Making an Advah Tallit

Each Advah tallit (Jewish prayer shawl) is a work of art, designed in my studio in Boston. My designs for tallitot often begin from a memory of a place or time when I felt both deeply connected to the beauty of the world around me, and rooted in Jewish traditions of gratefulness and prayer. I use the colors and memories from those moments to inspire each unique and soulful Advah tallit.

Our tallitot designs begin as watercolor paintings. After a number of revisions, I select the final colors and stripes to send on to our weavers. We are proud to partner with Indigo Handloom to create the fabric for each Advah tallit. The fabric for our Advah tallitot are lovingly dyed, spun and handwoven by artisans in rural India. Our unique and luxurious tallitot are a blend of handspun khadi cotton and shimmering silk. They are heavenly soft and dyed in unique and vibrant colors.

Indigo Handloom's mission is three-fold: low-impact job creation, the preservation of the handloom craft and reducing the environmental damages of the textile industry. By making handwoven fabrics, the average Indigo Handloom weaver can make a living for himself and support an average of eight family members. Indigo Handloom has a workforce of several hundred weavers, dyers and spinners in India. This partnership is an essential part of how we think about living out our Jewish values with each Advah tallit I create.

Then they come to North Carolina, to be sewn by a woman-owned sew shop called Sew Co.  The next step - my favorite - is the mitzvah of tying the tzitzit. You can choose to purchase a tallit with tzitzit which are already tied, or to tie them yourself. Many of our b'nai mitzvah customers prefer to do this mitzvah together as a family, and we supply easy-to-follow instructions for families who prefer to tie the tzitzit themselves.

The final step, of course, is you. As you join in the mitzvah of wrapping yourself for prayer in a tallit, it is my deep hope that you find whatever it is you are craving - perhaps a sense of peace, a sense of focus, a sense of connection and community.

Explore our handwoven tallitot here.