Jewish and Scottish? Try the Tartan Tallis

The traditional Jewish tallis (or tallit) is blue and white, a fringed prayer shawl with four corners. But if you're Scottish and Jewish and looking for a way to express your binational pride, now you can own your very own Jewish Tartan, which is "the only Scottish Jewish Tartan approved and registered by the Scottish Tartans Authority" and was "initiated by" only Scottish-born rabbi living in Scotland Rabbi Mendel Jacobs:

Religious experts and Tartan Authorities worked meticulously to come up with a design that reflected religious values and Scottish history. The colours, weave, and number of threads have all been picked for their importance in Judaism. In the tartan design we have blue and white the colours of both the Israeli and Scottish flags with the central gold line representing the gold from the Ark in the Biblical Tabernacle and the many ceremonial vessels. The silver is to represent the silver that adorns the Scroll of the Law and the colour red is for the traditional red Kiddush wine. There are seven lines in the central motif and three in the flag representations - both numbers of great significance in Judaism.

I don't think of Scots and Jews in the same context (scotch and Jews, sometimes, mostly at weddings and after Shabbat dinners at my male friends' houses). But according to the site, the Jewish people have been an integral part of Scottish culture for more than 300 years, with the first Jewish person recorded as living in Edinburgh in 1691. In case you're concerned, the site assures us the prayer shawl is 100% Kosher-- being a non wool-linen mix (a mix which would be prohibited by Jewish law), and incorporating many aspects of Scottish-Jewish cultural and religious history.

You see? Here at Idol Chatter, you learn something new every day.