Sunday, March 11, 2018

Sephardic Tzitzit: Should I tie 10-5-6-5 or 7-8-11-13?

Almost always, Sephardim will tie the tzitzit on their tallit gadol with 7-8-9-11 windings (sometimes known as "Tal"). On a tallit katan, about half tie 7-8-11-13 and half 10-5-6-5. Here's a question from a tallit buyer in Los Angeles.
I have one last question (maybe). I'm an Iranian Jew and I was wondering how do we tie tzitzit, on tallit katan and gadol. I'm pretty sure that on a tallit katan we tie 10-5-6-5 with the spine/ridge/etc..
I have been talking with a few of the people I know recently and they sparked a new thought in my mind. Before this I was almost sure that both tallit katan and gadol were tied using 10-5-6-5 with the ridge. Then one of the guys who I was talking with said I should do 7-8-11-13 with the ridge. I felt kind of ashamed because I had 10-5-6-5 with the ridge on my tallit. Afterwards I realized that the two people I was talking with were from not from were my parents/grand-parents. 
So pretty much my question is do Iranian Jews tie 10-5-6-5 with the ridge on both tallit katan an gadol?
Sorry, but I'm not familiar with different Sephardic customs. The most common custom is 10-5-6-5 on a tallit katan and 7-8-11-13 on a tallit gadol. Some do 7-8-11-13 on their tallit katan as well. Doing 10-5-6-5 on a tallit gadol is quite rare, but not unheard of. I have heard that this is the custom among Persian Jews, but I have never seen it in writing.

And even if there isn't, if you ask me, it's not such a terrible crime. The main halachot  pertaining to tzitzit are where the hole is placed, how long the tzitzit are, etc. Tying customs are much less critical.

Sephardic Tallit >>


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