Tall(it) Tales

In July I wrote about my frustration with media negativity and nothing has changed. My antidote is to keep writing the good stuff. So here's another true story from ordinary (very ordinary) everyday life:

I've made several Jewish Tallits from Annie Modesitt's pattern in The New Prayer Shawl Companion but wanted to create a design that linked Christian symbolism to ancient Hebraic tradition.

Numbers and planning are not a strength. That's why the English translation of Hitomi Shida's Japanese Knitting Stitch Bible was such a find! No longer were those exotic patterns locked in hieroglyphics. A quick trawl provided the border.

Off I went, greedily translating chart into stitches, then motored happily up the striped section to the tricky bit. Calculating the tree of life alongside the trinity ridge panels pushed my brain beyond limits, but I hung in. Then the ghastly eureka moment .....

Plan A was horribly flawed!

Why? Because both border and tree of life only worked from the bottom up. Ha! That's why a wiser person plans in detail from the start!

I cast off, made a duplicate, then after more head strife with numbers, completed a back section knitted towards the neck. It worked! The atorah (neck piece) brought it together and the tzitzits (tassels) finished it off.

After being admired and prayed over by our Shalom group, it was placed in a drawer where it lay dormant over the winter.

Come early lockdown, it surfaced again during a major turn-out. Hmmm ..... needs a home..... but nothing came to mind. Next day a catholic friend asked if he could possibly commission a Jewish Tallit with christian symbolism to include the cross. Photos were shared and its destination sealed. His response:

'Thank you so much for the wonderful prayer shawl that you made with you own hand and gave to me. It's a beautiful piece of work. It also has a very spiritual feeling about it. I love the Hebrew writing from the opening of the Shema: 'Hear, O Israel'. I'm just amazed. This cannot be a coincidence! I will use it every time I pray at home.'

So we are doubly blessed; my friend by his deep appreciation of the symbolic roots of our ancient faith, and me through the affirmation of this ministry once again: benedictunravelled.uk

Shalom


Footnote:  Jesus referenced the Shema in response to a scribe who asked which was the most important commandment.  Jesus answered:

'Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.  The second is this: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.'  Mark 12:28-31



Eileen Padmore retired some time ago from health care and academia with a vow to indulge in writing more creatively and less academically. Her experiences in Africa, Eire, Northern Ireland (in the troubles) as well as inner city Birmingham and Leeds, provide plenty of copy. She has had articles published by Woman Alive, Christian Writer and contributed to the popular ACW Lent book. Eileen has a website in which she writes about her dynamic prayer shawl ministry under the name of Tabitha. You can read about it here.