My New Tallit

We need some context.

When Sarah and I got married, we decided that we would get each other a wedding gift. As many of you know, my gift to Sarah was that I wrote her a song (buy it on iTunes!) and surprised her (and everyone except the band leader and our wedding coordinator) by playing it after the toasts. Sarah's gift to me was a gorgeous Emanuel raw silk tallit. I absolutely love it. I wore it at our aufruf and was the tallit I brought with me for our year in Israel (I had four tallitot to choose from...Sarah had a hard time picking which shoes to bring, I had a hard time picking which tallit to bring).

Okay, onto the story.

During our Pesach trip to the north, we visited S'fat (also known as Safed, Tz'fat, or the source of Madonna's Jewish cred) and stopped into a Judaica shop. I had started looking for a tallit that was thinner (better for REALLY hot summer weather) and narrower (so I could wear it with a guitar and not worry about it sliding off). While we were in the shop, I noticed this amazing tallit. It was a very colorful, narrow, thin Emanuel piece appropriately called "Joseph's Coat." It was perfect.

At which point Sarah says, "It's so funny that you like that one. I was debating between this one and the one I got you for our wedding." I don't think she made the wrong choice. She absolutely made the right one. But now I had a need that could be addressed by the Joseph's Coat piece.

I didn't get the tallit at that store in S'fat because, let's be honest, it was way to expensive. And strangely short. So I walked out of that shop empty-handed, but I started researching this tallit and where else I could get it.

Last night, Sarah and I were visiting with some friends on Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem. We walked into a store, and the Joseph's Coat tallit was sitting on top of the pile. Long negotiation short, I got the tallit at an incredible price (about $101, $80 less than the store in S'fat had quoted me). And now, I have two amazing tallitot with me in Israel. A classy, subtle, big tallit that has incredible sentimental value, and a camp/summer appropriate tallit for song leading.

There's a Hebrew word that you say to someone who just purchased something: תִתחַדֶשׁ (tit-cha-desh), literally meaning "be new" and used as "enjoy your new thing" or "use it in the best of heath" (for all of you Hebrew grammarians, if you are saying it to a girl, you say תִתחַדְשִׁי, tit-chad-shi). As we walked out of the store, Sarah took the bag with the tallit out of my hands, then hands it back to me.

"תִתחַדֶשׁ (tit-cha-desh)," she says. She's the best.