RITUAL FRINGES FOR A GARMENT

Abstract

A ritual fringe garment according to Jewish law and custom, being a shirt, both sides of which have cuts that can extend up to the opening for the wearer's arms, wherein in order to enable closing the cuts of the ritual fringes for a garment, the hem of each cut, along its entire length or part of it, has a coupling means, such as a hook and loop fastener.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority from Israeli Patent Application No. 202984, filed on Dec. 27, 2009, which is incorporated in its entirety herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a garment, more particularly, to ritual fringes for a garment.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

According to Jewish religious law, Jewish men are required to wear a garment of religious character having ritual fringes (known in Hebrew as a “Tzitzith”).

The ritual fringe garment has exactly four corners, with eight textile fringes attached at each of the four corners of the garment.

According to the Jewish religious law, the ritual fringe garment provides a daily reminder of one's commitment to the biblical commandments. The origin of the ritual fringe is in the book of Numbers from the Pentateuch.

Observant Jewish men typically wear a four-cornered garment, with ritual fringes attached to each of the four corners of the garment, as a separate garment, for example, underneath a shirt. This may be burdensome, especially during the hotter summer months. One might suggest attaching the ritual fringes to a regular shirt, thus sparing the need for an additional garment to be worn under the shirt, however this poses a problem with the Jewish law, insofar as a regular shirt does not have four separate corners at its bottom (and t-shirts do not have any corners at all), and therefore, the command to wear the fringes does not apply to such garments. One might 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 may be considered by some to be immodest.

FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art plan view of a traditional garment 10 with religious fringes 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 the religious fringes 16 are tied. The garment is intended to be worn by placing the garment over the head via head opening 18.

Various solutions have been proposed for the aforementioned problem over the many years it has been customary to wear the ritual fringe garment, but to date, the only solution in common use is a four cornered garment with ritual fringes, 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 if there is more than one button, the side remains open and therefore if there is no other garment worn above it, the wearer's body or undergarment (such as an undershirt) is entirely visible.

A garment with ritual fringes, which is designed to overcome difficulties of discomfort, unwieldiness, and aesthetic displeasure, while maintaining Jewish law, is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,485,494 of Segol, which is incorporated by reference for all purposes as if fully set forth herein.

FIG. 2a illustrates front and partial fragmentary view of the Segol garment 20 (prior art), 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 ⅔ along the length of the garment. Four corners are formed with holes for attaching ritual fringes 16 according to Jewish law.

FIG. 2b of the prior art is a sectional view taken along section plane a-a of FIG. 1a.

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

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to embodiments of the present invention, there is provided a ritual fringe garment including: (a) a back piece; (b) at least one front piece attached to the back piece, wherein the back piece is separated from the front piece by two cuts; (c) a front layer coupling means, attached to the at least one front piece; and (d) a back layer coupling means attached to the back piece.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the front layer coupling means includes a front layer fastener or other coupling means, for example, a hook and loop fastener such as made by Velcro® USA, Inc., and wherein the back layer coupling means includes a back layer fastener or other coupling means, for example, a hook and loop fastener complementary to the front layer coupling means and adapted to be fastened thereto.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the ritual fringe garment further includes: (e) four holes.

According to an embodiment of the invention, each one of the holes has one group of ritual fringes threaded into it.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the ritual fringe garment further includes: (g) two sleeves, wherein each sleeve is attached to the ritual fringe garment back piece, and to at least one ritual fringe garment front piece.

According to an embodiment of the invention, there is provided a method for enabling a user to fulfill the Jewish religious law, without the need to wear any other top garment in addition to a shirt being worn, the method including the stages of wearing ritual fringe garment. According to an embodiment of the invention, the method further includes disconnecting the front layer coupling means from the back layer coupling means. According to an embodiment of the invention, the method further includes connecting the front layer coupling means from the back layer coupling means.

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:

FIG. 1 illustrates a plan view of a religious garment with ritual fringes according to the prior art;

FIG. 2a illustrates a front and partial fragmentary view of the garment according to the prior art according to the Segol reference;

FIG. 2b is a sectional view taken along line a-a of prior art FIG. 1a;

FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of a ritual fringe garment according to an illustrative embodiment of the present invention, worn by a user and closed at both sides;

FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of a ritual fringe garment according to an illustrative embodiment of the present invention, worn by a user and open on its left side; and

FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of a magnified area showing two corner sections of a ritual fringe according to an illustrative embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a ritual fringe garment.

The principles and operation of embodiments of the ritual fringe 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.

A ritual fringe garment according to an embodiment of 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 ritual fringe garment has four corners, one at each end of a cut, where it intersects with the lower hem of the ritual fringe garment. Therefore, by Jewish law standards, this is a garment with four corners, and each corner has an attached fringe or group of fringes. Furthermore, to enable closing the cuts of the ritual fringe garment, the hem of each cut, along its entire length or part of it, has an attached coupling means, such as hook and loop fastener, including coupling means on the front layer and coupling means on the back layer. It will be recognized that the front layer coupling means may be the hook side, and the back layer may be the loop side, or vice versa.

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 may typically be two additional corners to the garment. To prevent use of a ritual fringe on a garment with six corners, these two corners may be rounded. The given result according to the present invention is a ritual fringe garment each of whose two sides (right and left), have two states: open and closed. The open mode meets the requirements of Jewish law, while the closed mode provides comfort, modesty, and aesthetic pleasure. The ritual fringe garment can be engaged with a coupling means, such as a hook and loop coupling means, of a different color than the color of the shirt, thus serving an additional Jewish law purpose.

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

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

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

The ritual fringe garment 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).

FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary embodiment of a ritual fringe 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.

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

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

The present illustration shows the detail of one corner section 12, the one attached to the hook and loop 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 illustration, are in very close proximity, relative to the dimensions of the ritual fringe garment 100, to the area of intersection of the end of the hook and loop coupling means front layer 31 with the ritual fringe 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 ritual fringe garment 100, to the area of intersection of the end of the hook and loop coupling means back layer 32 with the ritual fringe 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 applications of the invention may be made.

Claims

1. A ritual fringe garment comprising:

a back piece;

at least one front piece attached to said back piece, wherein said back piece is separated from said front piece by two cuts;

a front layer coupling means, attached to said at least one front piece; and

a back layer coupling means attached to said back piece.

2. The ritual fringe garment of claim 1, wherein said front layer coupling means is a first part of a hook and loop fastener, and wherein said back layer coupling means is a second part of a hook and loop fastener.

3. The ritual fringe garment of claim 1, wherein said back piece has two corner sections, wherein said at least one front piece has a corner section, and wherein each of said corner sections has a hole therethrough.

4. The ritual fringe garment of claim 2, wherein said back piece has two corner sections, wherein said at least one front piece has a corner section, and wherein each of said corner sections has a hole therethrough, said ritual fringe garment further comprising:

four ritual fringes, wherein each ritual fringe is threaded through one of said holes.

5. The ritual fringe garment of claim 4, wherein each one of said holes has one ritual fringe threaded therethrough.

6. The ritual fringe garment of claim 4, further comprising:

two sleeves, wherein each sleeve is attached to said garment back piece, and to at least one front piece.

7. 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 step of:

wearing a ritual fringe garment.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said ritual fringe garment includes:

a back piece having two corner sections, each said corner section having a hole therethrough;

at least one front piece attached to said back piece having at least one corner section having a hole therethrough, wherein said back piece is separated from said front piece by two cuts;

a front layer coupling means, attached to said at least one front piece;

a back layer coupling means attached to said back piece; and

four ritual fringes, wherein each ritual fringe is threaded through one of said holes, wherein through each one of said holes there is threaded one ritual fringe.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

disconnecting said front layer coupling means from said back layer coupling means.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

connecting said front layer coupling means to said back layer coupling means.