch) – it is preferable (though not mandatory) to use cotton tzitzit on a cotton garment.
(2) Tza’ar Ba’alei Chayim – Sheep are brutally mistreated in the commercial wool industry (as you can easily verify via Google) and thus I personally avoid purchasing wool products, just as I avoid leather.
Alternatively, even if not made for tzitzis per se, could I use heavy-duty cotton string that I cut myself (or would they unravel in a second?). Thank you, Michael L. 

I explained to Michael that it’s not just Lubavitch that holds like that. The Mishnah Berurah states the exact same opinion. 

It’s a bit surprising that with so many tzitzit string manufacturers out there, none is making kosher cotton tzitzis strings. We’ve gotten this request a few times in the past. We’ve also received requests for a cotton tallis, and I’ve heard there are manufacturers slated to introduce very nice cotton tallitot.

If you look up cotton tzitzis online you’ll be very frustrated, because usually when people use the term “cotton tzitzit” they mean a tallit katan garment made of cotton (with wool tzitzit).

I suggested a possible solution for Michael — but it would be quite expensive. There is a famous tzitzis string maker out there named Valles (וואלעס) who has been making super kosher tzitzis strings for decades. He has all sorts of stringencies above and beyond the kosher standards most people hold by. I remember reading once that he uses special herds and goes out himself to the herds to select the right sheep. I have a feeling his sheep conditions might be different, and he would almost certainly have first-hand knowledge about sheep conditions.  

The only problem is that I think Michael will have to do all his research in Hebrew or Yiddish.

In any case, I urged him to drop his idea for heavy-duty cotton string. I don’t know whether it would hold up or not, but it’s 100% non-kosher for tzitzis strings. Tzitzit must be made with the intent to fulfill the mitzvah of tzitzis. At what stage does that start? When you start tying? Earlier, when you start twining? Even earlier? To understand the issue, refer to this blog post. According to Rabbi Valles, it starts even before the Niputz stage.

Many of our customers are not sure what the neck band of the tallit should look like, sometimes asking whether it needs the blessing embroidered on it. Here’s a recent inquiry:

I noticed that many of the tallits you sell don’t have the prayer on the tallit. Isn’t there an option on your website to add it? I want to be sure it’s kosher so my son can use it for his bar mitzvah. – Aaron D.

I explained to Aaron that what he’s referring to is not actually a prayer, but the Tzitzit Blessing. If you take a look at tallits from your grandfather’s generation you’ll find that almost none have any lettering on the atara (neckband).

The bracha is printed in every siddur at the beginning of the morning service. People who put on a tallit every day read the bracha from the siddur for about a week or two, and then they say it from memory. Therefore if you go to a congregation with a daily minyan, you’ll see that most tallits don’t have an atara with the blessing — because they don’t need it.

Today, the vast majority of traditional high-end tallits have a fairly plain white-on-white atara that looks like this. If you go to the Mishkan Hatchelet or Talitania website (they are the two leading tallit makers worldwide), the high-end traditional tallits have a plain atara, while the more modern, colorful tallits usually (but not always) have the type of atara with the bracha. In fact, here, too, the more expensive modern tallits like the Bareket and Sapir are colorful, but have an atara without the bracha.

Not kosher? Of course it’s kosher! In fact, it’s more kosher without the bracha. For one, the Shulchan Aruch says a tallit should not have lettering, but allows it as a leniency. Secondly, to don a tallit properly, you should have the tallit held up behind you above your shoulders when you recite the bracha, not held in front of you. I could provide you with citations if you’d be interested. We wrote about this very topic on our blog seven years ago. To refer to the post, click here. For corroboration, see this short Q&A on the Ohr Somayach website.

Why don’t we at least offer it as an option? Let me explain why we don’t: We sell hand-woven tallits made by two different tallit makers, Gabrieli and Weaving Creation. Periodically we used to get requests from customers who were thinking of ordering a Gabrieli tallit, but, like Aaron, were expecting to have the atara. I sometimes tried to dissuade them, explaining that the mass-produced synthetic ataras with the bracha are way below the level of the rest of the tallit, which has a very unique weave. We could easily go ahead and sew on this type of atara, but for our customers’ sake we avoid it. In fact, it would be quite profitable for us to switch. Notice that this atara is priced at $7.50, while a hand-woven atara, like the one on the tallit we sent you, is priced at $50!

About six months ago Gabrieli came out with a new line they called Gabrieli Premium. One of the features that distinguish these tallits from the standard Gabrieli line is that they have a nice hand-woven atara that does include the Tzitzit Blessing. This is a major innovation. Gabrieli made tallits for close to four decades before they introduced that. And the price is a bit prohibitive.

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Update: We now offer an option on every Gabrieli product page to have an atara with the blessing (instead of striping only).

For a long time something seemed not quite right with our tallit bag selection. Yes, we have velvet and suede tallit bags, linen, wool and cloth tallit bags, Yair Emanuel raw silk tallit bags. We have tallit bags with modern embroidery, traditional silver designs and everything in between. But it just seemed a mess.

A few days ago I received a friendly inquiry from a customer who wanted a velvet bag for his tallit:

Can you recommend a few good options for a velvet Tallis Bag that will not require lettering? So many choices. Looking for good quality but moderately priced. Love my new Tallis. Inaugurated this past Shabbos. Thanks, Ron

Then it hit me: It’s confusing wading through our selection of tallit bags, all jumbled together. I myself have sometimes lost patience sifting through dozens on product pages on a web store. It all starts to look like a blur.

So to make things smoother for our customers, we broke our tallit bags up into three subcategories:

>> Velvet and suede

>> Linen, wool and cloth

>> Raw silk

Velvet tallit bags typically have a very wide price range, from $12 or $15 all the up to $50 or $60. The inexpensive ones are usually made in East Asia using fairly cheap materials, whereas the upper-end bags are made in Israel using high-quality velvet and superb workmanship.

Linen is a safe bet, since the quality of the materials doesn’t vary so much. Also, the designs tend to be fairly simple.

Yair Emanuel’s line of raw silk tallit bags is quite popular, with unique embroidery designs with a lot of flair.

We have a fairly wide selection of different types of cotton tzitzit garments. I didn’t really realize that for some people it’s too big a selection, unless we narrow things down. Yesterday we received an inquiry from someone who didn’t know which type of tzitzit to buy:

I plan on placing an order today, just wanted to make sure it’s the type of tallit katan I want. I work construction and need something I can wear in all weather and while at the gym. Thanks, Nathan H.

Nathan’s question is actually a bit difficult to answer, because just as different people will choose different types of clothing for those activities (construction work and gym workouts), so too different people will choose different types of tallit katan garments.

Let’s start from scratch. The Torah says we must tie tzitzit strings whenever we wear a four-cornered garment. That’s why we have tzitzit on the tallit (“tallit gadol“) worn in synagogue during Shacharit.

The mitzvah of tzitzit is such an important mitzvah, that we are enjoined to keep the mitzvah all day, even if four-cornered garments are uncommon. So to accomplish that Jews started wearing garments like this cotton tallit katan and this wool tallit katan.

About two decades ago, undershirt tzitzit, like our Perftzit, appeared and became quite popular. They are primarily designed to be worn in place of an undershirt. Therefore, for your purposes, there’s not much to know. Just ask yourself if a sleeveless undershirt (sort of halfway between an undershirt and a tank top).

A few years ago, tallit katan makers started making various garments that are designed to be worn not as an undershirt, but as a t-shirt, i.e. a single layer. Most have snaps along the side, otherwise it wouldn’t be considered a four-cornered garment. Now there are two types: one is made of cotton (like our TzitzShirt) and the other is made of a synthetic material (like our DryFit). Personally I think the TzitzShirt is more comfortable, whereas the DryFit doesn’t absorb sweat, is more durable and is requires less laundering.

But keep in mind that cotton is considered preferable from a halachic standpoint.

Here in Israel, people rarely buy Judaica online. In fact, when Israelis ask me what line of work I’m in and I tell them I sell talleisim and tzitzis, they don’t get it. “Is there really a demand for that online?” 

To explain the large demand I tell them that not all Jews outside of Israel live in New York. That if you live in San Francisco or San Antonio, in Oklahoma City or Nevada City, in downstate Illinois or upstate New York, it might be hard to find a decent Judaica store within a 20-minute drive. And in fact, we have a lot of tallis and tzitzis products (and options) you can’t find even at a lot of full-service Judaica shops in in Brooklyn, Miami, Chicago, Denver, LA or Toronto.

But I always figured Manhattan was a different story. That you could find plenty of good Judaica suppliers. According to an article on a Chabad website, even Manhattan Jews are buying online and the shops are closing.

J. Levine Books & Judaica recently announced they will be going out of business at the end of May.

“The next generation doesn’t shop in stores,” Daniel Levine, the fourth-generation owner, told The New York Jewish Week. “That’s the nature of the world.” The store got started in 1890 in Vilkomir, Lithuania and then continued operations in Manhattan in 1905, initially as a pushcart on the Lower East Side.

Apparently the only major Judaica stores still doing business in Manhattan are West Side Judaica (which announced two years ago that they were shutting down, but then decided to stay open for business) and Judaica Classics on the Upper East Side. 

It could be that some would-be West Side Judaica customers are coming our way, because taking a quick glance at the addresses of our Manhattan customers, I’m seeing a lot of them hail from the Upper West Side.

What are our New York customers buying? A lot of cotton tzitzis, tzitzis for boys, tzitzis strings and wool tallis katan products, as well as some traditional tallits, and the occasional modern tallit.