The following article (originally printed in The Kashruth Magazine) was written by R’ Aharon Drebin – who for twenty years is a tester of clothing for the Flatbush Shatnez Center. The article shows how so many mistakenly trust non-Jewish tailors to remove shatnez and to repair the garments without so much as asking a shatnez tester to double check whether the work was done properly. Now, perhaps people will be more careful…..
During the twenty years that I have had the opportunity to serve the public in checking for shatnez, I have repeatedly seen many people fall into the same trap, one of which could easily be avoided. Now I am putting it down in writing and so at least the readers of KASHRUS Magazine will be forewarned and hopefully will share this important information with their friends.
The most common location in a man’s suit to have shatnez is the collar. Removing the shatnez completely is a very involved- tedious and challenging- part of the tester’s work.
When a tester finds shatnez, he will open all the seams which the linen canvas is attached to and remove it from the suit. He will then brush and scrape out all the remaining threads and fibers to be sure that nothing is left. At this point it is common practice in many shatnez laboratories to give a second tester the garment to double check that it is now clean. Finally, the tester makes a hole in the old canvas and gives it to the customer together with a kosher textile to be duplicated and replaced in the garment.
Unfortunately, over the past many years, tailors, sometimes on the advice of the unaware customer, will remove the collar canvas themselves in an attempt to render the suit shatnez-free on their own and replace it with a canvas that is hopefully not linen.
The fact is that many tailors will remove just enough stitching to allow them to remove the canvas and replace it with the least effort needed. We have discovered stray threads left in the corners and many a time we found that the tailor cut out the canvas while leaving the perimeter still sewn into the suit.
To illustrate:
1. Mel L., a well- known Brooklyn lawyer, sent his messenger to us with two Ermenegildo Zegna suits and one Brioni. These suit companies have a bad track record in regard to shatnez. The two Zegnas were shatnez in the collar and the Brioni had a shatnez collar and waistband.
Mel asked if it would be okay for his Long Island tailor to remove the shatnez since he will be altering the suits. I told him that I agreed on condition that, after the removal of the linen canvases BEFORE the replacement, the suits would be sent back to me for inspection to see that all the threads were removed.
A few days later, a messenger appeared with the suits, but they were almost completely repaired. Since the final stitches were not yet in, I was able to poke around the corner of the collars. My findings were that all the suits still had whole threads sewn into the collar that were not removed, and that the front of the waistband (where the clips are), a very difficult place to work, had not even been touched.
I called Mel, who got the tailor on the line. I challenged him. Why had he, against the customer’s desire, repaired the suit before my inspection?
He said, and I’ll give it my best try to imitate the Italian, “I no atouch the front of de waistband. Ita difficult to fix. I doa dis for alla my Jewish customers. Why you mixa into my work?”
P.S. Mel never let a tailor remove shatnez again.
2. A number of years ago the market was flooded with Korean suits with the kashrus of the collar unclear. One store’s shatnez tester permitted them, considering the matter a sofek midrabonon, a doubt in a Rabbinic matter.
A short while later, Mr. Yosef Rosenberger, zt”l, the founder of shatnez testing in America, and to whom we all owe an amazing debt of gratitude, clarified the matter, and decided that all such suits would, from then on, require removal of the canvas from the collar. One store’s tailor responded by removing the lower part of the collar canvas from the suits and replacing them with cotton ones. The shatnez tester, upon seeing the cotton canvas figured that the new batch of suits was shatnez-free in the collar. So with a few quick checks on the other parts of the suits, they passed their shatnez test and got their non-shatnez label.
Upon re-inspection of the collars, I found that the top edge of the collars were not removed, and reported to the public just what the tailor had done.
3. Last summer, a storeowner who had been told by a mekubal that he is deceiving people in the matter of shatnez, approached us for help. He reported that his tailor was removing shatnez collars from Pal Zalari, Armani, and Vestimenta suits, and other brands as well, without any supervision. I told him that he surely will have shatnez in those garments. He contacted his customers and rounded up about 50 suits which we tested, and re-cleaned the collars. We found remaining shatnez in about 40 of the suits (that is 80%).
4. This past March we discovered that a well- known non- Jewish custom tailor shop was offering shatnez removal and restoration on all high-end suits for their Jewish clientele. It is shocking that many families have relied upon the work of these gentiles to remove their shatnez collars and replace the (linen) canvas with a kosher (cotton) one.
But a certain divine intervention made one customer aware of his error and word spread fast. Within a week, I had 15 suits from this tailor for examination.
The results were as follows: 3 suits had a linen collar that was never removed, 2 suits had a linen (shatnez) collar removed, which had been replaced with another linen collar, 1 suit has stray cotton threads remaining- the tailor had removed a cotton collar which was already kosher- and 9 suits had linen thread or pieces of linen canvas left inside, sewn along its perimeter.
5. On a positive note, Mr. P, a thinking person, brought a suit in a Burberry’s store. The store’s shatnez tester tested and removed the shatnez collar in the suit, put in a label, and excused himself that he did not have a cotton replacement for him. He said that he would bring it the following week when he came next.
The customer contacted me and asked if I could overnight a collar replacement to the store. I did so, but look what happened. The very next morning, the store contacted Mr. P. telling him that his suit was ready and he should come and pick it up. Mr. P. was amazed that the suit should be ready so early in the morning.
It seemed to be before my shipment would have arrived. I asked him to bring in his suit to be checked.
What did I find? The tailor had repaired the suit with a second linen collar. Mr. P had walked out of that store with a non-shatnez label already on the suit.
I am not qualified to decide who is a competent shatnez tester, but I hope that by now you know that it is not your non- Jewish tailor. For more information ask your local shatnez tester or your rabbi.
(Picture from Aish)
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20 Responses
There is something else that people are unfortunately not aware of…
When you make a custom-made garment or alterations like adding panels to outfits by a non-frum seamstress or tailor, those garments MUST be checked for Shatnez. We have personally had experience with a local seamstress who did alterations to a woman’s suit and inserted a partially woolen panel in the linen skirt, thereby CREATING a Shatnez situation…
I am very pleased that this article was published. There is so many stories of mishaps with shatnez it is scary. I know that these stories that the author is writing are far from unique, they happen all over the world and people have to take these ideas to heart.
An interesting point is that wearing shatnez greatly affects the quality of a person’s tefillos. We all need Hashem to hear our tefillos now-a-days!
I know of a story personally from Eretz Yisroel. A Jewish man had a suit tailor made by an Arab (I guess the equivalent to an Italian in the above story). Anyway, the tailor obviously knows not to put in shatnez to Jews suits since he has a lot of business from Jews. Luckily, this man was a yirah shamayim and anyway had teh suite checked for shatnez. (Many others who had their suits made by this tailor were not in the practice of checking them since he knows about shatnez).
Anyway, after checking, the suit was found to have a shatnez panel in it. The man called the tailor and asked how could he have done that. The tailor was shocked so he himself went to the shatnez lab to have it shown to him. When the tailor took hold of the suit and remembered when he made it, he recalled what had happened that caused that linen piece to enter the suit.
He said that he was working and ran out of the regular non-linen white material. So in a pressure to complete his work, he grabbed the closed scrap next to him, which just happened to be linen. He claims not to have realized that that piece was linen.
When tailors or companies, Jewish or not, make clothing they are focusing on the making of the clothing not on shatnez. Yes they are aware of Shatnez but it is not on the forefront of their production.
Just like chicken coming from a Jewish or goyish store needs a reliable hechser, all clothing from Jewish or goyish stores/tailors need a reliable “hecsher”- checking from a experienced checker.
#1 Because YOU had a problem ONCE, everyone “MUST” check for shatnez. Is that the Halacha?
It’s mamish an uchen vay. I once saw at Rabbi Nussbaum in Boro Park a Soviet issued officer’s cap that had real shaatnez sown into the cap lining.
These neww shatnez testers are very “proffesinal”
but lets not forget about the halacha involved i.e. msiach lfi tumo , miut sheino motsuy,chazokos,sometimes we can rely on bittul,or mera umnusoy, there was a systom wich was good acording to all poskim here in the u.s. and everywhere else ask your ruv rather then get invlved with new sfeikos lechmra
One thing that bothers me is when certain Shatnez labs just look at the label inside the suit, and reder their psak based on the designer or company without even opening up the jacket to take a look.
Hey, I know that im not a poisek, but is it legit to make a decision based solely because ‘These suit companies have a bad track record in regard to shatnez”?
if they can make a cheeseburger kosher, why cant they figure out a way to have kosher shaatnez??
#4 — yes we have only had a problem ONCE, and hopefully never will anymore.
I am not paskening for YOU.
OUR shatnez checker told us that people are in general unaware of this problem, and that everything custom-made SHOULD be checked.
So don’t nitpick on wording and go ask a sheila from YOUR Rov.
While I appreciate the message of the article, I question the need for the inclusion of the passages mocking the Italian tailor’s English. It adds nothing, and it is in poor form to ridicule the speech of one who is not speaking their native language. How many Yidn do you know whose English is not the best? So who cares? You wouldn’t make fun of them, C”V. This juvenile bit degrades an otherwise excellent article.
when i checked a jacket for shatnez the guy put a big shatnez label in it that was not appreciated.also he left a big hole on the bottom between the jacket and the lining with threads hanging out . my wife who is a baal teshuva was very upset and asked me to please not go again. dear editor please dont be scared to print this people should know what is going on
To poster #10.
I agree with you. With how many Jews speak HENGLISH, there is no place to deride another for his accent.
I buy from one of the “Most reliable Heimishe companys.” Most buy their suits and bekeshes from them without checking. They claim to have Shatnez Certification on their entire operation.
But the merchandise is made in Hungary. How do I know if a line runs out of the correct stiffener one day, and substitutes.
So, I still take every item, pants, vests, jackets, bekeshes, reshvulkes, raincoats, kurtz hoisen, every item of clothing, to the shatnez Lab, and INSIST that they actually check every item. I INSIST they do not rely on the company. I could have done that without coming to them!
Well, B”H, so far we have not found anything. But I will always check.
By the way, 3 times in my life we found shatnez in clothing I bought. One was a pair of pants from Wal Mart. 2 were in items purchased in local stores.
I know of a few cases where Kallahs had their chasuna gown altered, they took them to be checked and found Shatnez.
Many people seem to forget about the women’s clothing. The issur of Shatnez is on men, women and even kids clothes should be checked.
The Rabbonim have told us, and paskinned many times, that “Shatnez is Prevalent” and not a miut shehayno motzui. That is the need the Shatnez Labs.
Shatnez is an issur, just like eating pig is an issur. Unfortunately, there are many who would NEVER dream of eathing anything not kosher, but forget to have their clothing checked.
Oh, by the way, often labels are misleading. Some importers will change what the label says to save on taxes and import duty. Also some simply run out of one label and just grab the wrong lable, just to keep the line going. One may not rely on labels.
lakewood maven: go to another shatnez checker in lakewood, there are plenty who do a very nice job.
also, you can read out loud comment #13 to your baalas teshuva wife. it sums the issue up really nicely.
–PLEASE READ–
I’m from the U.K so I don’t know if the same newsflash went off in America, but, at least for the English guys reading this, there has been many many ties found with Shatnez! Yes ties.
They range from Tierack ties to Ted Baker! A lot of notices went up to check your ties but I’m not sure if everyone got the message. I’m sayinng this because I had to throw 3 ties away, 1 was from Next simply because of Shatnez.
Please be careful and give your ties in…
Also, even when a label is accurate, it usually only states the fabric content of the main part, the “shell” of the garment and the lining. It does not include stiffeners, underlinings, or whatever they are called, and those are the common places for Linnen.
Also, Shatnez Laboratories has reported many cases that they found Shatnez, actual Shatnez in the fabric of the garment itself. The label may say 100% wool, and they find maybe 5% linen threads woven through to “add something” to the fabric.
An other thing to watch out for: Some rabbonim tell us to be careful and not to wear Linen suits, as they feel there is a problem with wearing the linen suit jacket immediately under the tallis during davening. I am not sure what the exact problem is, for I do not understand it, but I have heard that SOME rebbonim are choishes on that. Some are not.
Most Shatnez certified checkers are experts and do neat work. The labels are labels that we wear proudly, and they also are simonim to use that the garment has been checked.
One thing to be careful of. Some use a string with a metal seal to attach the certifying label.
That is fine. But if you then sew the label onto the inside of the garment, cut off the string if it is a Shabbos garment. I sew them all on and cut off all the strings.
I am compiling Mar’eh mekomos and pesakim on the question: “Is there a chiyuv to check for Shatnez?” Any assistance would be appreciated.
Is there a chiyuv to check to see if a restaurant has a hashgacha? Is there a chiyuv to know where your meat comes from? Is there a chiyuv to examine the coat on the hook and make sure it is yours that you are taking when leaving shul? Maybe you can just take any one?
Not a psak now, just a thought. When we have an issur that is prevalent, and not a miut sheayno motzui, I would assume that we certainly need to check.
With Shatnez, it MAY be more chomur than with meat. If you bought the hamburger accidentally from a treif restaurant, and it was full of pork, you would certain have an avaira.
Then the hamburger is gone and it is over with.
With Shatnez, you fail to have an item of clothing checked, whether a fancy suit or a new tie, and you have an avaira MiDioreysa every time you wear it!
How many of us would eat a nice hot plate of chicken Parmesan? Hot moist chicken with succulent melted cheese and Italian sauce …. Not a single one of us would even tast it!!!.
Nobody would dream of eating chicken with cheese.
but, basar b’Chalav in chicken is only MeDirabonon.
Chicken Parmesan is only MiDrabonon!
Shatnez is MeDeoireysa!
By the way, many people also have samples of their sofa materials checked too, as it also engulfs the body.
By the way, thank you for mentioning the ties. I don’t wear them, so I forgot about them.
Oh! Guess what? I have heard of a TALLIS that came from a “Designer Tallis Maker” that had Shatnez in it…. I will not say the name, for I heard this second hand.
Shatnez is serious stuff. Why would anyone even want to take a chance?
It is so easy to get our clothing checked. And not expensive either. Sure, it is a bit of a hassle. It means we can’t buy a new suit the afternoon of a chasina. Duh!… planning ahead is important in life anyway. (smile)
DM, the following is the answer to your question about wearing a linen jacket under a tallis. Some poskim say that to wear a linen garment under a wool garment (or visa versa) in a situation that you cannot take off the bottom one without taking off the top one, it is considered a chibor (connection) of wool and linen and therefore assur. This can also apply with wool socks being worn with shoes that have linen stitching or a linen shirt underneath a woolen jacket or sweater.
#10 & #12,
Calm down. There’s nothing wrong with using a little humor to spice up an article.
Would you feel the same if it was a goyish article making fun of a Jew’s broken English? I doubt it.
There’s nothing wrong with using a little humor. There is something wrong with juvenile mockery of others.