If I were a smart businesswoman I never would have decided to spend my life making Judaica. If I were a smart businesswoman I never would have decided to make Judaica the slow and old fashioned way, each piece created unique rather than just creating designs and have them made in a factory somewhere where labor is really cheap. 


And even given that, there are times when I am practical and choose to do the tasks related to making my work in ways that make sense time wise.

Charlie's tallit has not been one of those practical moments. Perhaps it is how much I adore Charlie's great ant and uncle. Perhaps I was just charmed by Charlie and his relationship with his parents and younger brother.


I also lay some of the blame for my flight from reality on my dear friend Bill who mentioned seeing some of my hand embroidery on the atara I had done for his friend
(also named Charlie). Bill talked about how pretty the atara was and how he looks forward to seeing it when he sees Charlie in synagogue.

The other Charlie's atara in progress

So I stupidly committed myself  to hand embroidering a long passage of text. I haven't done this much hand work at so many long hours at a stretch probably since I was in my teens. It took many days of hours of embroidery.

And yet another example of my having lost my mind, but there was a smaller volume of text.

I have a callus on my middle finger. My wrist and shoulder are sore.

Finally, I am done.

My new rule is, and you can remind me if I forget, is that so much hand work is for family only.

There is no Food Friday post this week, we have been invited for Shabbat Dinner (yay!).

The rest of the construction of this tallit ought to go quickly.


For your Shabbat enjoyment, the birds gathered across the street from my building.