Sha‘atnez Stories From the Testing Lab

I hope you all enjoyed your Lag B’Omer celebrations this past Sunday. My preschooler’s morah wanted to see if any of her talmidos knew about Lag B’Omer. So on Friday she asked them if they knew what was so special about the upcoming Sunday. They all answered in unison, “It’s Estie’s birthday party!” Happy Birthday, Estie!

There is a custom on Lag B’Omer to make bonfires. The Chikrei Lev (Y.D. 11) writes he heard that in Tzfas there is a custom to throw expensive clothing into the Lag B’Omer bonfire. He further writes that it appears to him that this custom violates the prohibition against purposeless destruction. In an attempt to segue from Lag B’Omer to our daf, I would like to point out that if the expensive clothing that was being burned contained sha‘atnez, their burning would serve a beneficial purpose of preventing people from wearing it.

The Gemara (Yevamos 4a) mentions the Biblical prohibition against wearing a garment that contains a mixture of wool and linen. The Torah clearly states, “Do not wear sha‘atnez” (Devarim 22:11). The very next verse discusses the mitzvah of tzitzis. The Gemara derives from the juxtaposition of the two verses that one may violate the biblical prohibition of sha‘atnez in order to fulfill the mitzvah of tzitzis. So in the Mishnaic era, if someone had a four-cornered linen garment, he would be permitted to put wool tzitzis strings on it. In fact, the Gemara points out later, he would have no choice but to do so. There is a mitzvah to place tzitzis strings colored with techeiles together with the white strings on the corners. These blue-colored strings had to be made out of wool. Accordingly, the only way to completely fulfill the mitzvah of tzitzis with a linen garment would be to place wool strings dyed with techeiles on the corners (in addition to the obligatory white strings).

Sadly, we no longer have techeiles, thus we are unable to completely fulfill the mitzvah of tzitzis. Consequently, the Shulchan Aruch rules that we may no longer violate the prohibition of sha‘atnez to fulfill the mitzvah of tzitzis. If one has a four-cornered garment made out of linen, he should attach linen tzitzis strings to it. (Our tzitzis strings are generally wool.)

Rabbi Akiva Eiger raised an interesting question. Back in the days of techeiles, if one had a four-cornered wool-and-linen garment, would he be able to put tzitzis on it and wear it? The Gemara only discussed putting wool strings on a linen garment or linen strings on a wool garment, but the Gemara did not discuss the fabric content of the garment itself. Rabbi Akiva Eiger explained that even then sha‘atnez was not permitted in the garment itself. There is a “lumdishe” order of operations for tzitzis. The mitzvah of tzitzis is technically to attach tzitzis strings to the garment. (Still, if they were already attached before the garment was put on, that is also fine.) So step number one is to put on a four-corned garment. Step two, which follows immediately, is to attach tzitzis. In Talmudic times, if one needed to violate the prohibition of sha‘atnez to fulfill step two he was permitted to do so. However, if the garment itself contains wool and linen, there is no license to put on the garment in the first place. Step two, the mitzvah of tzitzis, only comes after the garment is already being worn. So, the mitzvah of tzitzis can’t help with the initial wearing of the wool and linen garment.

Speaking of wool and linen garments, I spoke to Mrs. Tzippy David, a local sha‘atnez checker, about finding sha‘atnez. I asked her about her most recent experience in finding sha‘atnez in women’s clothing. She said that someone brought in some clothing to be checked without looking at the label. The label clearly said that the fabric is part linen and part wool! Of course labels aren’t always accurate and one cannot necessarily rely on the claims of a label that the fabric content is 100 percent wool. In the NCSTAR sha‘atnez lab in Brooklyn, there is a children’s outfit on display. The label said that the content was 55 percent cotton and 45 percent linen. Yet in actuality, there was significant wool content as well. Besides, even if the label was totally accurate, it only refers to the body of the garment, not the accessories. Again, in the NCSTAR sha‘atnez lab there was a display of a “100 percent wool” sweater that had linen pockets sewed onto it. We have to remember that if even one linen thread is sewed together with a wool garment, it is sha‘atnez.

This shouldn’t be news to anyone who buys finer men’s suits. There are some brands of suits that are virtually always sha‘atnez. I was visiting the Brooklyn lab when a customer walked in holding two suits. Aharon Drebin, who was running the lab at the time, looked at the first one and said “Versace—it’s sha‘atnez.” The second suit was a Hickey Freeman. Once again, Aharon said, “It’s sha‘atnez, but I’ll check just to be sure.” He opened up the collar on the spot and there was a cloth that made the collar stiff. It was linen. Aharon explained to me that even cheaper brands of men’s suits have linen collarstiffeners. Most recently he found sha‘atnez in suits from Hugo Boss, Canali, Ted Baker, and Banana Republic, among others. He was very reluctant to start listing brand names because he might inadvertently leave one brand out and someone would assume it’s not sha‘atnez. Every suit must be checked for sha‘atnez. Besides, it is clear from Igros Moshe (Y.D. 72) that even if there is just a 5 percent chance that a suit has sha‘atnez, it must be checked anyway.

Some people order custom-made suits and rely on the assurances of the tailor that there won’t be any linen used in the suits. A lawyer who frequently makes trips to Hong Kong had over time purchased ten custom-made suits. He initially relied on the assurances of the tailor and the local populace that the suits contained no linen. He later became wary and brought them into the lab. All ten suits were sha‘atnez. True, the main fabric itself was not sha‘atnez, but the collar and shoulder supports were.

Thinking like a lawyer, he kept all his receipts for the checking and removal of sha‘atnez. He further kept his receipts for the tailoring necessary to mend the suit. The bills came out to around $750. On his next trip to Hong Kong he presented his tailor with the bills and demanded reimbursement. The tailor demurred, but offered two new suits to the attorney. The offer was accepted on condition that these two new suits were absolutely free of linen. The tailor promised and gave his assurances that there would be no linen used in these new suits. Upon his return to America, the suits were brought straight to the sha‘atnez lab and they were both sha‘atnez.

Aharon explained to me that most of the time these “custom handmade” suits are in fact made in factories with the fabric requests and measurements taken by a tailor. The tailors have absolutely no control over what is used in the collars and shoulder pads. Often the shoulder pads are made out of pieces of material left over from runs of other suits. In some cases the shoulder pad itself is composed of wool and linen because there were scraps left over from a linen and wool suit run.

A friend of mine who was a sha‘atnez tester had an older chavrusah who was a practicing doctor. At some point they starting discussing sha‘atnez, and the doctor admitted that he never had his suits tested for sha‘atnez. He didn’t think it was a problem. It turned out that all of his suits were sha‘atnez.

One thing that I discovered while talking to these sha‘atnez testers is that they are all dedicated to their work. Mrs. Tzippy David commented that she is not getting rich by testing for sha‘atnez. Besides, if it were just for money, which balabuste in her right mind would take a job whose busiest time is erev Yom Tov? Everyone has to get their newly acquired Yom Tov clothing tested in time for Pesach or whichever other holiday. (Next time you grow impatient on erev Yom Tov with a delay in the testing of your clothes, consider the tester who is also making Yom Tov!) So I asked her why she does it. At the time she began testing there were no other testers in the area. She wanted to provide a community service. She says she views herself as a doctor helping the spiritually needy. She is a surgeon who carefully removes cancer from Yiddishe clothing.

Similarly, my initial conversation with Rabbi Yosef Sayagh (Lakewood sha‘atnez lab) took place late at night, though he had a 4:30 a.m. flight the following morning. He was very interested in people becoming more aware about the pitfalls of sha‘atnez in clothing. I asked him for some specific pointers and he said that since summertime is coming, people need to realize that all linen clothing must be checked. Whether the garment is a woman’s jacket, a man’s shirt, or a child’s dress, they all need to be checked. Many times the appliqué on children’s clothing is not made out of the same material as the foundation and causes sha‘atnez problems. He mentioned also that some people don’t realize that men’s ties could be a problem. Any tie that is made of wool or linen needs to be checked, as very often the stiffener inside the tie is wool or linen. He recently found sha‘atnez in two linen ties, one made by Zegna, the other by Brioni. Ties made in Spain need to be checked, as well. My neighbor purchased a Spanish “100 percent silk” tie made by Richel, and sure enough the lining was composed of wool and linen.

Rabbi Sayagh mentioned to me that before Purim people need to realize that costumes have to be checked as well. Russian hats and uniforms frequently contain sha‘atnez, but he has found sha‘atnez in American Navy uniforms as well. Of course, tuxedos (whether purchased or rented) also pose serious sha‘atnez problems.

Mrs. Chatzinoff, a retired sha‘atnez tester, received a frantic phone call one night. A man was marrying off his son the next day and needed five tuxedos tested immediately. When they were brought over, Mrs. Chatzinoff dropped everything that she was doing and proceeded to test them. Four of them had no problems. The fifth was a different story; it turned out that the fifth tuxedo belonged to the father of the chasan. Mrs. Chatzinoff told the man that while she can’t conclusively say that it is sha‘atnez, she has serious reservations and it should not be worn. The next day the man called back and started yelling that she ruined his tuxedo. “There are spots all over it and it can’t be worn! What am I supposed to wear tonight?” Mrs. Chatzinoff politely explained that she carefully handled all the tuxedos the same way and tested them all in the same place and there’s no way that she ruined it. During sheva berachos, Mrs. Chatzinoff received confirmation that the tuxedo was indeed sha‘atnez and contacted the father to let him know. The man wasn’t really interested since the tuxedo was ruined anyway. Later that day, the father called and apologized profusely. “I’m so terribly sorry. I just zipped open the bag to check the tuxedo and it’s fine. There are no spots... I don’t know what I saw before...”

Let me conclude with this quote from Rabbi Avrom Pollack at the Star-K:

When we speak of wool, we are only referring to wool obtained from sheep or lambs. Other materials, such as camel’s wool, mohair, angora, cashmere, alpaca wool, or vicuna, present no sha‘atnez problems. Similarly, linen refers only to fibers derived from the flax plant, whereas other bast fibers, such as ramie, hemp, or jute, may be combined with wool. With respect to ramie, one should be aware that it is difficult to distinguish this material from linen even with the use of a microscope. Since clothing manufacturers, particularly those from abroad, are guilty of mislabeling the fabric contents, clothing containing wool and ramie should not be worn unless an expert in the field of sha‘atnez has verified that the fabric contains no linen.

Stories From The Front Lines

Hatzolah’s phone number on “sha‘atnez-free” label saves seizure victim. A number of sha‘atnez laboratories include the local Hatzolah phone number on their “sha‘atnez-free” labels. When a certain man looked at the newly attached label in his jacket at the Flatbush sha‘atnez laboratory and saw the Hatzolah number, he laughed at the idea and made fun of the label.

The very next day, this man was walking on a one-way street in Far Rockaway as a car was pulling out. Suddenly the driver had a seizure! People standing around called out for the Hatzolah phone number. This man remembered laughing at the phone number on the label just the night before! He was able to quickly refer to his sha‘atnez label; he called the number, summoning immediate help for the victim!

(The Shatnez Newsletter, Jan. 2007)