מַה זֶּה אֲשֶׁר יוּכַל הַלֵּב וְהַלָּשׁוֹן לַעְשׂוֹת וּמַה כֹּחַ רוּחִי בְּתוֹךְ קִרְבִּי

While I was working away on Todd and Ale's tallitot I was also working away on a tallit for Ella.

Ella and I had our initial meeting via Zoom and a masked follow-up meeting in the back courtyard of our building near the old discarded plumbing fixtures because that was how one had to meet at that point in the pandemic.

Together-- we came up with this as the design for her tallit with

עֹֽטֶה־אוֹר כַּשַּׂלְמָה

You are wrapped in light --like a garment

from Psalm 104 on the atara and the first couple of words from the first line of this poem and the last couple of lines of the second line of the poem

שַׁחַר אֲבַקֶּשְׁךָ צוּרִי וּמִשְׂגַּבִּי
אֶעְרֺךְ לְפָנֶיךָ שַׁחְרִי וְגַם עַרְבִּי

At dawn I seek You, my rock and my fortress
my morning and evening prayers I lay before You

here is the complete poem.

first in English

At dawn I seek You, my rock and my fortress
my morning and evening prayers I lay before You
Before Your greatness I stand in fright
for Your eyes can see into the thoughts of my heart
What is this that the heart and tongue can
bring about, and what is the strength of my spirit within me?
Behold the singing of man will be pleasant to You, therefore
I thank You while the soul of Elo’ah is within me

and now in Hebrew:

שַׁחַר אֲבַקֶּשְׁךָ צוּרִי וּמִשְׂגַּבִּי
אֶעְרֺךְ לְפָנֶיךָ שַׁחְרִי וְגַם עַרְבִּי
לִפְנֵי גְדֻלָּתְךָ אֶעְמֹד וְאֶבָּהֵל
כִּי עֵינְךָ תִּרְאֶה כָל מַחְשְׁבוֹת לִבִּי
מַה זֶּה אֲשֶׁר יוּכַל הַלֵּב וְהַלָּשׁוֹן
לַעְשׂוֹת וּמַה כֹּחַ רוּחִי בְּתוֹךְ קִרְבִּי
הִנֵּה לְךָ תִּיטַב זִמְרַת אֱנוֹשׁ עַל כֵּן
אוֹדְךָ בְּעוֹד תִּהְיֶה נִשְׁמַת אֱלֹהַּ בִּי

Ella and her family live in an apartment with incredible views. Ella's mom sent me some incredible sunrise and sunset views from their window that serves as my inspiration for the kind of colors and mood they wanted.

I don't know why but getting the colors to look right on the silk was a struggle. This is the sort of task that usually comes to me easily. I was terrified that I would end up giving Ella a tallit that I didn't feel proud of. I felt badly enough that I didn't take photos of the work as it progressed.

Eventually, I got the sunset portion of the tallit to work.

The sunrise to my dismaywas still not great.

I calligraphed the lettering onto cardstock and then cut out the letters to make a stencil

I filled in the stencils using oil paint sticks.

I then cut a cloud out of the cardstock and used that as a stencil on the sunrise side.

That cloud (repeated a few times ) took the not great and made it work.

I made the pinot and the atara.

In the end---I am really excited by this tallit.

Despite the struggles, perhaps because of the struggles it has turned into a beautiful tallit.

Last night Ella came by to tie her tzitzit. as a tallit make there is nothing better than seeing the face of a happy client when they see their completed tallit for the first time.

Ella and her mom tied the tzitzit quickly and expertly. Ella had many hours of friendship bracelet making under her belt.

Ella put on her tallit for the first time reciting all of the blessings and all of the verses associated with putting on a tallit.

She spoke about how comfortable the tallit felt on.

This particular batch of work is done.

I can now turn my attention to the things I have been neglecting for the last few weeks.

Shabbat Shalom !

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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