A lot of shops in this market call things kosher because it helps them sell. We would rather tell you when something is not.
Here is exactly what our labels mean, item by item, so you can check our work.
Shofars
Kosher for blowing means the horn is hollow, from a permitted animal, uncoated inside and out, with a bare mouthpiece.
Decorative means it is not. The usual reason is a coating. Silver plating, gold plating and paint all change the way a horn resonates, and a coated mouthpiece sits between the blower and the horn — so a plated shofar is a display piece, however beautiful. Interior plating is worse. Carving and engraving are different: they cut into the horn rather than covering it, so an engraved shofar keeps its own voice.
Some notes on species. The ram's horn is preferred and carries the memory of the Akedah. Kudu and ibex are permitted and widely used. Cow and ox are excluded. Deer antler is not horn at all — it is solid bone — and cannot be a shofar. Oryx and gemsbok are contested, and where we stock them we will say so rather than paper over the dispute.
A lengthwise crack running less than half the horn does not disqualify it, and small holes are acceptable where the sound is unchanged.
Tallitot and tzitzit
Tzitzit must be tied onto the garment. A tassel that is sewn on or clipped on is not valid tzitzit, no matter what it looks like. Where we sell a shawl with attached decoration rather than tied tzitzit, we call it a decorative prayer shawl and we do not use the word kosher.
On every tallit page we state four things: whether the strings are hand-spun or machine-spun, whether they were spun lishmah under supervision, whether the tzitzit arrive tied or untied, and which tying custom was used. Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Chabad and Yemenite tyings are genuinely different products and you should not have to find out which one you bought after it arrives.
Mezuzah cases
The case is hardware. It has no requirements of its own — plastic, stone and silver are equally acceptable — and it confers nothing. The entire religious substance of a mezuzah is the klaf, the scroll, which must be handwritten by a qualified scribe on parchment prepared for the purpose, with no letter touching another.
Printed scrolls are not kosher. Mass-produced miniature scrolls are rarely kosher. So when we sell a case alone we put case only, kosher scroll not included in the title, and when a decorative scroll ships in the box we say non-kosher scroll included. A beautiful case mounted empty is a decoration on a doorframe, and you deserve to know that before you hang it.
Chanukiot
Eight lights in a straight line, level with one another or on an even slant, with the shamash raised or offset in a holder of its own. Circular arrangements, staggered heights and electric bulbs are decorative. Where a designer piece is lovely but does not meet the form, we will list it as decor.
Also worth saying plainly, because it trips people up: a chanukiah has nine branches. The seven-branch Temple menorah is a different object and is not used for Chanukah.
Torah scroll art and replicas
Anything we sell as a scroll, miniature or wall piece is a replica. It is not written by a scribe on prepared parchment and it is not read from liturgically. A genuine sefer Torah is not ordinary merchandise and we do not treat it as such.
Anointing oils
Commercial oils from Jerusalem are scented olive oil — frankincense, myrrh, spikenard and the rest. They are not the anointing oil of Exodus 30, whose formula Scripture forbids reproducing. We will not describe an oil as healing or therapeutic, because it is not a medicine and we are not going to imply that it is.
When we are not sure
If a maker cannot tell us how something was made, we will not make a kosher claim on their behalf. You will see phrases like we could not verify on our pages. That is not hedging — it is the honest state of our knowledge, and we would rather show it to you than fill the gap with confidence we have not earned.
If you believe we have labeled something wrongly, please write to us. We will check it, and if you are right we will change the page and say so.