What Makes a Tallit Kosher?
Publius Aelius Hadrianus, 14th Emperor of the Roman Empire, ruled from Aug. 10, 117 to July 10, 138. He was well known for his admiration of the Greeks and restoration of the Pantheon. He was also known as the Emperor who suppressed the Bar Kokhba Revolt in Judea and for his dislike of the Jews.
In the year 135, Hadrian discriminated against all Jews, mainly focusing his persecution against religious Jews. He made many anti-religious decrees over the Jews such as the prohibition of Torah study, the observance of the Sabbath and the wearing of a tallit, of which would be death to any Jew who disobeyed his decree. Over time and out of fear and persecution, Jews forgot the special halachic laws which governed the making of a tallit. Later in history, many Jewish leaders tried reviving the laws of how a tallit is to be made of which led to the creation of two types of garments you will find among Jewish communities today: the quote tallit gadol and the quote tallit katan. But how is it that they created two types when the biblical commandment is only one garment alone not two separate garments. Before we can begin to see how these two types both failed to even follow the actual commandment we have to understand the misguided logic that led to these errors.
In the year 135, Hadrian discriminated against all Jews, mainly focusing his persecution against religious Jews. He made many anti-religious decrees over the Jews such as the prohibition of Torah study, the observance of the Sabbath and the wearing of a tallit, of which would be death to any Jew who disobeyed his decree. Over time and out of fear and persecution, Jews forgot the special halachic laws which governed the making of a tallit. Later in history, many Jewish leaders tried reviving the laws of how a tallit is to be made of which led to the creation of two types of garments you will find among Jewish communities today: the quote tallit gadol and the quote tallit katan. But how is it that they created two types when the biblical commandment is only one garment alone not two separate garments. Before we can begin to see how these two types both failed to even follow the actual commandment we have to understand the misguided logic that led to these errors.
The Errors Of Interpretation
ויאמר יהוה אל־משה לאמר: דבר אל־בני ישראל ואמרת אלהם ועשו להם ציצת על־כנפי בגדיהם לדרתם ונתנו על־ציצת הכנף פתיל תכלת: והיה לכם לציצת וראיתם אתו וזכרתם את־כל־מצות יהוה ועשיתם אתם ולא תתורו אחרי לבבכם ואחרי עיניכם אשר־אתם זנים אחריהם: למען תזכרו ועשיתם את־כל־מצותי והייתם קדשים לאלהיכם: אני יהוה אלהיכם אשר הוצאתי אתכם מארץ מצרים להיות לכם לאלהים אני יהוה אלהיכם
Translation: And the LORD said unto Moshe saying, "Speak unto the Children of Israel and you shall say unto them, "Make for themselves twisted tassels upon the corners of their garment throughout their generations and put upon the tassels a twisted tassel of techelet. And it shall be for you tassels and you (pl.) shall see it and you (pl.) shall remember all the commandments of the LORD and you (pl.) shall do them. And you (pl.) shall not explore after your (pl.) heart and after your (pl.) eyes which you all are straying after them. So that you all shall remember and do all of my commandments and you all shall be set apart to your (pl.) God. I the LORD am your (pl.) God who brought you out from the land of Egypt to be to you God I the LORD am your God. (Numbers 15:37-41)
לא תלבשׁ שׁעטנז צמר ופשׁתים יחדו
Translation: You shall not wear mixed fibers of wool and linen together (Duet 22:11)
גדלים תעשה־לך על־ארבע כנפות כסותך אשר תכסה־בה
Translation: Twisted tassels you shall make upon the four corners of your covering which you shall be covered by it. (Duet 22:12)
The Torah requires as we can find clearly laid out here in the following verses. "Speak unto the Children of Israel and you shall say unto them" For many who follow modern Judaism this is falsely interpreted as being a Jewish alone commandment. However this false idea is merely coming from a literal reading of the term "Speak unto the Children of Israel" whereas this term as we will learn does not mean only the seed of Jacob. As the Torah teaches us in Lev 16:5 "And from the congregation of the Children of Israel you shall take a long haired goat for a sin offering." If the Torah actually meant that the Children of Israel were only Jews, well then the Torah would only mean Jews are the ones who have the ability to be atoned and saved as there is no sacrifice given in the Torah that is permitted for any gentile to both present and given as an atonement for sin, and well that presents a huge problem which is why modern sages still hold that gentiles can not be saved unless they convert and become a Jews Paul speaks about in Galatians and other passages found in the New Testament concerning this. However, there is something wrong with this belief, which is completely false and erroneously. And well proves why the sages in the New Testament spoke very strongly against the false interpretation of the Jews who apposed the truth. And here is the issue in Lev 16:29 it says, "And it shall be for you (pl.) for a eternal decree on the seventh month on the tenth of the month you (pl.) shall afflict your (pl.) souls and all goal oriented work you (pl.) shall not do the native born and the stranger who sojourns in your (pl.) midst. For on this day He will atone upon you all to purify you all from all your sins before the LORD you all shall be pure." Unfortunately because of faulty English translation most do not see that the grammar in which the noun you is used is actually plural and therefore is why the above translation reads "you (pl.)" or "you all" seeing the context is either referring to a plural subject or a complete plural entity so in order to keep the ability for context to be understood properly based upon the grammar this is done to bring clarity in these passages. Therefore as Paul even said himself in Hebrews 9:22 "and without shedding of blood is no remission of sin" Something he could not have said unless he knew very well that Lev 16:29 was speaking of the foreshadowing of the atonement we have in Messiah both Jews and Gentiles through the atonement God presented through the picture of the goat which is sacrificed not for Jews alone, but on behalf of all whom God calls those who follow him both Jews and Gentiles who worship God the collectively by calling them the Children of Israel. And why? Just as Paul says clearly says, "Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it." (Act 28:28) And as Noach Prophesied saying, "God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant." (Gen 9:27) Therefore as Paul also said saying, "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God" (Eph 2:19)
The idea as we learn is for all both Jew and Gentile who believe in the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob to see the blue tassel and the tzit-tzit we are each wearing so that we would remember when we see each others garment we would remember to obey God and to also remember Gods salvation so as to not walk after our own false ideologies that make us to error. I being no exception. You see I began my journey doing what everyone else did and followed the crowd.
The idea as we learn is for all both Jew and Gentile who believe in the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob to see the blue tassel and the tzit-tzit we are each wearing so that we would remember when we see each others garment we would remember to obey God and to also remember Gods salvation so as to not walk after our own false ideologies that make us to error. I being no exception. You see I began my journey doing what everyone else did and followed the crowd.
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In the beginning of my own personal journey I lived like everyone else thinking things the rabbis who sat in the Jewish courts and synagogues said was correct. And even thought I was doing the right thing. Until I began to look more closer at the Torah laws and began to question issues I myself knew did not make sense. One like why is it we wear two tallits one all the time and one during the day while doing morning prayers? The Torah only says, "Twisted tassels you shall make upon the four corners of your covering which you shall be covered by it."
Tallit Gadol
And well it really began to make me think seeing the Torah only commands us to wear one garment what happened? Where did the idea of wearing two come from? Another issue I noticed was how cumbersome the quote tallit gadol was, as it was not at all something one could by any means functionally work in let alone walk around in. How could God in any way be the author of such a dysfunctional garment? This completely defies the logic given to us by Gods Torah itself. And in truth this garment does not cover a person as the commandment also says "of your covering which you shall be covered by it." The Torah never commands you have to manipulate the garment to cover you as one does if he is in any way seeking to cover themselves in it.
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Then I thought about the what about the quote tallit katan? Surely this too is completely inaccurate. For if the sages believed this was the one they would not require people to have both as this makes no sense? Why even their own logic refutes common sense as they say the big one you use to cover while the smaller one you use to see the tzit tzit daily which completely made me see somehow somewhere their own errors are forcing a compromise to exist and that refutes all logic in itself. Now mind you there is much more to be said about these two garments as to rebuttal other mistakes but if you look at the logic in which the Torah itself states just on these mere points is enough to say there exist some important issues. Sure they both have four corners, and they are made out of wool. But then as you may assume how did they go from a sheet like garment to a pull over the head type of garment?
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Tallit Katan
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Confusion is always the sign of error and wrong which comes from Satan as the bible teaches, "For God is not a God of confusion" (1Cor 14:33) But rather as the prophet Isaiah says clearly "The LORD has mingled within her a spirit of confusion, and they will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds, as a drunken man staggers in his vomit." (Isa 19:14) How could the sages have two such great extreme versions? This indeed puzzled me and forced me to look into things much closer to sincerely examine the matter myself. And it was then I began to look real close at the garments themselves how was it made what was used. When I looked real close I noticed the sides of both the large as well as the smaller tallits were surged, which made me think about what the New Testament says concerning the tallit " When the soldiers had crucified Joshua (Jesus), they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tallit (χιτών). But the tallit (χιτών) was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom," (John 19:23) When I began to sincerely dive into the issues of grammar and syntax I found most if not all English translations of this passage were indeed mistranslated as they thought the word to mean tunic, which is impossible as a tunic would have seems as it was the basic garment found all through out the Bible, and to nit one by hand would literally cost a fortune which completely defies the actual characteristics of Messiah as he lived a poor and very simple life, and well the Greek does not say nit but woven. Which completely proves the tallit was a garment that was woven and seamless. Where as these tallits mainstream Jews wear today are not seamless garments but are cut and surged on the sides.
Tallit surging on the side sections.
Another major factor that caught my attention was that Messiah Joshua (Jesus) wore his tallit out in the open were ever he walked and went daily. As it is written, "She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. And Joshua said, Who touched me? When all denied, Cepha and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng you and press you, and you say, Who touched me?" (Luke 8:44-45) The only way possible to explain this is that his tallit he was wearing was something he had hanging over his head like the high priest who wore a seamless garment as is prescribed in Exodus 28 which has a opening at the head to wear over his tunic. Upon realizing this I knew the tallits today were actually not kosher. And to no mere fault of many this topic was sincerely something the quote scholars who invented those garments did so without actually sincerely viewing the passages correctly. And unfortunately have cause many to error. Therefore I from that moment began to both learn and understand how to create a tallit as Moshe commanded us in the Torah. Once I knew this I made it my mission to understand what our forefathers and ancestors wore in truth, and this indeed was a humbling experience. What eventually lead to my learning how the tallit was actually to be made also lead me to my next huge breakthrough which today I still feel in a state of awh over, that being the ketonet. You see one of the greatest lost truths is understanding how these two garments fit together. But before I was able to weave my first tallit I had to figure out what that was going to in form look like.
The Biblical Lost Garment
Its not so easy for those who do not know Hebrew to see how easy it is to see the things spoken over and over again all throughout the bible. In truth most things get lost in translation and mainly because whoever is the translator will dictate what and how he seeks to transfer that information correctly. Take the English word "coat" most everyone today will think this means an outer garment and for that very reason our mind are pretty big at programming into our head the idea of that very thing when we read that word. But here is the problem out of the 20 verses that contain that word not one time did the actual passage in Hebrew mean "coat". See for your self
Gen 3:21 The word כּתנת is used which means "Long Tunic" is used in reference to the clothing God placed upon Adam and Eve
Gen 37:3;23;31;32;33 The word כּתנת is used which means "Long Tunic" which is meant in reference to Joseph multi colored Long Tunic
Exo 28:4;39;40; 29:5;8 The word כּתנת is used which means "Long Tunic" is used in reference to the priestly garments being made for the sons of Aaron and Aaron himself
Lev 8:7;13;16:4 The word כּתנת is used which means "Long Tunic" is used in reference to the priestly garments being put on
1 Sam 2:19 The word מעיל is used which means "Tallit" is used in reference to the tallit Samuel mother made Samuel to wear.
2 Sam 15:34 The word כּתנת is used which means "Long Tunic" is used in reference to the everyday clothing David's daughters wore
Job 30:18 The word כּתנת is used which means "Long Tunic" is used in reference to the clothing of Job himself
Song Of Solomon 5:3 The word כּתנת is used which means "Long Tunic" is used in reference to the clothing of queen of Shebah
Dan 3:21; 27 The word סרבּל which is Aramaic by nature was used to mean used which מעיל which means a "tallit" is used in reference to Chananiyah, Mishael and Azrayah the fellow sages who followed God like Daniel
Now the New Testament is quite the same concerning its translation issues, not to mention the bi-fold meaning of some words used in Greek as well which may at times seem a bit confusing. In that the word χιτών has two ways it can be understood in general it can merely mean a garment in general. Where as in its alternate form it can mean a garment which one wore over the head that was flat on both sides draping down, which was used to transfer into Greek the idea of a tallit.
Gen 3:21 The word כּתנת is used which means "Long Tunic" is used in reference to the clothing God placed upon Adam and Eve
Gen 37:3;23;31;32;33 The word כּתנת is used which means "Long Tunic" which is meant in reference to Joseph multi colored Long Tunic
Exo 28:4;39;40; 29:5;8 The word כּתנת is used which means "Long Tunic" is used in reference to the priestly garments being made for the sons of Aaron and Aaron himself
Lev 8:7;13;16:4 The word כּתנת is used which means "Long Tunic" is used in reference to the priestly garments being put on
1 Sam 2:19 The word מעיל is used which means "Tallit" is used in reference to the tallit Samuel mother made Samuel to wear.
2 Sam 15:34 The word כּתנת is used which means "Long Tunic" is used in reference to the everyday clothing David's daughters wore
Job 30:18 The word כּתנת is used which means "Long Tunic" is used in reference to the clothing of Job himself
Song Of Solomon 5:3 The word כּתנת is used which means "Long Tunic" is used in reference to the clothing of queen of Shebah
Dan 3:21; 27 The word סרבּל which is Aramaic by nature was used to mean used which מעיל which means a "tallit" is used in reference to Chananiyah, Mishael and Azrayah the fellow sages who followed God like Daniel
Now the New Testament is quite the same concerning its translation issues, not to mention the bi-fold meaning of some words used in Greek as well which may at times seem a bit confusing. In that the word χιτών has two ways it can be understood in general it can merely mean a garment in general. Where as in its alternate form it can mean a garment which one wore over the head that was flat on both sides draping down, which was used to transfer into Greek the idea of a tallit.
Where as ἱμάτιον we find all over throughout the New Testament in which it meaning is simply the ketonet or as some may put it the long robe which extends to the foot.
Mat 5:40 The word χιτών is used which means "Tallit" is used in the parable if a man takes your tallit then let him have your ἱμάτιον which is used for "Long Tunic"
Luke 6:29 The word ἱμάτιον is used which means "Long Tunic" in the parable in a man takes your Long tunic give him your χιτών is used which means "Tallit" as well
John 19:23 The word χιτών is used which means "Tallit" is reference to the seamless garment Messiah wore and was being cast for lots
John 21:7 The word ἐπενδύτης is used which means "Outer Long Tunic" used in reference to Peter's outer garment he had removed while fishing prior to his realizing Messiah was on the shore
Acts 9:39 The word χιτών is used which means "Tallit" as Tzviah in Hebrew or Dorcas was a "tallit" weaver.
Mat 10:10,Mark 6:9;Luke 3:11;9:3 The word χιτών is used in its Greek general form to mean "garment/ where as for Jews this was without a doubt the ketonet which was the everyday general garment"
Luke 6:29 The word ἱμάτιον is used which means "Long Tunic" in the parable in a man takes your Long tunic give him your χιτών is used which means "Tallit" as well
John 19:23 The word χιτών is used which means "Tallit" is reference to the seamless garment Messiah wore and was being cast for lots
John 21:7 The word ἐπενδύτης is used which means "Outer Long Tunic" used in reference to Peter's outer garment he had removed while fishing prior to his realizing Messiah was on the shore
Acts 9:39 The word χιτών is used which means "Tallit" as Tzviah in Hebrew or Dorcas was a "tallit" weaver.
Mat 10:10,Mark 6:9;Luke 3:11;9:3 The word χιτών is used in its Greek general form to mean "garment/ where as for Jews this was without a doubt the ketonet which was the everyday general garment"
a seamless, 4-cornered garment which must be hand woven from top to bottom. And had to point out the issues as to why todays tallits are not actually kosher. In today's observant Jewish communities, the two garments mentioned above are incorrectly labeled as tallits and were never worn as the Jewish people of the past nor as those who are recorded in the Tanakh and the New Testament.
The tallit gadol is a 4-cornered garment that is wrapped around the body during prayers and used in synagogue. The problem with the tallit gadol, is that it does not fulfill the halachic rulings in the Torah of what we as Jewish men are to where to fulfill this mitzvah.
The areas of law that are required by the Torah
The tallit gadol is a 4-cornered garment that is wrapped around the body during prayers and used in synagogue. The problem with the tallit gadol, is that it does not fulfill the halachic rulings in the Torah of what we as Jewish men are to where to fulfill this mitzvah.
The areas of law that are required by the Torah
- It must be long enough to cover ones private area
- It must be made of wool.
- It must be made with four corners.
- It must be woven from top to bottom.
- It must have a place to put one head in, in order to wear on the body
- It must cover the body (this is a partial ability but not correctly)
- It must be made of wool.
- It must be made with four corners.
- It must be woven from top to bottom (It is woven but later cut and surged at the ends therefore not actual woven correctly)
- It must have a place to put one head in, in order to wear on the body (no such placement exist)
- It must be made of wool.
- It must be made with four corners.
Handwoven
One of the key points we learn from reading the Torah is God never intended us to become industrial as we have become today, and this can be completely understood as most technology we see today is sincerely only a 500 year advancement of what thousands of years the world neither grew nor flourished technologically. Which brings up a sincere question why? Why has it taken so long to create a plane or train or car? Is there some reason the mode of doing things did not advance till just 200 years ago. It wasn't until 1803 that the famous Jacquard loom was invented, which was the first loom that was able to weave patterned using punch card programming.
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Today most people don't even dare think of getting anything hand woven today. Yet this has for thousands of years been how things were made. And yet
A Seamless Garment: The Biblical Tallit
After many years of study and research, these laws have now been restored. We can now make and fulfill the mitzvah of a proper, biblical tallit.
There are 8 main laws that make a tallit kosher:
1. It must be made of wool
2. It must be seamless
3. It must have a place for the head to enter for wearing
4. It must be able to cover the body
5. It must be hand woven
6. It must have four corners
7. It must be worn as an outer garment
8. It must be made with the intent to fulfill a mitzvah (commandment of wearing a four cornered garment with tzit-tzit)
These laws are so essential that if any of these are missed it renders the garment invalid and is no longer regarded suitable for wearing. For this reason, we take much care in making and restoring this biblical Jewish garment for Jews all over the world as well as for those who desire to embrace God's ways. Our hearts desire is to help restore the true and biblical seamless garment once again, just as our forefathers wore.
There are 8 main laws that make a tallit kosher:
1. It must be made of wool
2. It must be seamless
3. It must have a place for the head to enter for wearing
4. It must be able to cover the body
5. It must be hand woven
6. It must have four corners
7. It must be worn as an outer garment
8. It must be made with the intent to fulfill a mitzvah (commandment of wearing a four cornered garment with tzit-tzit)
These laws are so essential that if any of these are missed it renders the garment invalid and is no longer regarded suitable for wearing. For this reason, we take much care in making and restoring this biblical Jewish garment for Jews all over the world as well as for those who desire to embrace God's ways. Our hearts desire is to help restore the true and biblical seamless garment once again, just as our forefathers wore.