When Rabbi Debra Rappaport, the spiritual leader of B’nai Vail Congregation in Vail, drapes her ceremonial tallit over her shoulders, it warms her spiritually and physically: Her mother handmade it from the Rappaport family’s cashmere sweaters.
“It’s terrific,” Rappaport said. “In the summer, we do outdoor services and, especially in June, Saturday mornings can be cool. I wrap myself up in it.”
Rappaport’s cream-white tallit (pronounced tah-LEET) is featured in “Jewish Threads,” an instructional Jewish fabric craft book by Diana Drew and Robert Grayson (Jewish Lights publishing house).
“I like to repurpose beautiful things, and when Debra became a rabbi, I wanted to make a tallit that would encase her in love,” Susan Rappaport said.
So she took white cashmere sweaters that once belonged to her, to her husband, Gary, to Debra and her sister, Lissie Shifman. She cut up the sweaters and sewed them together again with blue thread, a reference to the Old Testament reminder of the Exodus. The same story is echoed in the tztzit, the knotted ritual fringes at each of the tallit’s four corners.
The blue letters on the tallit — the Hebrew version of a line from Psalm 16, “therefore my heart rejoices” — are felted from pieces of repurposed cashmere sweaters. Susan Rappaport also embroidered, in blue, her initials, her daughter’s initials, and those of the rabbi’s maternal and paternal grandparents.
“It was a way for me to give her my blessing, and the blessings of her family and her ancestors,” Susan Rappaport said.
“The whole thing was very meditative, and I loved making it.”
Claire Martin: 303-954-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com
