Well, here we go again. Me and my wife were up and out early on Shabbos. On the way to shul, I clearly heard combat planes overhead, headed northeast. This was less than 24 hours after the big hint, when U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told non-emergency staff and family members that those wishing to depart “should do so TODAY.” I told my wife all signs pointed to something big unfolding.
Every time I glanced out the window during Shacharis, the sky along the Ben Gurion landing path was completely empty — which only strengthened my hunch. When the IDF needs to keep things quiet, they have subtle ways of thinning out civilian air traffic without announcing anything. So when the first siren sounded around 8:00 am, I wasn’t caught off guard.
Since then we’ve shuffled into the protected room so many times that even the kids lost track after the count went past 30. Last night I saw an interception, which is quite a sight. Once or twice fragments have fallen in town. I find it hard to believe that our town is listed on the Iranians’ target bank, but after today’s hit in Beit Shemesh, I think we ought to exercise an abundance of caution.
We’re still hear combat planes overhead, flying fairly low upon return from their missions. Must be US Air Force planes making their way back to the USS Ford or IAF planes headed back to Ovda. (Come to think of it, the US has about a dozen of their F-22s parked at Ovda, too.) In fact, I can hear one now, as I write these lines.
The grinch who stole Purim
Of course all schools are closed today, as per Home Front directives. Hey! But what about costume day?? Last night the kids heard the dreaded recorded announcement on the phone: indeed, no class.
So yes — the grinch stole costume day. When the kids heard the robocall last night confirming no school, the disappointment was real. If the modern‑day Achashveroshes in Persia can claim any victory, it’s the dampening of Purim spirit. But like in Megillas Esther, they won’t have the last word.
For now, we’re staying alert, staying together — and in case you were wondering, yes, processing orders, too, despite shipping uncertainties. And hoping the coming days bring more clarity, and fewer sirens.
Well, here we go again. Me and my wife were up and out early on Shabbos. On the way to shul, I clearly heard combat planes overhead, headed northeast. This was less than 24 hours after the big hint, when U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told non-emergency staff and family members that those wishing to depart “should do so TODAY.” I told my wife all signs pointed to something big unfolding.
Every time I glanced out the window during Shacharis, the sky along the Ben Gurion landing path was completely empty — which only strengthened my hunch. When the IDF needs to keep things quiet, they have subtle ways of thinning out civilian air traffic without announcing anything. So when the first siren sounded around 8:00 am, I wasn’t caught off guard.
Since then we’ve shuffled into the protected room so many times that even the kids lost track after the count went past 30. Last night I saw an interception, which is quite a sight. Once or twice fragments have fallen in town. I find it hard to believe that our town is listed on the Iranians’ target bank, but after today’s hit in Beit Shemesh, I think we ought to exercise an abundance of caution.
We’re still hear combat planes overhead, flying fairly low upon return from their missions. Must be US Air Force planes making their way back to the USS Ford or IAF planes headed back to Ovda. (Come to think of it, the US has about a dozen of their F-22s parked at Ovda, too.) In fact, I can hear one now, as I write these lines.
The grinch who stole Purim
Of course all schools are closed today, as per Home Front directives. Hey! But what about costume day?? Last night the kids heard the dreaded recorded announcement on the phone: indeed, no class.
So yes — the grinch stole costume day. When the kids heard the robocall last night confirming no school, the disappointment was real. If the modern‑day Achashveroshes in Persia can claim any victory, it’s the dampening of Purim spirit. But like in Megillas Esther, they won’t have the last word.
For now, we’re staying alert, staying together — and in case you were wondering, yes, processing orders, too, despite shipping uncertainties. And hoping the coming days bring more clarity, and fewer sirens.
Never a dull moment under the current White House administration! Tariff developments over the weekend have been moving fast, and we want to keep you clearly informed about how this affects your orders from Israel.
“A duty equal to the rate provided in the Proclamation of February 20, 2026 (Imposing a Temporary Import Surcharge to Address Fundamental International Payments Problems), shall be assessed on the value of each dutiable postal item containing goods entered for consumption. This duty rate shall be assessed until the expiration date of the temporary import surcharge… or until the effective date of the new entry process for postal shipments established by CBP, whichever date occurs first.”
So what does that mean in plain English?
When we ship your order from Israel, the United States now charges a temporary import duty on every package. This is based on a new Presidential order issued on February 20, 2026. The import duty for the next 150 days will be 10%, rather than the 15% rate which has been in place for the past six months.
Here’s the simple version:
1. There is a temporary surcharge on all packages.
The U.S. President introduced a temporary import surcharge. Whatever percentage that surcharge is, the shipping company (USPS, UPS, etc.) must charge that rate on international postal packages.
2. How long will this extra charge last?
The surcharge continues until whichever of these happens first:
A. The temporary surcharge itself expires, or B. U.S. Customs (CBP) launches a new postal‑entry processing system.
Once either of these events occurs, this temporary surcharge on USPS‑delivered packages automatically ends.
A Quick Look Back: What Happened Six Months Ago
When the U.S. eliminated the de minimis rule back in August 2025, every shipment—no matter how small—became subject to full import duty + customs processing fees. Postal and courier shipments alike.
For our U.S. customers, this meant a import duty on all of our products, plus processing/brokerage fees. UPS, in particular, charges significant administrative fees for this paperwork.
We did everything we could to negotiate or reduce those charges, but courier fees are set at the carrier level and we cannot alter them.
Israel Post’s Surprising (and helpful) Role
Shortly after the U.S. rule change, Israel Post stepped up with an impressively fast and efficient system to handle all the required customs data.
Most importantly:
Their processing fees were extremely low.
We decided to absorb those fees ourselves, instead of passing them on to you.
As a result, our First Class and EMS/Priority shipping options have become much more attractive for our U.S. customers—while the UPS option has become less appealing due to its higher brokerage surcharges.
What Happens Next?
Based on our understanding of a notice sent by Israel Post, parcels entering the USA will now be subject to a 10% import duty instead of 15%. Note that for USA customers, we add the duty at checkout, so that our customers enjoy hassle-free delivery and to ensure the total amount they pay is transparent from the start. The change from 15% to 10% will go into effect for orders placed starting 24 Feb.
Never a dull moment under the current White House administration! Tariff developments over the weekend have been moving fast, and we want to keep you clearly informed about how this affects your orders from Israel.
“A duty equal to the rate provided in the Proclamation of February 20, 2026 (Imposing a Temporary Import Surcharge to Address Fundamental International Payments Problems), shall be assessed on the value of each dutiable postal item containing goods entered for consumption. This duty rate shall be assessed until the expiration date of the temporary import surcharge… or until the effective date of the new entry process for postal shipments established by CBP, whichever date occurs first.”
So what does that mean in plain English?
When we ship your order from Israel, the United States now charges a temporary import duty on every package. This is based on a new Presidential order issued on February 20, 2026. The import duty for the next 150 days will be 10%, rather than the 15% rate which has been in place for the past six months.
Here’s the simple version:
1. There is a temporary surcharge on all packages.
The U.S. President introduced a temporary import surcharge. Whatever percentage that surcharge is, the shipping company (USPS, UPS, etc.) must charge that rate on international postal packages.
2. How long will this extra charge last?
The surcharge continues until whichever of these happens first:
A. The temporary surcharge itself expires, or B. U.S. Customs (CBP) launches a new postal‑entry processing system.
Once either of these events occurs, this temporary surcharge on USPS‑delivered packages automatically ends.
A Quick Look Back: What Happened Six Months Ago
When the U.S. eliminated the de minimis rule back in August 2025, every shipment—no matter how small—became subject to full import duty + customs processing fees. Postal and courier shipments alike.
For our U.S. customers, this meant a import duty on all of our products, plus processing/brokerage fees. UPS, in particular, charges significant administrative fees for this paperwork.
We did everything we could to negotiate or reduce those charges, but courier fees are set at the carrier level and we cannot alter them.
Israel Post’s Surprising (and helpful) Role
Shortly after the U.S. rule change, Israel Post stepped up with an impressively fast and efficient system to handle all the required customs data.
Most importantly:
Their processing fees were extremely low.
We decided to absorb those fees ourselves, instead of passing them on to you.
As a result, our First Class and EMS/Priority shipping options have become much more attractive for our U.S. customers—while the UPS option has become less appealing due to its higher brokerage surcharges.
What Happens Next?
Based on our understanding of a notice sent by Israel Post, parcels entering the USA will now be subject to a 10% import duty instead of 15%. Note that for USA customers, we add the duty at checkout, so that our customers enjoy hassle-free delivery and to ensure the total amount they pay is transparent from the start. The change from 15% to 10% will go into effect for orders placed starting 24 Feb.
Today I spoke on the phone with a longtime customer from Canada. Let’s call him Adam Kahn. Adam wants to buy a tallis and tallis bag for his soon-to-be son-in-law. He didn’t say it out loud, but I got the sense that he was a bit surprised by the young man’s high expectations for the tallis bag — “compared to my shmata tallis bag,” as Adam put it.
I can appreciate Adam’s sentiments (assuming I picked up on them correctly). But even so, here I’d like to present a different perspective on the topic of expensive tallis bags. Much of what I write here may be bad for business, but so be it. I’ve always been a bit prone to indiscretions here and there. (For example, during parent-teacher meetings, I sometimes got kicked under the table by my wife for letting slip unflattering remarks about the kids.) But I’m not so worried about damage to my business; I’m counting on the fact that in today’s age of “short-form” content consumption, very few readers will get even half-way through my wordy blog post.
Case 1 – My son’s engagement
When my son got engaged, the kallah got him a tallis and tallis bag for Shabbos, but I insisted I’d be the one who provides him with a weekday tallis and tallis bag. So I sent him off to our tallis bag shelves. He came back with a genuine leather tallis bag set. With the shoulder strap it retails for nearly $200. Most of my customers buy a tallis/tefillin set in the neighborhood of $25-$50. I was about to pipe up with a remark about him having expensive taste, but I kept my mouth shut. Primarily because I suddenly recalled my own proclivity for a genuine leather tallis bag set. Which brings us to Case 2…
Case 2 – My birthday splurge
The first time I spotted a genuine leather tallis bag set it was being toted by Naftali. A lot of people might not have really noticed, but since I deal a lot with tallis bags professionally, I could immediately discern that it was real leather, not PU – like mine. Naftali was sort of a bigshot in shul, so I figured Naftali is one thing, but I’m fine with my budget bags…
Then about two or three years ago, when my birthday was approaching, I decided I’d finally spring for a real leather bag set of my own. Around the same time my wife started asking what she could get me as a present. I told her I’d buy it and she could gift it to me—a quirky plan she gladly accepted.
Now, two or three years later, I have no regrets. The bags look as good as new and have served me well. Had I stuck with PU bags, I probably would’ve gone through another two nothing-to-write-home-about bag sets that I could live with, but never truly enjoy.
Case 3 – Opulence in the tallis bag market
Nachum is a distributor for an established Judaica embroidery company in Jerusalem that caters largely to the chassidic community. He told me that since chassidim often go for grandeur and opulence when it comes to Judaica products, there’s now a strong market for high-end tallis/tefillin sets with fur elements, etc. that can retail for NIS 800 to NIS 1,500 (about $250-$470 at today’s exchange rate) – especially when there’s a wedding coming up.
Likewise we have some commercial ties with a local Judaica store here in town (with no online presence), which also caters largely to chassidim (around half of their customer base). Their sales workers once told me that when there’s a wedding on the horizon, the mechutanim knock themselves out when it comes to exchanging presents, including top-of-the-line tallis/tefillin bags.
Adding it All Up
These cases illustrate the point that maybe, just maybe, what appears to be over-the-top spending might be understandable in many cases. In the end, spending $200–$300 on a tallis bag may not be as extravagant as it seems. It’s a mitzvah item that can last a decade or more, and Judaism values beautifying mitzvot—zeh Keli v’anveihu. If we don’t blink at paying the same for a purse or briefcase, why hesitate here?
Today I spoke on the phone with a longtime customer from Canada. Let’s call him Adam Kahn. Adam wants to buy a tallis and tallis bag for his soon-to-be son-in-law. He didn’t say it out loud, but I got the sense that he was a bit surprised by the young man’s high expectations for the tallis bag — “compared to my shmata tallis bag,” as Adam put it.
I can appreciate Adam’s sentiments (assuming I picked up on them correctly). But even so, here I’d like to present a different perspective on the topic of expensive tallis bags. Much of what I write here may be bad for business, but so be it. I’ve always been a bit prone to indiscretions here and there. (For example, during parent-teacher meetings, I sometimes got kicked under the table by my wife for letting slip unflattering remarks about the kids.) But I’m not so worried about damage to my business; I’m counting on the fact that in today’s age of “short-form” content consumption, very few readers will get even half-way through my wordy blog post.
Case 1 – My son’s engagement
When my son got engaged, the kallah got him a tallis and tallis bag for Shabbos, but I insisted I’d be the one who provides him with a weekday tallis and tallis bag. So I sent him off to our tallis bag shelves. He came back with a genuine leather tallis bag set. With the shoulder strap it retails for nearly $200. Most of my customers buy a tallis/tefillin set in the neighborhood of $25-$50. I was about to pipe up with a remark about him having expensive taste, but I kept my mouth shut. Primarily because I suddenly recalled my own proclivity for a genuine leather tallis bag set. Which brings us to Case 2…
Case 2 – My birthday splurge
The first time I spotted a genuine leather tallis bag set it was being toted by Naftali. A lot of people might not have really noticed, but since I deal a lot with tallis bags professionally, I could immediately discern that it was real leather, not PU – like mine. Naftali was sort of a bigshot in shul, so I figured Naftali is one thing, but I’m fine with my budget bags…
Then about two or three years ago, when my birthday was approaching, I decided I’d finally spring for a real leather bag set of my own. Around the same time my wife started asking what she could get me as a present. I told her I’d buy it and she could gift it to me—a quirky plan she gladly accepted.
Now, two or three years later, I have no regrets. The bags look as good as new and have served me well. Had I stuck with PU bags, I probably would’ve gone through another two nothing-to-write-home-about bag sets that I could live with, but never truly enjoy.
Case 3 – Opulence in the tallis bag market
Nachum is a distributor for an established Judaica embroidery company in Jerusalem that caters largely to the chassidic community. He told me that since chassidim often go for grandeur and opulence when it comes to Judaica products, there’s now a strong market for high-end tallis/tefillin sets with fur elements, etc. that can retail for NIS 800 to NIS 1,500 (about $250-$470 at today’s exchange rate) – especially when there’s a wedding coming up.
Likewise we have some commercial ties with a local Judaica store here in town (with no online presence), which also caters largely to chassidim (around half of their customer base). Their sales workers once told me that when there’s a wedding on the horizon, the mechutanim knock themselves out when it comes to exchanging presents, including top-of-the-line tallis/tefillin bags.
Adding it All Up
These cases illustrate the point that maybe, just maybe, what appears to be over-the-top spending might be understandable in many cases. In the end, spending $200–$300 on a tallis bag may not be as extravagant as it seems. It’s a mitzvah item that can last a decade or more, and Judaism values beautifying mitzvot—zeh Keli v’anveihu. If we don’t blink at paying the same for a purse or briefcase, why hesitate here?
