Truth About Turkish Talleisim

By Yehudah Marks, Hamodia

Let’s start off with a quick quiz:

1) Are the woolen shaatnez-free “Turkish talleisim” really made in Turkey?

2) Are they really shaatnez-free?

3) Are they really made 100 percent from wool?

If you answered “yes” to all three questions, you go to the back of the class.

For starters, Turkish talleisim are actually manufactured in Tunisia from Tunisian wool. They are called “Turkish” because Tunisia was under the Turkish Ottoman Empire for over 300 years, until the end of the 19th century. The poskim refer to Tunisia as Turkey, hence “Turkish talleisim.”

Being at the crossroad of various civilizations, Tunisia has been famed since the times of the Greeks for its wool weaving.

In ancient records, we find that the Tunisians paid part of their taxes to the caliph of Baghdad in woolen carpets and tapestries. In addition, travelers reported on the various forms of wool weaving they saw there.

According to Tunisian tradition, Jews have been living in Tunisia since the destruction of the Bayis Rishon, with over half of the community settling on the island of Djerba.

The main occupation of Djerba’s Jews was weaving woolen garments and spinning carpets from sheepskins that were imported from mainland Tunisia. There are reports from the end of the 18th century of Djerba’s Jewish community manufacturing over 10,000 talleisim, which were sent to their fellow Jews in Europe.

(Tunisian wool has nothing to do with the Tunis sheep, one of the oldest breeds in the United States. The Tunis earned its name by virtue of the fact that it was a gift to the United States from the ruler of Tunisia, the bey of Tunis).

Why Wear a “Turkish Tallis”?

The Turkish tallis has been worn by some chassidim, mainly Belz and Skver, for many years, as a chumrah in hilchos tzitzis, after poskim in previous generations declared that only these talleisim are sure to be free of shaatnez.

The Rav of Djerba, Harav Chalfon Moshe Hacohen (1874-1950), known as the Ramach, meticulously describes in his Teshuvos Sha’ol Venishal (3:111) how these talleisim were manufactured in his times. The Jews employed local Arabs to spin the wool for the talleisim, under their hashgachah.

The Ramach emphasizes that it would have been impossible for the Arabs to add any other materials in the spinning process, since the Jews had supplied the wool to be spun. After the wool had been spun into threads, the Rav continues, Jewish women were employed to manually weave the tallis.

The Ramach notes that the weavers were careful to use only threads from the clean and soft wool that had been specifically chosen for the talleisim; any other wool or fabric would have been immediately noticed by the workers; besides, the tallis would have torn if other materials got mixed into the wool.

The Ramach adds an important fact about the Tunisian talleisim, practically eliminating the possibility of their containing shaatnez: “It is impossible for even a single thread of flax to be mixed into the tallis, chas veshalom,” the Rav writes, “since flax is not to be found in Djerba.” He added that leading Ashkenaz Rabbanim had ascertained that no flax or linen is obtainable in Djerba.

Harav Moshe Hacohen does not list the Rabbanim who verified this, but Harav Moshe Aryeh Freund, Rav of the Eidah Hachareidis, cites the Shineva Rav, Harav Yechezkel Shraga Halberstam, zt”l, (5573/1813-5658/1898), as having traveled to Tunisia to determine that no flax was cultivated there.

(Although the Ramach himself records in another sefer, Bris Kehunah, that in Djerba the niftarim were buried in linen shrouds, he probably meant that flax and linen are not grown in Djerba and are not regularly used commodities.)

Interestingly, many archeological finds point to Tunisia as an ancient flax-cultivation area. It seems that the growth of flax decreased over the years until, by the 18th century, flax was no longer to be found there.

Indeed, several Tunisian Jews we spoke to declared that they had never seen flax and didn’t know what it looked like until they arrived in Eretz Yisrael.

The Botatcher Gaon (5531/1771-5601/1840) declares in his sefer Eshel Avraham (Orach Chaim 16) that the woolen talleisim manufactured in Turkey are shaatnez-free and should therefore be preferred over other talleisim. The Kamarna Rebbe writes in his Heichal Habrachah that “every yerei Shamayim should buy a Turkish tallis, since the talleisim manufactured in our countries are mixed with cotton and may contain shaatnez” (Shlach, Otzar Hachaim, page 105).

The Taz, a son-in-law of the Bach, once complained to his father-in-law that his wife seemed to be angry with him.

The Bach asked his daughter why she was angry with her husband, and she answered that he had recently bought a Turkish tallis, and she knew that on his meager wage he could not afford such an expensive item. Therefore, she suspected him of taking money for conducting dinei Torah.

Only after the Taz proved that he had saved a few pennies every month until he had amassed enough to buy a Turkish tallis was his wife mollified.

The Vilna Gaon was also makpid to wear a Turkish tallis, basing his ruling on a mishnah in Kilayim (9:7) that clothes originating from areas where flax is not grown don’t need to be checked for shaatnez.

Other Gedolim who were stringent to wear Turkish talleisim included the Sanzer Rav and Harav Shlomo Kluger, who writes in a teshuvah that he only wears a Turkish tallis.

The story is told of the Shineva Rav, son of the Sanzer Rav, who asked Harav Baruch of Vizhnitz, the Imrei Baruch, why he didn’t wear a Turkish tallis. The Imrei Baruch replied that his father, the Tzemach Tzaddik, didn’t wear one either.

“I am sure that the angels protected your father’s tallis from shaatnez,” was the Shinave Rav’s reply.

The Sar Shalom of Belz said that at the churban Beis Hamikdash the virtues of Eretz Yisrael were dispersed among the rest of the world, with the virtue of exalted wool given to Tunisia.

“That is why the talleisim of Tunisia are so well made,” the Belzer Rebbe concluded.

When Harav Shimon of Yeraslov gave a hechsher for talleisim manufactured in his town, the Belzer Rebbe expressed his displeasure, saying that since it was so difficult to be certain that not a thread of flax had gotten mixed into the wool, only talleisim made in a country free from flax could be used.

“The only way to be sure that the tallis is shaatnez-free is to buy a Turkish tallis,” the Rebbe said.

In Belz they were extremely makpid to wear a Turkish tallis and didn’t allow a person with a regular tallis be a shliach tzibbur.

Harav Meshulam Ashkenazi, the Stanislaver Rebbe, offered an additional reason for the preference of a Turkish tallis. He said that since the material is woven with threads crossing each other, the Christian workers might have in mind their religious beliefs while making the tallis. But with Arab employees, there is no such chashash.

The Linzer Rav offered yet another reason for the superiority of the Turkish talleisim: The mitzvah of tzitzis diminishes the power of the Arabs. Therefore, the wool that comes from Arab lands is better for fulfilling the mitzvah of tzitzis, as it weakens their koach.

Due to the high cost of importing ready-made talleisim from Djerba, European askanim wanted to manufacture Turkish talleisim using Tunisian wool. They approached the poskim to ask if the talleisim needed to be woven in Tunisia in order to maintain their exclusive status, or if it was sufficient that Turkish wool be used.

The Gedulas Yehoshua (volume 8, page 73) quotes the Atzei Chaim as ruling that using wool from Tunisia was the important element; the tallis did not necessarily have to be woven in Tunisia. Harav Moshe Aryeh Freund, in his Mara Dishmatsa, writes that his grandfather, the Nasoider Rav, supported this view.

However, Rav Freund adds, he heard from Harav Shalom Eliezer of Ratzfert, son of the Sanzer Rav, that a Turkish tallis must be woven and completed in Tunisia.

Thus, the manufacturing of talleisim in Tunisia continued for many years, with yerei Shamayim paying up to four times the price of a regular tallis to fulfill the mitzvah of tzitzis lemehadrin.

An interesting characteristic of the Turkish talleisim is that while the stripes in regular talleisim were black, the stripes of the Turkish tallis were dark blue, as a remembrance of the techeiles.

When the Belzer Rebbe arrived in Eretz Yisrael and the only Turkish tallis he could find had black stripes, he ordered that they be colored dark blue.

Nowadays, about half the Turkish talleisim have dark blue stripes, while the others have black stripes.

The Present Day Turkish Tallis

Until 40 years ago, the Tunisian talleisim were manufactured by the Hadad family in Djerba.

These talleisim were thin and strong. Many still recall how these talleisim were preferred by many not only for their kashrus but also for their beauty.

Although the Jews lived in Djerba, the talleisim were woven by local Arabs in inland Tunisia, and the Djerba Jews would often travel to the tallis factory to oversee the manufacturing.

With the mass exodus of Jews from Arab lands after the declaration of the State of Israel, which increased after the Six Day War, most of the Jewish population left Tunisia for France and Eretz Yisrael.

In 1948, the Jewish population was estimated at 105,000, but by 1967 it numbered only 20,000. Nowadays, the Tunisian Jewish population stands at around 2,000.

As the Jews were less involved in the production of the talleisim, the talleisim became heavier and less attractive.

These are the heavy “blanket” talleisim that characterized the Turkish talleisim up to 20 years ago, weighing around three pounds (1.5 kg).

About 20 years ago, Yoel Maddar, a grandson of the Hadad family and a son of the former Rav of Tunisia, Harav Chaim Maddar, zt”l, decided to start a new line of talleisim weighing only a pound and a half (700 g).

“Because it takes several hours to make a tallis, we can’t weave more than two talleisim a day,” says Maddar, who was born in Djerba and emigrated to Eretz Yisrael 17 years ago.

This, in addition to the import costs, explains the high cost of a Turkish tallis – $180 – while a regular tallis costs around $50.

Tunisian talleisim have always been hand-made, only nowadays the threads are spun my machine.

Another trader followed shortly after Maddar, and these two are the only importers of Turkish talleisim.

The Outbreak of Shaatnez

Turkish talleisim kept their chezkas kashrus until recently, when a Monsey resident was told by his dry cleaners that the tallis he had given in to clean contained material other than wool.

As more Yidden gave their talleisim in for checking, they were shocked to learn that some of the talleisim indeed contained shaatnez, while many of the others were not 100 percent wool (they contained silk or polyester).

It appears that the talleisim were not made of Tunisian wool, since there was no hashgachah to ensure that the Tunisian workers only use wool originating in Tunisia. It had been taken for granted that they would be supplied with local wool.

What finally emerged is that, with the strong import business, the Tunisian workers were supplied with wool originating from countries that weren’t free of linen.

Tallis importers regularly checked their shipments to ensure that they were made of the proper material. However, the checking was performed only on a select number in each shipment and not on every tallis.

Investigation showed that the problems occurred in talleisim manufactured in the past three years.

Maddar says that although other textiles have been found in his talleisim, no shaatnez has been found.

“Baruch Hashem, of over 600 of my tallitot checked in laboratories, none of them were found to be shaatnez. The threads in the full length of the tallis were all found to be 100 percent wool, but a small amount of other fibers were found in the width,” Maddar says.

Although a Turkish tallis is expected to be 100 percent wool, in most cases it is still kosher lechatchilah as long as most of the cloth is made from wool (for more details about when the ruling of rov is used, see Biur Halachah 9, ela midrabbanan and Shulchan Aruch Harav 9:6).

When Maddar was told of the other fibers found in some of the talleisim, he chastised the Tunisian worker, who admitted that he had added some silk threads because he had been in a rush to complete the talleisim.

After understanding the severity of his actions, the employee promised to use only 100 percent wool.

Indeed, the talleisim that have arrived since then have all been found to be 100 percent wool.

Rabbi Berisch Brander, who is involved in the kashrus of the talleisim and is in contact with the Rabbanim to try and find a solution to the problem, says that Hamdi, the Tunisian employee, uses primitive ways to check the authenticity of the wool: He burns the cloth, and if it smells and crumbles, it is certainly wool.

But he can’t check all the wool that way, since he won’t be left with any wool to work with. …

In some samples, polyester was found in the cloth, and this is more serious than finding silk.

When the facts were brought before Harav Moshe Shaul Klein, he wanted to know why the Arab had added polyester to the wool. If it was added to support the cloth, the Rav explained, it would be considered a maamid and would disqualify the tallis even if it comprised only a small percentage of the tallis.

But when Rabbi Brander discussed the issue with Hamdi, the latter declared that he never added polyester to the cloth.

“Maybe others add polyester to the garment, but I don’t know why they would do such a thing. I never added anything to the wool,” Hamdi claimed.

Since the Tunisian worker ­didn’t deliberately add the other fibers, the Rav rendered the talleisim kosher.

And to conclude on an optimistic point, Rabbi Brander says that in the near future Tunisian talleisim will be manufactured with a close hashgachah, making them once again shaatnez-free, once again 100 percent wool and the preferred tallis for the mehadrin.