Tallit: Ritual Of Rememberance
by Helen Mintz Belitsky

Three decades ago, at the Jewish Community Center of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Ruth Hefter practiced an ancient craft in a modern setting. Seated at a table-sized loom, she was one of a group of eight women learning to weave tallito (prayer shawls) for their sons and grandsons, who were soon to become B'nai Mitzvah (celebrate their Bar or Bat Mitzvah. As the years went by, the familiar blue stripes of the tallitot (prayer shawls) woven in that room made way for new colors--threads of cranberry, green, gold, and silver. More than 500 tallitot had been woven.

Teach a person and he forgets, the saying goes, show him and he remembers, involve him and he understands. Each of the young boys in the community now helps create their Bar Mitzvah tallitot (prayer shawls), the work drawing them closer to the mitzvah (commandment), its history and its ritual meaning. Taking turns at weaving several rows of their own tallit (prayer shawl), they ended by tying the knots of the fringes that transformed the garment into a ritual of remembrance.

The Wilkes-Barre project, initiated by Ruth Hefter's husband, Seymour, reflects two important trends in the last several decades. Jews are seeking a stronger connection to ritual. And art is forging that connection. "Religious experience is more commonly absorbed through the senses than through the intellect," writes Dr. Abram Kanof in his book, Jewish Ceremonial and Religious Observance .

The revival of handcrafted ritual art, and its intrinsic quality and originality, have become a visual cue for Jews seeking a spiritual center in a world often devoid of the power of ritual and the power of ceremony, says Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz of Silver Spring, Md. Jews already immersed in mitzvot (commandments) derive satisfaction from the fulfillment of the Talmudic imperative of hidur mitzvah--the enhancing of observance by adding a note of beauty and attention to the ritual object itself.

Through both new and ancient customs, the tallit (prayer shawl) embraces us in our journey through life. Parents welcome their daughters into the covenant at birth by wrapping them in a specially made tallit (prayer shawl) when they are named. Used as a chuppah (Jewish bridal canopy), the tallit sanctifies the space under which a couple is married and symbolizes their future home. Later, it wraps in death those who follow the custom of requesting burial in their tallit (prayer shawl).

Finally, the tallit connects us to our memories. Patched and mended through the years by his late wife, Zdenka, the late Marek Morsel's tallit, presented to him by his wife upon their marriage, was guarded by her through the concentration camps after her husband fled Prague in l939. Reunited with his wife in l947, Morsel used the tallit until his death.

Handmade ritual objects have been traditional since Biblical times. Although for most of this century, Judaic weaving was a neglected art, it was revived in the late 50's, as a variety of textiles began to be woven for Jewish ceremonial purposes, at home and in the synagogue. The contemporary tallit is a remarkable blend of ancient skills and contemporary forms. Artists work with fine silks and sheer wools, embroidering, weaving, painting and appliqueing in rich purples, scarlets and blues, the colors the Bible designated for the Tabernacle.

Shapes and designs are chosen to satisfy individual preferences and priorities, as well as religious traditions. And, as with the tapestry-like extravagant silk tallitot of l8th and l9th century Italy, the tallit today speaks of its time and place, its weave and design reflecting the search of the last two decades for a modern idiom in religious art.

Tallit (prayer shawl) artist Shirley Waxman received a request from Bat Mitzvah girl Alicia Wasserman in Washington, D. C., whose beloved uncle had recently died. "I cut the wording and embroidery from his tallit bag and incorporated it into hers, Mondrian-style. I then used fragments of the velvet for the four corners of her tallit," Waxman says.

"The tallit is a powerful ritual object, symbolizing what Jews in the 20th century are looking for in Judaism," says Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin, former editor and now adviser to Sh'ma Magazine and advisor to students at the Rabbinical School of the Jewish Theological Seminary. "It resonates with the profoundness of antiquity, and at the same time is responsive to our personal aesthetic."

Since everyone comes to prayer in a different way, artists combine in their handwork their own spiritual leanings as well as the yearnings of those who come to them for their designs. "People search for many months before they find a tallit (prayer shawl) in which they feel at home," says fiber artist Elsa Wachs, who began her career as a painter. "The tallit is as much a personal garment as it is a ritual object."

The tallit, like other ritual objects, is reflecting changes in religious practice in the Jewish community. Its tzitzit (fringes) are a reminder of all of the mitzvot (commandments) in the Torah, and thus the donning of the tallit has come to symbolize a willingness to assume responsibility for fulfilling these comandments. As girls and women, particularly in the Conservative and Reform Movements, have come to participate more and more fully in Jewish ritual, they are choosing to wear tallitot (prayer shawls).

"The freedom of design in the tallit," Rabbi Cardin explains, "enables women, in one mitzvah (commandment), to fully integrate the paradox of wanting to be fully committed to obligations of halacha (Jewish law) as well as to be honest to 20th century values of autonomy and feminism. Wearing a tallit is an irresistible way for women to enter into the physical body of Judaism."

Pointing to the song of praise sung by Moses and the people of Israel after the parting of the Red Sea, 77-year-old Yehudah Jacobs, who creates atarot ( embellished collars) for contemporary prayer shawls, recites the words "This is my God and I will beautify him."

In the Talmud, says Jacobs, our rabbis taught that we fulfill this verse by beautifying our ritual objects.

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