A Garment Intermission

Usually when working on a piece that takes as much care as Sara Xing's tallit, I will make myself something fast, mostly to relieve the tension of doing such careful and fussy work.

This dress is sewn out of a synthetic jersey that I bought from Kabbala Man. I don't know his real name. But he works at one of several stores in the garment district. he listens to the Psalms of the day chanted in Hebrew over the PA system of the store in the mornings. He studies Kabbala when there are no customers in the store. ( There are stacks of the Zohar, one of the traditional kabbalistic source texts, in Hebrew next to the cash register)

For a long time, Kabbala Man was selling out of a store called H+M fabrics on 35th street. During the summer, he moved down the street to a store called Benoni, meaning middle in hebrew..but it is also a Kabbalistic concept. I have also seen him in a store called Modeani ( I give thanks ( to God)) Farics in the stores where he works is usually marked way down. I think I paid $2/yard for this fabric.

I used a dress I had made last year while my mother in law was dying as a model for this dress. That too was made from fabric purchased from Kabbala man. It is a twist front bodice. The twist gives the bodice a nice bit of shaping.

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מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים

וְנֶאֱמָן אַתָּה לְהַחֲיוֹת מֵתִים: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים You are faithful to restore the dead to life. Blessed are You, Adonoy, Resurrector of the dead. That particular line is recited at every single prayer service every day three times a day, unless you use a Reform or Reconstructionist prayer book . In those liturgies instead of praising God for resurrecting the dead God is praised for giving life to all. I am enough of a modern woman, a modern thinker, to not actually believe in the actual resurrection of the dead. I don't actually expect all of the residents of the Workmen's Circle section of Mount Hebron cemetery in Queens to get up and get back to work at their sewing machines. I don't expect the young children buried here or the babies buried here to one day get up and frolic. Yet, every single time I get up to lead services I say those words about the reanimating of the dead with every fiber of my being. Yesterday, I e...

Connecting with the past

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sarah in nyc

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