Someone told me that its something I have never written about, but when you think of it the yarmulke is a pretty dirty article of clothing that rarely gets washed. It sits on your head all the time through sweat and dirt and the only time it washed is when it falls in the toilet, that is if you decide to use it again.
Now that we are on the discussion of non-washed Jewish items, I have never washed a pair of tzitzis, I know the whole deal, but I just get a new pair after a couple of months – pretty sick now that I think of it – but how many people actually wash their tzitzis? What about talesim, they do look awfully brown and weathered most of the time. Besides of your tzitzis are too clean people suspect you of never wearing them.
Tefillin cant be washed or cleaned as far as I know which means you have years of dirt piled up on your tefillin straps. Further more you have no option of being clean since you cannot put them on right after you took a shower. Look at anyone’s tefillin straps, you can scrape the dirt off and its gross.
I know its not clothing, but one of the most disgusting items in a Jewish home is the washing cup, I have laughed at the Facebook made event called “national wash your netilas yedayim cup week” but the founder does have a point – its pretty darn gross, considering that most people who wash don’t use soap and had just come from the bathroom.
When it comes down to it there are tons of items which should be cleaned but aren’t. Gemeras, shtenders, yads, mayim achronim gear – I wonder if there is anything else?
My husband wore the same talit katan for 2 years without washing it before I made him get a new one! Now he just wears the old one to bed! Its IKKY! He refuses to let me wash it because he wears techellet and says washing it will wash out the blue
Just add salt and the color won’t run… works for tie-dye.
If washing it out will wash out the blue then by halacha it’s not real techeilet. Part of the definition of techeilet is that it doesn’t get washed out.
@WhoMe? If the blue would wash out, a) it’s not real techelet (which is colorfast), and b) the blue would come out when in contact with perspiration.
Hand-washing in Woolite should do it no harm.
Yeah, this is on my mind lately since I recently started wearing a kippa. I’m figuring the knit ones can go with some hand washing goop, but what about suede or velvet types? Dry cleaning?
actually no you can just wash them in a normal load of laundry
If you wear velvet yarmulkes, washing it will make the velvet kind of spiky and bristly, sou you are better off just shelling out five dollars for a new one when the old one starts to fade or smell.
“My husband wore the same talit katan for 2 years without washing it before I made him get a new one! Now he just wears the old one to bed! Its IKKY! He refuses to let me wash it because he wears techellet and says washing it will wash out the blue”
If your husband wears his tallis koton only to bed then it is a “beged miyuchad l’layla”
or a garment designated for night,
and is therefore not chayiv in tzitzis at all…
One who wants to wear tzitzis at night to fulfill the mitzvah according to those rishonim who hold that you can be m’kayim the mitzvah should wear one pair of tzitzis from morning till next morning and then change into a pair to be worn from that morning until the next morning…
Some of my tallis-katans have gotten really gross before I wash them. And I even wear undershirts underneath them, and they still get gross! I know some people who don’t wear undershirts underneath them, don’t wash them, and that’s sick. It’s just like wearing the same undershirt everyday. Siiick.
And you haven’t seen dirty washing cups till you’ve been to some glatt kosher joints in the charedi sections of Jerusalem. I was afraid to use some of these cups.
Sure, I wash my (crocheted) kippot. Well, actually, my mother does it for me. She also irons them. (She crocheted them for me in the first place.) It doesn’t take very long and doesn’t need to be done very often, either, just whenever the kippah starts to lose its shape or the color starts to fade. They don’t last forever, either, but I hang on to mine for a long time. I don’t know what the proper care would be for velvet or suede kippot.
Question: when kippot do wear out, is it permitted to throw them away? I can’t imagine that they would acquire the same status of kedusha as siddurim, but it still seems sacrilegious to just trash them.
How about the sefer torah covers in shul? Everyone kisses it with their mouth, it’s disgusting. Even if people kiss it by touching it to their hands then kissing their hand, their hand is still not that clean, and once they touch the torah cover other people’s germs are probably all over it. On simchas torah I can’t even watch, all I can picture in my head is all these guys kissing each other. Mezuzahs also gross me out, but most people kiss it using their hand, only the real super frum (or kids) kiss them with their mouth if they can reach it.
Yes you can throw away your yarmulkes – even tzitzis can be thrown away its just not PC to do so (in the words of the Woodbourne seforim store owner)
Speaking of washing stuff, when will someone do an exposé on mivahs?? I shlepped all over Brooklyn looking for a mikvah that was not absolutely disgusting in which to toivel the new dishes I got for my wedding. No such luck. They were all as filthy as sewage systems.
HOW I WASH TZITZIT KATAN
(Disclaimer: I take no responsibility on my instructions it works for me and if it doesn’t work for you then we know its you not the method)
Take all 4 tzitziout together then fold them over themselves again and again (like putting away a power cord so there is a small 3″ long bundle)…. After take a rubber band and rap it around it tight so there are no loose ends. Pop it in the washer (NO BLEACH!) and hang them on a drying rack (Dryers = short tzitzit lifespan).
Footnote: you might want to try only 1 just to make sure your doing it right. Also check the rubber to make sure its not going to break when you use it.
With regards to the kepah you don’t need to wash a leather kepah… who ever washed a leather coat? Just another reason that vegans are wrong.
Double M
Ever SMELLED an unwashed leather coat? I get mine dry cleaned every year just before time to wear it.
I use a 10 dollar lengerie bag from walmart to wash my tzitzis. Also, i do wash and air dry my velvet yammies. I found out that was fine when i got in the shower one day and started washing my hair, forgetting to take it off.
Obviously none of you are that frum – your all too clean
we dry clean tallisim
It has occurred to me to wash my husband’s kippahs but I seem to forget most of the time
actually my wife told me i cant have it both ways either clean or no tzititz to bed or i cant have a pilegesh on the off-weeks. (yes i have her concent) since i wear tzitizis all the time…kind of a oximoron….but thats me..
My husband washes his kippahs all the time. We even dry them over the back of a bowl so they dry with the nice rounded shape. Of course they are knit.
My father takes great pride in cleaning his tefillin. He has a tiny little toothbrush for brushing them and then he has a little polish kit.
I’m pretty sure that the frum guys I know wash their tzitzis in the washing machine–might use a mesh bag so that the fringes don’t get all snaggled.
And to the poster who said that he knows people who wear their tzitzis w/out an undershirt–I thought that’s against halacha–don’t remember exactly why but I do think you are supposed to wear the tzitzis over something (and that’s why I thought it was funny reading a Newsweek article way back when Joe Lieberman was picked by Al Gore and the reporter commented on the fact that Gore had sweated through his dress shirt but Lieberman had not and opined that Gore should take a leaf from Lieberman’s book and wear an undershirt when campaigning on a hot day so he wouldn’t have obviously wet underarms when working the crowds).
yeah its against halacha because there is a pasuk that says dont make yourselves disgusting before me and thats pretty nasty
I dump my yarmy in the laundry once per month. Tzitzis every 2 days, they get hand washed.
The one time I washed my Talit Katan, I wrapped the TZitzit in aluminum foil.
anonymous/#19 is right – all you have to do is use a mesh bag.
Regarding kippa – if I’m nagged enough I’ll wash it – so about 3 times a year?
#19.
I’ve heard that it’s only a problem if you wear it in a disrespectful manner like around your waist.
WhoMe: If the techelet washes out in the wash, then its not real techelet.
FrumSatire: No one disinfects mezzuzahs, do they? And think how many germs THEY have with people kissing them day and night…. I even read an article in Israel that mezzuzah kissing is one of the most common ways for the flu to be spread….
TBH I tend to neglect some of my husband’s things like pants, tzitzis etc because I’m just not used to caring for them and if it’s not in the bin I’m not going to go look for it. As a result every once in a while I gather all his pants for a mass wash.
I wash my kippot in Woolite(TM) every so often (but not often enough). Then I stretch them a little and dry them either on a ball (the bigger ones) or on an antiperspirant container (the smaller ones). Tzitzit go into the washer and when the tzitziot (the strings) start getting frayed, they need to be replaced. Tallis goes to a specialized dry cleaner, but very rarely because it is very expensive. Instead I am very careful to keep my tallis clean. Finally, I often shower before putting on tefillin.
My son blogged about washing his tsitsit a few months ago: http://davidsaysthings.wordpress.com/2009/01/30/the-secret-to-keeping-your-tzitzit-clean-and-untangled/
I wash my son’s tzitzis in the washing machine with the regular wash and then just hang dry them. I straighten the strings before I hang them and they come out pretty nice. Of course, these are cotton ones that look like undershirts with the strings attached. But it might work on other cotton tzitzis.
When I wash tzitzis to prevent them from knotting up, I came up with this idea.
I make knots at the ends of the tzitzis, so that the tzitzis will not unwind in the wash. When I am finished washing them, I just untie the knots! Simple.
So my mother-in-law made my husband wash his kippot and tsitsit regularly.. He still does. In fact, he does the laundry in our family. He washes his tsitsit once a week in a mesh bag (like for lingerie) and he washes his kippas by soaking them in detergent for 3-5 days then washing it in the laundry. He washes his kippah about once every 3-4 weeks and has a couple of spare back up ones to cycle through. I don’t think I would be able to stand it if they were so gross and he never washed them ever.
When it falls in the toilet??? That’s so gross. Does that happen often with yarmulkes?
I don’t ever wash my black velvet yarmulke, and I was my tzitzis if they get stained, which isn’t too often.
I think jew should