Silk tzitziot?! We are working on it! Under the supervision of the Rome Jewish Community Rabanut. Al

A tallit is a fringed garment traditionally worn by Jews. The tallit has special twined and knotted fringes known as tzitzit attached to its four corners. The tzitzit on each corner is made of four strands. These strands are then threaded and hang down, appearing to be eight. The four strands are passed through a hole 20 to 50 mm away from the corner of the cloth.

The tzitzit must be made by a religious Jew.

In the Italian Jewish tradition, until the 1970s, men would frequently wear a white silk tallit with blue stripes during religious ceremonies. The same kinds of tallits are common in the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish traditions. Those tallits used to have also silk tzitziot.

After long and complicated research, Rav Riccardo Di Segni, Rav Pino Arbib and Talled di Seta have rediscovered the roots of this tradition; in 2016, thanks to an Italian company, the Jewish Community of Rome had the opportunity to produce 400 meters of silk thread to make tzitzit and Rav Di Segni, Rav Arbib and Rav Piperno were personally involved in the production process.

According to a unique ceremonial in the world, the rabbis have participated in all the stages of production of the silk thread that served for the creation of the tzitzit. This authentic 100% Italian silk, from silkworm to yarn, is now produced according to ethical principles.

This silk, destined to become tzitzit, is invaluable as its production is a very complicated and unique. The Jewish Community of Rome, in collaboration with Talled di Seta, has decided to sell the silk tzitzit for tzedakà purposes.

During this past week, under the supervision of the Rome Jewish Community Rabanut, it was possible to start a second production of silk: the incomes from the sale of the tzitziot will be devolved 100% to tzedakà!