In Progress:Max and Ruby Tzitzit

Thought I’d share one of the things we are currently working on. We are making our own tzitzit using undershirts. I asked my son to choose characters that he wanted on the tzitzit and he wanted Max and Ruby. We started this when we were both sick. It led to some fun Shabbat table discussions regarding things like, if we were making tzitzit for someone who was obligated in mitzvot, how much would I actually break the seams? And when should a little boy start wearing tzitzit and a kippa? My nephew looked this up and it seems that this would start from the time a boy can say shma. I always thought it was post diapers and able to say some blessings.

I am getting a kick out of having Ruby and pink on a pair of tzitzit. I’ve been seeing lots of questions about Judaism and gender issues on social media related to things like would you let your male child wear X if he wanted to. Well in this case the answer is yes. Another question that always comes up is whether we emphasize tzniut (modest) clothing issues too much, only to girls and not enough behaviour issues. I believe that in our house we focus on tzniut for both genders. I don’t think we emphasize tzniut in terms of behaviour, but I believe this is mostly because we like to talk about “growing up to be a mentch” over “walking modestly with God.” I don’t know, it might not be a quote from the prophets, but it has an easier tone to it. What do you think?