My 9 year old son just came into my room and with all the seriousness he could muster up said, "Mom. Please don't ever wash my tzizit again. It makes them not-kosher." It was all I could do to stop from bursting out laughing. Seriously? He said, "Why are you laughing? I'm serious." I told him I was laughing because he's so serious and the thought of never washing his tzizit again is so Bohemian, it made me laugh. Washing tzizit is something that I just don't get. As I've mentioned before, a woman would have never designed such a garment. They sort of fall into the same category as shoes. You just wear them until they are no longer functional, too filthy or too stinky. Tzizit were designed with the same engineering. The strings are attached with hundreds of windings and 20 knots making it impossible to wash the garment to which they are attached. So you either have to hand-wash (yeh, not happening) or machine wash/line dry (may last a few times) or machine wash/dryer (won't last but one or two washings). The machines unravel the strings and knots, thus making them unkosher. My 9 year old has figured this out and expects them to be the highest level of kosher when he wears them. He's also told me he wants a special pair to sleep in. Combine them with his sleeping kippah and we have ourselves a regular little chassidish elf on our hands. As much as I stare at him, bewildered where this child came from, I am in awe of his dedication and thirst for yiddishkite. It is really just too cool.
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