Description

This is a tallit making class for anyone who has ever wanted to create their own, taught in person at Havurah by Laine Barbanell Schipper and Carolina Martinez. 

Laine will teach about the history of tallitot and demonstrate how to tie tzitzit. We will practice tying the tzitzit after Laine explains the knotting. We will have string available for practicing.

We will also have a design component facilitated by Carolina, where we will discuss materials (cotton, linen, silk, satin, a shawl) and decoration types for the tallitot (sewing, appliqué, embroidery, fabric or silk paint). We will talk about sizes of tallitot and the type of atarot (the neckline element that sometimes has the prayer for donning a tallit). We will also talk about tallit clips. All of this is to ensure the tallit you create fits well, so you can proudly wear it.

We will email each participant design ideas with a Jewish symbols handout. We will also email a materials list for types of cloth recommended for making tallit, places to purchase the atarah band with the prayer, and tzitzit clips.

Supplies

We would recommend using white wool Kosher tzitzit strings for this tallit. Here is a link for a vender on Amazon who sells a set of tzitzit strings for about $7.00. If you would like to make your tallit for High Holy Days, you may want to order your tzitzit strings soon. We notice that the website says they could be delivered from mid-August to early September. Once you see the type of tzitzit that are on the this site, you could find other venders.

Click on this link to order from Amazon.

If that link didn't work, then copy and paste the following into your browser

https://www.amazon.com/Kosher-White-Sheep-Tzitzit-Strings/dp/B01N9JYTDB/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=kosher+tzitzit&qid=1690656952&sr=8-5

Or you could contact a local Judaica store to see if they carry tzitizit for tying.

Tehelet are tzitzit with a blue thread. We will talk about them a bit in class. They are another and more expensive alternative.

Sizing

The sizing of your tallit is personal. Here are some guidelines from the Tallis Lady blog and Judaicawebstore.com. 

If you are 4'8" to 5'10" a 72" tallit will work for you. A broader man can wear a tallit with an 80" length because the tallit is hiked up by the shoulders. If you are over 5'10", go for an 80" tallit, which will be perfect and will not look too short.

The width can be anywhere from 18" to 56", depending on how you wear your tallit—traditionally or as a shawl.

Contact

f you have any questions please feel free to email us at 68.carolina@gmail.com or LainePDX@gmail.com

We are looking forward to meeting you all and sharing the creativity and craft of tallit making.

Elul Tov!

This event is being offered as part of Havurah Shalom’s celebration of the Hebrew month of Elul! As Elul precedes Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we use this time for study, reflection, and mental and spiritual preparation. All are invited to attend our gatherings, which span spiritual, text-based, political, ecological and creative topics. We hope you will find them enriching, fun, moving, and worthwhile. You can find the full list of classes here, or see the calendar. For questions about this programming, please reach out to Rachel Pollak.