IL202984A

IL202984A - Tzitzioth garment

Info

Publication number: IL202984A
Application number: IL202984A
Authority: IL
Original assignee: David Yossef Messika
Priority date: 2009-12-27
Filing date: 2009-12-27
Publication date: 2014-12-31
Also published as: US20110154555A1

Description

Patent Application of David-Yossef Messika For Tzitzioth Garment !?\y υουί. n\ypn FI ELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a garment, more particularly, to a Tzitzioth garment.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION According to the Jewish religious law, (the Halakah), Jewish men are required to wear a garment of religious character called the Tzitzith.

The Tzitzith is a garment consisting of four corners, ("Arba Kan loth"), having eight texti le fringes, ("Tzitzioth"), attached to the garment at each of the four corners of the garment.

The Tzitzioth provide a daily reminder of one's commitment to the mitzvahs of the Torah. The origin of the Tzitzith is in the book of Numbers from the Pentateuch. Tzitzith, singular, and Tzitzioth, at plural is a Hebrew word for a specially braided fringe, attached to each corner of a 'four cornered garment'.

Observant Jewish men wear an "Arba Kanfoth" garment, with four Tzitzioth attached, as a separate garment underneath a shirt. This is a burden, especially during the hotter summer months. One would suggest attaching the Tzitzioth to a regular shirt, thus sparing the need for an additional garment to be worn under the shirt, however this poses a Halakhic problem (with Jewish law), seeing as a regular shirt does not have four separate corners at its bottom, and t-shirts do not have any corners at all, therefore, it is impossible to attach the Tzitzioth to regular shirts. One would also suggest wearing a shirt with long slits up the bottom of its sides, to provide the desired four corners, however the problem with this solution is that these slits would be visible, and this is both less aesthetically pleasing and also immodest.

Figure 1 of the prior art illustrates a plan view of a traditional garment 10 with religious fringes, the Tzitzioth 16.

The rectangular-shaped traditional garment 10 has four corner sections 12, each corner section is reinforced, with two layers of fabric. Four holes 14, are formed in the respective corner sections 12 to which rel igious fringes, Tzitzioth 16 are tied.

Various solutions have been proposed for the aforementioned problem over the many years it has been customary to wear Tzitzioth, however the only solution in common use is an "Arba Kanfoth" garment with Tzitzioth, which is open at the sides, with a button for attaching each side, however other than the point of attachment with the button, or points i f there is more than one button, the side remains open and therefore i f there is no other garment worn above it, the wearer's body or undergarment (such as an undershirt) is entirely visible.

A garment with Tzitzioth, which is designed to overcome difficulties of d iscom lbrt, unvvieldiness, and aesthetic displeasure, whi le maintain ing Halakhic law, is described in U .S. Pat. No. 4,485,494 of Segol, wh ich is incorporated by reference for al l purposes as if ful ly set forth herein.

Figure 2a of the prior art i l lustrates a front and partial fragmentary view of the Segol garment 20, upon which the section plane a— a is marked.

Segol's garment 20 is formed of a front piece 21 and back piece 22 with the back piece overlying the front piece. Segol's garment, when viewed from the front, and from the back, appears to be a conventional closed garment but is in fact, formed to be open. The opening is approximately 2/3 along the length of the garment. Four comers are formed with holes for attaching Tzitzioth 16 according to Halakah.

Figure 2b of the prior art is a sectional view taken along section plane a— a of Figure l a.

The present illustration clearly shows the ample overlapping of the front piece 21 and the back piece 22.

SUM MARY OF THE INV ENTION According to the teaching of the present invention there is provided a Tzitzioth garment including: (a) a Tzitzioth garment back piece; (b) at least one Tzitzioth garment front piece attached to the Tzitzioth garment back piece, wherein the Tzitzioth garment back piece is separated from the Tzitzioth garment front piece by two cuts; (c) an attached coupling means front layer, attached to the at least one Tzitzioth garment front piece; and (d) an attached coupl ing means back layer attached to the Tzitzioth garment back piece.

According to further teaching of the present invention the coupling means front layer is a Velcro coupling means front layer, and wherein the coupl ing means back layer is a Velcro coupl ing means back layer.

Accord ing to further teaching of the present invention the Tzitzioth garment further includes: (e) four holes.

According to further teaching of the present invention each one of the holes has one Tzitzioth threaded into it.

According to further teaching of the present invention the Tzitzioth garment further including: (g) two sleeves, wherein each sleeve is attached to the Tzitzioth garment back piece, and to at least one Tzitzioth garment front piece.

According to the teaching of the present invention there is provided a method for enabling a user to fulfi ll the Jewish rel igious law, without the need to wear any other top garment in addition to a shirt that he is wearing, the method including the stages of: (a) wearing a Tzitzioth garment.

According to further teaching of the present invention the method further includes: (b) disconnection the Velcro coupling means front layer from the Velcro coupl ing means back layer.

According to further teaching of the present invention the method further includes: (b) connecting the Velcro coupling means front layer to the Velcro coupling means back layer.

Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention is herein described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: Figure I of the prior art illustrates a plan view of a religious garment with Pzitzioth ; Figure 2a of the prior art illustrates a front and partial fragmentary view of the garment of Segol's invention; Figure 2b of the prior art is a sectional view taken along line a— a of Figure l a.

Figure 3 is a schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary embodiment of a Tzitzioth garment, according to the present invention, worn by a user and closed at both sides.

Figure 4 is a schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary embodiment of a Tzitzioth garment, according to the present invention, worn by a user and open on its left side.

Figure 5 is a schematic illustration of a magnified area containing two corner sections of an illustrative, exemplary embodiment of a Tzitzioth garment, according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS The present invention is of a Tzitzioth garment.

The principles and operation of a Tzitzioth garment according to the present invention may be better understood with reference to the drawings and the accompanying description.

Before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangement of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings.

Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. The materials, dimensions, methods, and examples provided herein are illustrative only and are not intended to be limiting.

The following list is a legend of the numbering of the application illustrations: rectangular-shaped traditional garment 12 corner section 14 hole 16 religious fringes, Tzitzioth 18 head opening Segol's garment 21 Segol's garment front piece 22 Segol's garment back piece 3 1 attached coupling means front layer 32 attached coupling means back layer 34 rounded corner 41 Tzitzioth garment front piece 42 Tzitzioth garment back piece 43 sleeve 44 shoulder line 45 Tzitzioth garment front piece lower edge 46 Tzitzioth garment back piece lower edge 100 Tzitzioth garment The Tzitzioth garment, according to the present invention, is a shirt, both sides of which have cuts that can extend up to the opening for the wearer's arms.

The Tzitzioth garment has four corners, one at each end of a cut, where it intersects with the lower hem of the Tzitzioth garment. Therefore, by Halakhic standards, this is a garment with four corners ("arba kanfolh"), and each corner has an attached Tzitzith. Furthermore, to enable closing the cuts of the Tzitzioth garment, the hem of each cut, along its entire length or part of it, has an attached coupling means, such as Velcro coupling means, composed of Velcro coupling means front layer and Velcro coupling means back layer.

Note: Velcro is a brand name for a coupling means composed of two layers. One layer typically includes a "hook" side, while the other layer includes a "loop" side.

When the coupling means are coupled together, the garment appears with an aesthetically pleasing appearance. If the shirt is a button-down shirt with a vertical cut along its entire length, there are typically two additional corners to the garment. To prevent use of a Tzitzioth garment with six corners, these two corners can be rounded. The given result according to the present invention is a Tzitzioth garment each of whose both sides, right and left, have two states, open and closed. The open mode meets the requirements of Halakhic law, while the closed mod provides com fort, modesty, and aesthetic pleasure. The Tzitzioth garment can be engaged with a coupling means, such as Velcro coupling means, of a different color than the color of the shirt, thus serving an additional Halakhic purpose.

Referring now to the drawings, Figure 3 is a schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary embodiment of a Tzitzioth garment 100, according to the present invention, worn by a user and closed on both sides, right and left.

The Tzitzioth garment 100 is composed of at least two parts, a Tzitzioth garment front piece 41 and a Tzitzioth garment back piece 42, which are connected to each other along the shoulder line 44, and i f there are sleeves 43, they can also serve to connect both aforementioned parts. In various embodiments, the Tzitzioth garment front piece 41 is also composed of two separate parts, closed by means of a zipper, buttons, or snaps. Both parts are separated by cut 36. The connection between both part can be sewn, however they can also be made of a single sheet.

The closure is achieved by attaching Velcro coupl ing means back layer 32, shown here from the back through the fabric of the shirt, to Velcro coupling means front layer (31 ), not shown in the present illustration. All four corner sections 12 at the bottom of the shirt, where the bottom hem edge (the Tzitzioth garment front piece lower edge (45) an the Tzitzioth garment back piece lower edge (46)), of the Tzitzioth garment 100, meet with an external end of a Velcro coupling means layer. Corner section 12 can be strengthened with one or more layers of fabric, or not be strengthened. Hole 14 is inserted with religious fringes, Tzitzioth 16.

The Tzitzioth arment 100 shown in the present illustration has rounded corners 34 in the intersection between its bottom hem and the hems on which the buttons and buttonholes are sewn (though not shown in the illustration).

Figure 4 is a schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary embodiment of a Tzitzioth garment 100, according to the present invention, worn by a user and open on its left side, with the user hoisting its front left part by holding it close to its corner section 12 with his right hand, so that his undergarment is now visible.

Figure 5 is a schematic illustration of a magnification of the area of two corner sections 12 of an illustrative, exemplary embodiment of a Tzitzioth garment 100, according to the present invention.

Between the Velcro coupling means front layer 31 and the Velcro coupling means back layer 32, there is a cut 36.

The present illustration shows the detail of one corner section 12, the one attached to the Velcro coupling means first layer 31 , which is strengthened with an additional layer of fabric.

Two holes 14, one of which is shown in the present i llustration, are in very close proximity, relative to the dimensions of the Tzitzioth garment 100, to the area of intersection of the end of the Velcro coupling means front layer 31 with the Tzitzioth garment front piece lower edge 45.

Two additional holes 14, one of which is shown in the present illustration, are in very close proximity, relative to the dimensions of the Tzitzioth garment 100, to the area of intersection of the end of the Velcro coupling means back layer 32 with the Tzitzioth garment back piece lower edge 46.

While the invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, it will be appreciated that many variations, modifications and other appl ications of the invention may be made.

Claims

202984/2 WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A tzitzioth garment comprising: (a) a tzitzioth garment back piece; (b) at least one tzitzioth garment front piece attached to said tzitzioth garment back piece, wherein said tzitzioth garment back piece is separated from said tzitzioth garment front piece by two cuts; (c) an attached coupling means front layer, attached to said at least one tzitzioth garment front piece; and (d) an attached coupling means back layer attached to said tzitzioth garment back piece, wherein said coupling means front layer is a Velcro coupling means front layer, and wherein said coupling means back layer is a Velcro coupling means back layer.

2. A tzitzioth garment comprising: (a) a tzitzioth garment back piece; (b) at least one tzitzioth garment front piece attached to said tzitzioth garment back piece, wherein said tzitzioth garment back piece is separated from said tzitzioth garment front piece by two cuts; (c) an attached coupling means front layer, attached to said at least one tzitzioth garment front piece; (d) an attached coupling means back layer attached to said tzitzioth garment back piece; and (e) four holes.

3. The tzitzioth garment of claim 1, further comprising: (e) four holes; and 202984/2 (f) four tzitzioth, wherein each tzitzith is threaded through one of said holes.

4. The tzitzioth garment of claim 3, wherein through each one of said holes there is threaded one tzitzith.

5. The tzitzioth garment of claim 3, further comprising: (g) two sleeves, wherein each sleeve is attached to said tzitzioth garment back piece, and to at least one tzitzioth garment front piece.

6. A method for enabling a user to fulfill the Jewish religious law, without the need to wear any top garment in addition to a shirt that he is wearing, the method comprising the stages of: (a) wearing a tzitzioth garment, wherein said tzitzioth garment includes: (i) a tzitzioth garment back piece; (ii) at least one tzitzioth garment front piece attached to said tzitzioth garment back piece, wherein said tzitzioth garment back piece is separated from said tzitzioth garment front piece by two cuts; (ii) a Velcro coupling means front layer, attached to said at least one tzitzioth garment front piece; (iv) a Velcro coupling means back layer attached to said tzitzioth garment back piece; (v) four holes; and (vi) four tzitzioth, wherein each tzitzith is threaded through one of said holes, wherein through each one of said holes there is threaded one tzitzith.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising: (b) disconnection of said Velcro coupling means front layer from said Velcro coupling means back layer.