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Beginning with merely a long, white piece of rayon fabric, each participant in the two-session tallit (prayer shawl) workshop crafted her own unique, hand-dyed tallit under the capable guidance of Rabbi Chana Thomson Shor, a Judaic textile artist (and former rabbinical student with Rabbi Glazer). Before the actual designing began, Rabbi Shor provided fascinating background information about how the design and mitzvah of the tallit came about. We learned that a prayer shawl represents status, a sign of belonging to the community and a symbol of aspiring to learn and follow mitzvot. The most important parts of the tallit are the knotted strings or fringes at each of its four corners which are prescribed in the Torah (Numbers 15:37-41). Both men and women are included in this obligation. The tzizit may contain one string of blue called Techelet, which at one time came from a rare blue dye. While blue stripes in a tallit are thought of as traditional, and blue and white have come to be identified as “the Jewish colors,” as seen on the flag of Israel, for example, there is no restriction in the colors which may be used in the design of a tallit. Each tallit took shape through various steps. First, the fabric was dipped in a special fixative solution, then wrung out and dried. Next, the fabric was folded like a fan and parts of the fabric tightened with rubber bands to make a unique tie-dye effect and pattern when the jewel-tone or pastel colored fabric dyes were applied. After the fabric dried, the four corners of the tallit and the collar or atara were sewn. The final steps involved stenciling a bracha (prayer) on the atara and knotting the tzizit at the four corners. At last when her tallit was completed, each designer read the prayer she had stenciled on the atara, and joyfully wrapped herself in her own colorful, new tallit. Then Rabbi Shor completed the process by wishing “Teetkadshi” (Hebrew for enjoy and be blessed in the wearing of your new tallit) to each “designing woman.” Thank you to workshop participants Liz Cahn, Marjorie Leffler, Cheryl Pine, Tobi Rogowsky and Patti Rube for your enthusiasm and creativity.
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