We met up with Rabbi Chaim Kirschbaum, the programming director at Camp Yoreh Deah, where the boys learn all kinds of halachic processes, and he told us how the boys learned to make tzitzis from the very first step to the last.
According to halachah, the strings on tzitzis can either be made of wool (from sheep) or linen. Nowadays everyone makes the strings from wool — so it’s time to find a sheep.
Luckily for the campers at Camp Yoreh Deah, they have lots of animals on the grounds. The boys enter the sheep pen and choose a nice fat sheep. The sheep aren’t so excited to have the boys there, Rabbi K. explains, but once you get your hands on a sheep, they’re usually pretty accommodating.
“All winter long, Hashem makes the sheep’s hair grow longer and longer, so that he has a nice warm coat. Come summer, some sheep shed their hair, but others need the farmer to shear them. Then the big, fat sheep become skinny, scrawny sheep,” he explains.
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