Apr 07, 2026

Ellie Rose's Mountain Landscape Tallit Gadol

by Anna Abramzon

Remember Ellie and Jim and their Adventure Seeker Ketubah?

Since their stunning wedding, Ellie and Jim had had an adorable little baby and were settling into their community in San Francisco.

As they became more and more involved in synagogue life, Ellie reached out to me with a project idea.

"Finding myself constantly reaching to learn and participate in more and more aspects of Jewish life, I decided I wanted something more than my current Tallis. I wanted a Tallis gadol. The idea was to be able to fully wrap myself in Judaism when I am praying, as I dive deeper into what being Jewish means for me."

A tallis (or tallit) gadol is translated as a "large tallit." A Tallit Gadol is blanket sized, so a different look and feeling than the shawl style tallitot that many people receive for the Bnei Mitzvot. Ellie wanted her new custom tallit to be inspired by the painting I made for their ketubah, because as Ellie told me "working with you was such a joy and you did such a great job capturing so much of our family story there already." Aaaaaw!!! Music to my ears!

"As the only Jewish adult in my household (my spouse is non affiliated)- I also wanted something I could wrap myself, my spouse, and our daughter in whenever we were together in temple."

I loved this idea! This would be the first Tallit Gadol I ever made and we all know I love a challenge.

The Sketches

I presented Ellie Rose with a few different design options. All these tallit variations utilized the art from Ellie and Jim's ketubah, but they were all different too. I made her both mockups of the full tallit and a fashion illustration of each so she could get a sense of how the tallit would drape when she wore it.

Some more cool customizations

We had a winner with sketch D! But Ellie Rose had some more cool ideas to add to the project. First of all, Ellie Rose had a very special request for her tzitzit. She wanted to know if we could make them rainbow colored.

" The rainbow tsitsit are a nod to my lovely congregation, Sha’ar Zahav, which is the historic LGBTQ+ temple of San Francisco, and where we are raising our daughter."

We also decided to add textured, metallic and glitter Jewish stars throughout the night sky, in the shapes of her, Jim, and Baby Jazz's horoscope constellations.

And finally for the text on the tallit, Ellie Rose chose "Eli, Eli" by Hannah Szenes. This beautiful poem-turned-song, is one of my absolute favorites. Turned out, that's something Ellie Rose and I have in common. Ellie told me that she chose it because it is close to what her prayers are, and has always been a favorite given her name.

Here is how the fabric came out:

Next we added the sparkly constellation Jewish stars:

Rainbow Tzitzit

When Ellie Rose first requested rainbow tzitzit, I assumed this would be something I could source. It turned out, rainbow tzitzit are not so easy to find. And so I was presented with a new challenge -- dying kosher wool tzitzit!

The experiment was very, very messy, but successful! It made my kitchen look like it had been hit by a color tornado. Trigger warning, this was my counter top:

As you can see, it was not for the faint of heart. But I have never been intimidated by an artistic mess, and in the end it was so worth it!

I was super excited for Ellie Rose to see her custom tallit. I even tried it on and took some photos to give her a sneak peak of the final product:

"Just as with our ketubah project, I’m not sure what exactly I was expecting- and you managed to exceed my expectations nonetheless."

What more could I ask for as feedback? Thank you so much Ellie Rose! And here she is wearing her new tallit gadol to her synagogue, Sha’ar Zahav, for the first time:

Mazel Tov on your new tallit Ellie! May you wear it in good health for many meaningful, joyful Jewish moments, and may you and your beautiful family always feel wrapped in your Judaism. L'chaim!

Have an idea for a custom Judaica project of your own? Don't be shy! Emails make my day.