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adrian_turtleThis tallit was never intended to be tie-dyed. Back in
1950, whoever bought it for my father (my grandfather?
my great-grandfather? I have no idea) would have thought
it looked like any other normal tallis. White silk with
white embroidery and blue stripes. Any of them would
probably have sniffed at the fancy tallitot in the Jewish
catalog today.
My father presumably wore his tallis for his Bar Mitzvah.
I don't know if he wore it after that. He certainly didn't
wear it in my lifetime. Only the rabbi wore a tallit, at
the synagogue where my family (irregularly and resentfully)
went to services.
Years after my father's death, when I was planning a wedding,
my mother took my father's old tallis out of the attic. There's
an old custom of using a tallit for the chuppah (while we broke
an awful lot of rules and customs, we kept that one.) My ex and
I joined the sort of liberal synagogue where a handful of women
started agitating for wearing tallitot a few years ago...the rest
of the women said, "ooo, goody! a new feminist issue!" and a
handful of men started wearing them too. (Historically, I know
it's SO butch. So manly. But, I'm sorry. It's a shawl. And it
feels goofy. So I don't actually wear one. Maybe someday.)
Anyhow, my father's tallis has been folded up in its little blue
velvet bag for a long time. I just took it out because I heard
my younger brother might have need of a tallit in the near future.
I suppose it must have gotten wet, at some point in one of my last
4 moves...the blue dye from the stripes is smeared all over the
white silk, and even over some of the fringes. A blue kipa that
was also in the bag might have contributed some dye as well. I
feel very peculiar about it being ruined. I wanted it to be nice,
even though I wasn't using it. Even though it was a memento of my
father, who didn't use it either.
Can anyone recommend a cleaner in the Boston area who might be able
to fix it? I don't know if there are special cleaners for ritual
objects, or if I'm just looking for a really good dry cleaner who
can remove dye from the silk between the stripes without removing
the stripes.
1950, whoever bought it for my father (my grandfather?
my great-grandfather? I have no idea) would have thought
it looked like any other normal tallis. White silk with
white embroidery and blue stripes. Any of them would
probably have sniffed at the fancy tallitot in the Jewish
catalog today.
My father presumably wore his tallis for his Bar Mitzvah.
I don't know if he wore it after that. He certainly didn't
wear it in my lifetime. Only the rabbi wore a tallit, at
the synagogue where my family (irregularly and resentfully)
went to services.
Years after my father's death, when I was planning a wedding,
my mother took my father's old tallis out of the attic. There's
an old custom of using a tallit for the chuppah (while we broke
an awful lot of rules and customs, we kept that one.) My ex and
I joined the sort of liberal synagogue where a handful of women
started agitating for wearing tallitot a few years ago...the rest
of the women said, "ooo, goody! a new feminist issue!" and a
handful of men started wearing them too. (Historically, I know
it's SO butch. So manly. But, I'm sorry. It's a shawl. And it
feels goofy. So I don't actually wear one. Maybe someday.)
Anyhow, my father's tallis has been folded up in its little blue
velvet bag for a long time. I just took it out because I heard
my younger brother might have need of a tallit in the near future.
I suppose it must have gotten wet, at some point in one of my last
4 moves...the blue dye from the stripes is smeared all over the
white silk, and even over some of the fringes. A blue kipa that
was also in the bag might have contributed some dye as well. I
feel very peculiar about it being ruined. I wanted it to be nice,
even though I wasn't using it. Even though it was a memento of my
father, who didn't use it either.
Can anyone recommend a cleaner in the Boston area who might be able
to fix it? I don't know if there are special cleaners for ritual
objects, or if I'm just looking for a really good dry cleaner who
can remove dye from the silk between the stripes without removing
the stripes.
