Talitnia Traditional Wool Tallit Prayer Shawl

If you spent some time comparing prices of traditional wool tallits made by Talitnia (a.k.a. Talitania) you might start to get a sense of déjà vu. Haven't I seen the exact same product description elsewhere? Weren't those the same options?

The reason is because at least three of the leading Israel-based Judaica stores are under the same ownership. In fact, if you go to aJudaica and Canaan-Online Judaica, take a look at the mini-logo at for the website tab at the top of your browser and you'll see that they have the exact same stylized J logo. They also operate a third micro-niche site called Tallit.biz. They also have the same product listed on their Amazon store, but at a higher price.

Talitania Traditional Wool Tallit

Now look at the prices for any of their traditional wool tallits (blue-silver stripes, blue-gold stripes, black-silver, black-gold, etc.) and you'll see that the prices are almost, but not quite, identical. (Be sure you're comparing the same size.)

Their price is at actually quite competitive, but it's slightly lower at one of their competitors, Ben's Tallit Shop.

Is this Traditional Wool Tallit a good deal? Actually at around $90 for the size 60 (which is considered a Medium), it is a good value. Talitnia has been making tallits for a century (!) and they do a good job. If you're looking for almost the same striping with a slightly higher quality weave, you might want to consider the Prima A.A. Both Talitnia and their leading competitor, Mishkan Hatchelet, make it.

In general, when shopping for a traditional wool tallit in the lower and medium price ranges, keep in mind that if it has only black, white or blue striping (no gold or silver pinstripes), the atara (neckband) will have a quiet, satiny design with no letters, whereas if the striping is black-silver, the atara will be black-silver with the Tzitzit Blessing embroidered on it, if the striping is blue-silver, the atara will be blue-silver, etc.

The white-on-white, white-silver and white-gold tend to be more commonly found among Sephardic Jews, but that's not a hard and fast rule.

Do you measure tallit katan shiur from the bottom of the slit or the top?

In a recent order a customer intended to select t-neck but accidentally selected round neck. He didn't notice his mistake until the order had already been delivered to him.

I don't know if was any consolation, but told him that personally I'm in favor of round neck tzitzit (i.e. tallit katan) and switched to it about a year ago.

For a tallit katan to be kosher (i.e. to fulfill the mitzvah of tzitzit) it has to have a minimum size requirement. To meet that requirement isn't always such a simple matter.

One solution is to create a slit along the front, so that you can have a relatively small neck opening (without the slit you wouldn't be able to put it on). If you do that, and you want to measure the beged from top to bottom to ensure it meets the minimum size requirement, how do you measure it? From the bottom of the slit or the bottom of the neck opening.

Most people will tell you that you can measure from the bottom of the slit, and consider it as if it's closed, just like a button-up shirt is considered whole in front. But some poskim do not agree, and I think I have some very strong practical evidence to back that.

After a short time of wear, just about any tallit katan with a slit in front starts to lay down permanently, like lapels, and form a deep crease. So if you now have a tallit katan with "lapels," why should you count that as if it's closed?