Here is Adin Steinsaltz, perhaps the pre-eminent Talmud scholar of our times, speaking about the many different paths to Jewish practice: “We believe that the Law has at least 600,000 different paths within it for individuals to enter. There is what is called ‘the private gate’ for each of us. And we each have to … Continue reading
Even in sewing, different schools of Jewish thought can clash. How big does a tallis have to be? Where should we put the tzitzit holes? Different veins of Judaism answer these questions in different ways. Does it matter that the different traditions disagree? In the most recent issue of the Jewish Review of Books, Leon … Continue reading
A huge thanks to Dr. Carol Gerson for sharing photos and details of this button-closure tallit bag she designed to accompany a hand-made tallit for a bar mitzvah boy. Making the tallit was a family project, with the bar mitzvah boy choosing the design elements, Dad on the sewing machine, and Mom helping out, too. … Continue reading
One of the cool things about the new school year is that my daughters are bringing home some really interesting books, like my oldest daughter’s art history book. It includes a photograph of a frieze from the Arch of Titus in Rome, pictured above. My youngest daughter said that when one of her day school … Continue reading
Last week, two obscure words made news in Iraq and Syria: dhimmi and jizya. Both words relate to non-Muslims living in some strict Muslim societies. And because this blog is not just about sewing patterns and tutorials but also about the role of sewing in Jewish culture and Jewish history, I thought I’d offer a … Continue reading
My daughters recently took up yoga, which means I’m now on the hook to sew a bag for my oldest daughter to carry her yoga mat –but more about that later. Thinking about yoga’s meditative aspects sent me back to my bookshelf yesterday to take another look at Jewish Meditation, the guide written by Aryeh … Continue reading
File this post under inspirations: The Charles James exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. James, fashion designer from the 1920s through the 1960s, is widely referred to as America’s first couturier. His creations, more than just cut and seamed or wrapped, were sculpted and engineered. He was renowned for his tailoring – the way … Continue reading
We’re sharing this post from our sister site, Backyard Huppah. Direct link to showtunes. Fans of the award-winning PBS documentary The Gefilte Fish Chronicles will be glad to hear it’s being turned into a musical, currently in development and playing in theaters around New York and New Jersey. The play tells the story of the … Continue reading
One of our reader’s, Erez, made our day today by sharing these photos of two beautiful tallitot he made with his son and daughter just in time for his son’s bar mitzvah. They used the instructions we posted for sewing your own tallit and added embroidery to the neckpieces. They were so inspired that they … Continue reading
When we heard that British Pathé, which maintains seventy years worth of historic news reels, uploaded 85,000 videos to YouTube this week, we had to search the archives for sewing-themed video gems. Here are some of our favorites. Steel yourself for some unfortunate gender stereotyping, but if you can get through that, you can learn … Continue reading
Sometimes the answer is simply that it fits into a Jewish life. Which means the answer can be different from person to person. Last week I went to the birthday party of a little girl who just turned three. The party took place at a Jewish center, with lots of folks from the Jewish community, … Continue reading
At Sew Jewish, we’re focused on showing you how to make things, lots of Jewish things. But we also like to think we have a healthy perspective on it all. Here’s Abraham Joshua Heschel on the importance of putting things in their place: Things may be instruments, never objects of worship. Matzo, the shofar, the … Continue reading
The pomegranate motif, around which the Jewish community has developed a world of symbolic and spiritual meaning, took root early in the history of Jewish design, even going back to the years the Israelites wandered in the dessert after leaving ancient Egypt. God specified that the High Priest’s robe be decorated with pomegranates, though commentators … Continue reading
Nick Thorpe suggests that maybe the solution to feeling unsatisfied with material things is to love our things even more: If Western consumer culture sometimes resembles a bulimic binge in which we taste and then spew back things that never quite nourish us, the ascetic, anorexic alternative of rejecting materialism altogether will leave us equally … Continue reading
Peta over at The Not Sew Guilty Quilter just launched her first ever (maybe THE first ever?) Jewish craft and quilting swap. She’s matching up folks to sew Jewish holiday themed table or food prep items for each other. Do you have a Jewish-themed table runner or pot holder in you? One of the guidelines … Continue reading
Tim Wu draws attention to the role of DIY in expressing our humanity: Convenience technologies supposedly free us to focus on what matters, but sometimes the part that matters is what gets eliminated. Everyone knows that it is easier to drive to the top of a mountain than to hike; the views may be the … Continue reading
Even as we employ symbols in the creation of Judaica, remembering the words of Abraham Joshua Heschel, the twentieth century theologian and civil rights activist, reminds us of their limitations: The use of symbols whether in the form of things or in the form of actions is required by custom and convention; the fulfillment of … Continue reading
You can’t get too far into a blog about Jewish sewing before you hit the issue of shatnez – the term for a mixture of wool and linen – and the Biblical prohibition against wearing garments that contain shatnez. In fact, we ran into the subject in our very first blog post, which explained how … Continue reading
Sew Jewish 