By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent
Ah, summer. As the season for wearing cool linens and comfortable lightweight cottons draws to a close, a Jewish detective-in-training is gearing up for his busiest season coming in the fall.
His work is like a Jewish CSI episode, but he’s no crime scene investigator.
Rabbi Yehoshua Pinkus has taken over the NW Shatnez Lab from Rabbi Chaim Tatel, who has been tearing apart people’s newly purchased garments in the Northwest for the past 37 years to look for shatnez, the Hebrew word for material that has a mixture of linen and wool in it, a combination expressly forbidden in the Torah for Jews to wear.
Tatel officially retired from the role as of late August, mainly due to painful arthritis in his hands.
In this highly specialized position, he used a microscope, chemical solutions, and even fire to investigate the threads of fabrics found in everyday clothing such as men’s and women’s suits and shirts, and children’s wear.
After receiving the intensive week-long training program offered once a year at one of the “premiere” shatnez training labs in the country in New Jersey, Rabbi Pinkus will do the same.
Until then, Rabbi Zalman Krems from Portland will travel to Seattle and perform the tests for customers. Both Tatel and Pinkus said that business increases around Yom Kippur and the New Year.
“Before the holidays is always the busiest,” Pinkus told JTNews. “Each inspection takes about 30 to 45 minutes. This is our first week and we had five suits. That’s pretty good for the first week.”
Pinkus teaches classes at the Seattle Kollel and is involved in programming there. He said they plan to do a series of community seminars and events on the topic of shatnez to educate people about this little-known mitzvah.
“Shatnez hasn’t gotten the visibility in the world. For food, you have the FDA, but for clothing you don’t have that. Knowledgeable people know about this and the more knowledgeable the community becomes, they want higher standards,” Tatel said.
The commandment against wearing shatnez is found twice in the Torah. The first is in Leviticus 19:19, which prohibits the interbreeding of different animals, the planting of mixed crops, and the wearing of a garment that contains two materials. However, in Deuteronomy 21: 11, the Torah is more detailed and states: “Lo tilbash shaatnez tzemer u’phishtim yachdav: Thou shalt not wear a mingled stuff, wool and linen together.”
Tatel, who has worked at Boeing for 22 years in the model management group for the 737 program, said that religious authorities can’t really tell you why the mixing of these two threads is not allowed.
“We don’t really know why,” Tatel said. “God said it, and that’s it.”
Pinkus agrees.
“We’re using our technology and we bow to his superior wisdom,” he said.
Once a part of the garment is found to contain shatnez, the customer must take it to a tailor and request a polyester or synthetic replacement part.
“This is a service to the community,” said Tatel, who was raised in Seattle. He told JTNews the practice was something he originally started as a student in the ‘70s to help out the community, and it just kept on going.
Tatel is not too unhappy about handing over the reins to a new rabbi. He’s been at this work for a long time.
“I got my training when I went to a Yeshiva in Baltimore,” he said. “In the summers, when I came back, I would bring my kit with me. When I moved back here in 1984, I started it again.”
Pinkus and Tatel are both members of Bikur Cholim-Machzikay Hadath Congregation.
Inspection fees are generally low. Tatel’s 1997 prices are still advertised today, charging $10 for a suit, $7.50 for a jacket, $2.50 for a pair of pants, and $10 to remove the “non-kosher” threads or padding.
Tatel always investigated commonly used tailoring support pieces like canvas, which will change color after being treated with a solution, or will have a unique smell when burned. He warns all those who want to avoid the forbidden blend of materials that mislabeling is more common than most people think.
“Most of the shatnez issues will be in the men’s garments and it’s in 95 percent of kids’ stuff,” said Tatel. “They put a lot more stiffeners and canvas in them. For women, it’s generally the shell and the liner and that’s it.”
“You would be surprised how often [clothes] are mislabeled,” Pinkus said. “And you wouldn’t believe the many different parts of a suit or a jacket. We learn how to carefully examine it without doing damage to the garment. It comes back to the client virtually the same.”
As investigators, Pinkus said, they take fiber samples from different parts of the fabric then put it under a microscope.
“You have no idea what’s in other parts of the garment, like the stitching or the shoulder pads,” he said.
What’s Tatel’s best piece of advice to consumers trying to keep this commandment?
“Test first, then alter it,” he said. “This way you can return it to the store. They’re not required to tell you anything except the shell and the lining. You can’t trust the labels.”
Can’t find the time to make an appointment or have too many clothes to test? Pinkus has a solution for that.
“We also do house calls,” he added. “We’ll come to your house and check them all on the spot.”
For more information about getting a clothing inspection, contact 206-203-3739 or nwshatnez@gmail.com.