Kiss My Tzitzit! I said KISS IT!: Tallitot
Last entry we wrote about Tefillin. We revealed the little known fetish underbelly to these religious objects that daveners (people who pray) affix to their bodies with long black leather straps during the weekday morning prayers.
Keeping the focus on churning the sacred into kink, this week we are going to focus on the Jewish prayer shawl called a Tallit in Hebrew and Tallis in Yiddish (Tallitot and Tallisim in plural respectively).
This rectangular piece of clothes has intricate knotted string fringes, called Tzitzit, at each of its corners and is worn during the morning prayers. Many Jews who are more religious wear a version of a tallit, called a tallit katan, at all times under their shirts.
We can picture several of you scratching your heads and thinking to yourselves, how does all of that translate into something erotic?
And thats a damn good question.
Well just as people turn nun and priest outfits into fetish garb, the same transformation can be done with Jewish religious clothing. In part it makes allusions about possible deviant behavior among the most religiously insular. It also challenges traditional conservativism, gender roles and sexual identity. Other people just simply like or get aroused by the way the outfits look (true fetishists perhaps).
We mentioned last week that recently there were some voices of outrage within the Jewish community about a photo exhibit by Leonard Nimoy (from Star Trek) called the Shekhina Project. The collection of photos featured naked or semi-naked women many of who were adorned with Tallisim or Tefillin. Here are some pictures of the women wearing Tallisim.
If you want to see the full collection, see http://leonardnimoyphotography.com/2photoshekhina.htm.
There is also this promo picture from Philip Roths movie I Was a Jewish Sex Worker which features a Tallit and suggests a homosexual relationship between the two men.
This semi-naked woman got creative with a Tallit during the Jerusalem Pride Parade.
The covers of the books Kosher Meet and Friday the Rabbi Wore Lace both also feature Tallitot on a semi-undressed gay man and a semi-undressed lesbian.
We featured this picture last week taken by Mark I. Chester.
The picture is from LeatherJews website.
Marks own website is http://mchester.best.vwh.net.
Moving further to the fringes (literally and figuratively), lets look at Tzitzit for a moment. Tzitzit are the string tassels at the four corners of Tallitot.
Rope enthusiasts may marvel in the fancy knot work.
We can totally picture tying someone to a chair by their Tzitzit. Naughty-minded us
This picture gets us thinking that if you string enough of these Tzitzit together, you can form a ticklishly fun light flogger.
Many people who wear Tallitot use special clips connected with a chain to keep their Tallitot in place.
We know from experience that many of these clips make very beautifully ornamented nipple clips. Take a look at these for example.
Lastly we want to address one of the great age old Jewish rumors. Perhaps youve heard it too. Word of mouth has it that some married ultra-Orthodox Jews actually have sex through a hole in a sheet? Is this fact or fiction? Sarah Silverman recently perked many young shmeckels by posing naked behind a sheet with such a hole in it for the cover of Heebs special issue on sex.
Digging further into this mysterious glory hole story, we learned that folks really arent talking about a sheet, but actually a Tallit Katan.
However, this is what http://www.holeinthesheet.org says about all of this:
Q. Do Orthodox Jews have sex through a hole in a sheet?
A. Absolutely. No doubt in our minds.
Q. Are you serious? Through a hole in the sheet?
A. Yep.
Q. Really?
A. Of course not! This is a nasty urban myth propagated from Orthodox men hanging their "talit kattan" on the clothesline to dry, since the talit kattan is a rectangular undershirt garment with a circle cut out for the head. Jewish law usually prohibits anything coming between a married couples intimacy, bed linens included.
Q. So Orthodox Jews really having sex through a hole in a bed sheet is about as likely as . . . ?
A. As likely as a couple using gorilla costumes, hydraulic lifts, Austin Powers masks, plastic explosives, and bathtubs full of soy sauce. All at once
Q: Are you sure the whole sex-through-a-hole-in-a-sheet thing is a myth?
A: Yes, we are quite sure.
--------
Let us know what you think.
Last entry we wrote about Tefillin. We revealed the little known fetish underbelly to these religious objects that daveners (people who pray) affix to their bodies with long black leather straps during the weekday morning prayers.
Keeping the focus on churning the sacred into kink, this week we are going to focus on the Jewish prayer shawl called a Tallit in Hebrew and Tallis in Yiddish (Tallitot and Tallisim in plural respectively).
This rectangular piece of clothes has intricate knotted string fringes, called Tzitzit, at each of its corners and is worn during the morning prayers. Many Jews who are more religious wear a version of a tallit, called a tallit katan, at all times under their shirts.
We can picture several of you scratching your heads and thinking to yourselves, how does all of that translate into something erotic?
And thats a damn good question.
Well just as people turn nun and priest outfits into fetish garb, the same transformation can be done with Jewish religious clothing. In part it makes allusions about possible deviant behavior among the most religiously insular. It also challenges traditional conservativism, gender roles and sexual identity. Other people just simply like or get aroused by the way the outfits look (true fetishists perhaps).
We mentioned last week that recently there were some voices of outrage within the Jewish community about a photo exhibit by Leonard Nimoy (from Star Trek) called the Shekhina Project. The collection of photos featured naked or semi-naked women many of who were adorned with Tallisim or Tefillin. Here are some pictures of the women wearing Tallisim.
If you want to see the full collection, see http://leonardnimoyphotography.com/2photoshekhina.htm.
There is also this promo picture from Philip Roths movie I Was a Jewish Sex Worker which features a Tallit and suggests a homosexual relationship between the two men.
This semi-naked woman got creative with a Tallit during the Jerusalem Pride Parade.
The covers of the books Kosher Meet and Friday the Rabbi Wore Lace both also feature Tallitot on a semi-undressed gay man and a semi-undressed lesbian.
We featured this picture last week taken by Mark I. Chester.
The picture is from LeatherJews website.
Marks own website is http://mchester.best.vwh.net.
Moving further to the fringes (literally and figuratively), lets look at Tzitzit for a moment. Tzitzit are the string tassels at the four corners of Tallitot.
Rope enthusiasts may marvel in the fancy knot work.
We can totally picture tying someone to a chair by their Tzitzit. Naughty-minded us
This picture gets us thinking that if you string enough of these Tzitzit together, you can form a ticklishly fun light flogger.
Many people who wear Tallitot use special clips connected with a chain to keep their Tallitot in place.
We know from experience that many of these clips make very beautifully ornamented nipple clips. Take a look at these for example.
Lastly we want to address one of the great age old Jewish rumors. Perhaps youve heard it too. Word of mouth has it that some married ultra-Orthodox Jews actually have sex through a hole in a sheet? Is this fact or fiction? Sarah Silverman recently perked many young shmeckels by posing naked behind a sheet with such a hole in it for the cover of Heebs special issue on sex.
Digging further into this mysterious glory hole story, we learned that folks really arent talking about a sheet, but actually a Tallit Katan.
However, this is what http://www.holeinthesheet.org says about all of this:
Q. Do Orthodox Jews have sex through a hole in a sheet?
A. Absolutely. No doubt in our minds.
Q. Are you serious? Through a hole in the sheet?
A. Yep.
Q. Really?
A. Of course not! This is a nasty urban myth propagated from Orthodox men hanging their "talit kattan" on the clothesline to dry, since the talit kattan is a rectangular undershirt garment with a circle cut out for the head. Jewish law usually prohibits anything coming between a married couples intimacy, bed linens included.
Q. So Orthodox Jews really having sex through a hole in a bed sheet is about as likely as . . . ?
A. As likely as a couple using gorilla costumes, hydraulic lifts, Austin Powers masks, plastic explosives, and bathtubs full of soy sauce. All at once
Q: Are you sure the whole sex-through-a-hole-in-a-sheet thing is a myth?
A: Yes, we are quite sure.
--------
Let us know what you think.
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
kinkyjews:
The woman in the picture from the Pride Parade made her outfit out of Tallitot.
ist:
well, well. I think i even saw that "parade" when i went near Melakhim squear. nothing interesting...