A job I didn't expect to get

A few weeks ago I got an email from a friend of a friend. His tallit needed repairs. The ribbon used for the atara had gotten grotty. The pinot were in sad shape. Some of the edges of the tallit had frayed. Would I be able to repair the tallit?

Of course I would. But I also let the writer know that it might cost him less to just replace the tallit. He replied that that tallit was full of meaning to him and he would prefer to keep the tallit.

I suggested a low cost option of ordering the ribbon from a tallit supply house and just having the local dry cleaning establishment replace the ribbon both on the atara and the pinot.

I also mentioned that I could design a new atara and pinot along with repairing the worn spots on the tallit. Charlie asked to see photos of my work.

Much to my surprise, Charlie decided to work with me rather than just going with a simple repair.

As I suspected,the tallit was purchased for Charlie's wedding and he was committed to keeping his beloved tallit. I just love when men are so tied to the tallit they got married in. It says something really nice about their loyalty not just to a piece of fabric but to the woman they married and their fealty to their marriage.

The tallit arrived. It was yellowed from much wear. The frays looked easy to fix with a bit of serging and top stitching.

Figuring out the design of the atara and the pinot was a bit more complicated. Charlie and I had a meeting via Skype.it's important for me to get to know my clients so i can come up with a design that is not just OK but great.

During our conversation, Charlie spoke about how what he loves about wearing a tallit is how in makes him part of the community of Israel - similar to the way that an army uniform identifies you with a group.

Most of my clients look for a verse that evokes a more personal theology rather than one that helps them connect to the larger people of Israel. One of my Chabad friend once talked about how her husband loves davening in a group where all of the men are dressed nearly identically. She said that it made her husband feel like he was part of one large praying being, rather than being an individual. He found that sense of being part of a larger whole deeply profound.

I told Charlie that I had to think a bit about the right verse for his tallit.

During service the next day the phrase אגודה אחת, one community kept flittering through my brain. I couldn't remember the rest of the line. With the assistance of my external brain, better known as Google, I found the complete line.

וְיֵעָשׂוּ כֻלָם אֲגֻודָּה אֶחָת לעשות רצונך בלבב שלם

And they all became one community to do Your will with a full heart

Charlie was delighted with the choice. He asked for a sketch, and here it is in it's rough glory. I am using wheat as the decorative element because it also exists best not alone but in community.

Clearly there will be a whole lot of refinements before the tallit is complete.

One of the things I am trying to figure out if the off white wool I have can work with the much darker tallit. Some borders may make the color difference look intentional.

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Connecting with the past

A few months ago I had a craving for my father’s chicken fricassee. If my father were still alive I would have called him up and he would have talked me through the process of making it. My father is no longer alive so I turned to my cookbooks and the recipes I found for chicken fricassee were nothing at all like the stew of chicken necks, gizzards and wings in a watery sweet and sour tomato sauce that I enjoyed as a kid. I assumed that the dish was an invention of my father’s. I then attempted to replicate the dish from my memory of it and failed. A couple of weeks ago I saw an article on the internet, and I can’t remember where, that talked about Jewish fricassee and it sounded an awful lot like the dish I was hankering after. This afternoon I went to the butcher and picked up all of the chicken elements of the dish, a couple of packages each of wings, necks and gizzards. My father never cooked directly from a cook book. He used to re...

The light themed tallit has been shipped!!!

I had begun speaking to Sarah about making her a tallit in the middle of August. It took a few weeks to nail down the design. For Sarah it would have been ideal if the tallit were completed in time for her to wear it on Rosh HaShanah., the beginning of her year as senior rabbi of her congregation. For me, in an ideal world, given the realities of preparing for the High Holidays I would have finished this tallit in the weeks after Sukkot. So we compromised and I shipped off the tallit last night. I would have prefered to have more time but I got the job done in time. This tallit was made to mark Sarah's rise to the position of senior rabbi but it was also a reaction to this year of darkness. She chose a selection of verses about light to be part of her tallit. 1) אֵל נוֹרָא עֲלִילָה God of awesome deeds ( from a yom kippur Liturgical poem) 2) אוֹר חָדָשׁ עַל־צִיּוֹן תָּאִיר May You shine a new light on Zion ( from the liturgy) 3) יָאֵר יְהֹ...

A Passover loss

My parents bought this tablecloth during their 1955 visit to Israel. It is made out of linen from the first post 1948 flax harvest. The linen is heavy and almost crude. The embroidery is very fine. We used this cloth every Passover until the center wore thin. You can see the cloth on the table in the background of this photo of my parents and nephew My Aunt Sheva bought my mother a replacement cloth. The replacement cloth is made out of a cotton poly blend. The embroidery is crude and the colors not nearly as nice. The old cloth hung in our basement. We used the new cloth and remembered the much nicer original cloth. I loved that my aunt wanted to replace the cloth, I just hated the replacement because it was so much less than while evoking the beauty of the original. After my father died my mother sat me down and with great ceremony gave me all of her best tablecloths. She also gave me the worn Passover cloth and suggested that I could mend it. I did. Year after year ...

sarah in nyc

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