That assumption is nearly as offensive as Rachel’s that those who might be considered “crunchy-granola” wouldn’t be concerned with halacha or tzitzit.

It’s probably too late for me to apologize to LL, but I wanted to respond here for the record. I didn’t mean to suggest that those of us on the granola-crunchy end of liberal Judaism weren’t concerned with halakha. I misspoke.

What I ought to have said was something more like this: I suspect those of us who are lefty-liberal enough to be making and dying our own feminine TK are likely to be interested in flexible interpretations of halakha, and hence might consider non-snail dye to be in accord with the spirit of the law if not in accord with the letter of it.

I like the kind of tops that have a bra in them. No-one, no-one, no-one is going to tell me that a tallit katan featuring a bra is beged ish. No-one. Plus only one set of straps, of course. I’ve got black, white, and once I find some dye, purple - yay tzitzit.

There’s an interesting distinction between techelet and tefillin so far as animals go - as far as I’m aware, you are not supposed to kill an animal with the primary intention of using it for tefillin, mezuzot or sifrei Torah. Not so for the snails. This is one reason I’m okay with sofrut but just a bit wary of techelet.

I don’t imply at all that the fact that the tzitzit are representing gay pride affects their kashrut status–your friend can date and love whoever he wants and get on with his bad self, more power to him.

I’m talking specifically about the issue of colored tzitzit, and what is considered kosher within the definition of this specific ritual object, irrespective of who wears it. As I mentioned, the Rambam (Maimonedes) specifies that the tzitzit should be monochromatic and matching the garment. He is a Sephardi/Mizrachi posek if there is one. The Askenazim say that tzitzit should be white (or techelet), so that is more machmir, but only insofar as they don’t permit colored tzitzit at all. If you have other sources, I’d be very interested to hear them–do you have specific citations?

Defining an object as kosher or not has nothing to do with whether the wearer is a nice person or not. Mean people can wear kosher tefillin, tzitzit, etc.

Again, if the halakha is important, you should know that the pride tzitzit are not kosher as defined by halakha. If the halakha is not important to you, than it’s something creative that can have a lot of meaning, irrespective of their halalkhic status.

But I’m wondering why you say that Pride Tzitzit wouldn’t be okay? My friend is an observant Jewish man who is proud of his identity. That doesn’t mean that he’s off having forbidden relationships with everyone, or anyone. But he’s proud of who he is and he isn’t afraid to identify with the community that is represented by rainbows. Nor is he afraid to identify with the community that is represented by kippot and tzitzit.

That assumption is nearly as offensive as Rachel’s that those who might be considered “crunchy-granola” wouldn’t be concerned with halacha or tzitzit.

-longtime lurker

According to the Rambam, the tzitzit that are funky colored need to be the same color as the garment to which they are attached–red tziztit to red garment, etc. It’s forbidden to do all-blue, for the obvious reason that it’s confusing/misleading with the whole tekhelet issue. I’ve never seen anything permitting multiple colors and/or tiedye, so I don’t really have an answer for you on that–I’m assuming it’s not permitted, but there could be an obscure posek somewhere who permits it, I frankly just don’t know.
I’d assume that the Pride tzitzit don’t fall within the “permitted” bounds of hakaha/Jewish law. If halakha is important to you (or the wearer), that’s good to know. If not, get on with your bad fringing self….

Now onto the real question - What more do you know about dying tzitzit other colors? Do you necessarily have to dye the garmet the same color as the tzitzit? Can one do some form of tie-dye/rainbow? I’m about to make a good friend some Pride Tzitzit he requested (rainbow fringes, but the blue is real techelet and leaving one white) and I was wondering if this is totally not, um, kosher. Thanks again.

–longtime lurker.

To make a tallit gadol, buy a big piece of rectangular fabric, and skip to the part of the instructions about adding fabric to the corners, creating and reinforcing the holes, and adding tzitzit.