Garment Scraps
1. Big textile factories today often put all of their leftover cloth into a special shredding container which produces a granulated, almost flour-like material. This is recombined and used in things like shoulder pads for coats/suit jackets or cushion stuffing. Sometimes the shredded fabric contains many original, whole threads and is respun into recycled or mixed fibers which are then used in things like shoulder pads, winter coat linings, or piping. The poskim discuss the shaatnez status of these products, as will be explained.
2. Flour-like shreds. Some poskim hold when the scraps are made into a flour-like material and then recombined, the new material has the status of "other materials" [i.e., neither wool nor linen], even if it contains wool and linen. This is because it is something new that did not exist before ["ponim chadoshos"] (סדרי טהרה יו"ד סי' ק"צ סקי"ט, שו"ת חת"ס ח"ו סי' פ"א, הגר"ח קנייבסקי, דרך אמונה כלאים פ"י ה"ב בבה"ל ד"ה לבדים ), among other reasons (שו"ת באר עשק סי' י"ב ); others dispute this application of "ponim chadoshos" (נודב"י מהדו"ת סי' ק"ה, שו"ת הלכות קטנות ח"ב סי' ל"ד, תשו' הנדפס בסוף ח"א ). Even according to the latter opinion, when wool and linen constitute the minority of the mixture, as is usually the case, one may be meikel due to the rule of bittul berov (see Issue 115, Paragraph 19 and on).
3. Shredded into fibers. If the fabric scraps were shredded into fibers and no threads remained, since wool and linen usually do not constitute the majority, they are botul berov (as explained in Issue 115, ibid.). Even if some distinguishable wool or linen fibers stayed intact, in this case one may certainly be meikel and follow the poskim who hold they are botul (ibid., 21), especially since it is very unlikely that a linen fiber ended up as part of a thread in a wool garment or vice versa (הגר"ש וואזנר, השעטנז להלכה פ"ב הע' מ"ח ).
4. Threads mixed in. If many threads are in the blend of shredded scraps and some of them are identifiably wool, the blend may not be used in a linen garment, and vice versa, since full threads are not botul (Issue 115, Paragraph 14).
5. If the blend has full threads but one cannot tell that they are wool or linen, strictly speaking one may use it in a wool or linen garment since it is a double sofeik: maybe there are no wool or linen threads, and even if there are, perhaps the stitching in the garment does not connect the wool and linen, in which case there is no issur according to most poskim (שו"ת טוב טעם ודעת מהדו"ק סי' רנ"ה ).
Linings and Shoulder Pads
6. Sometimes this type of recycled fabric is stuffed between two pieces of fabric sewn together to be used as a shoulder pad for a jacket or coat. If, for the most part, the stuffing is made up of just fibers, many poskim permit its use based on the above (3). Also, the stitching connecting the two pieces of fabric is not considered to be attached to the stuffing, and we are not afraid that wool and linen fibers got sewn together between the stitching (שו"ת חשב האפוד ח"א סי' ס"ד בשם גאב"ד גייטסהעד הגר"נ שקוביצקי , שו"ת מנח"י ח"ו סי' קי"ד ).
7. Practically, it depends on the shaatnez lab – some are machmir; some are meikel; some explain the different opinions to the client and allow him to decide; and some tell the client that it is kosher but do not affix a tag with the lab’s hechsher to the garment.
Relying on Labels
8. Accuracy of labels. Throughout most of the world, manufacturers are legally required to list the materials in their garments. Some therefore claim that one may rely on a label for hilchos shaatnez. Practically, the information on the label is unreliable in many places, especially Eretz Yisroel. This is because a lot of clothes are imported from around the world with labels in foreign languages. Although the law requires importers to affix new labels printed in the local language, the authorities do not enforce it well. The labels are often misleading as importers want to avoid the costs involved in printing a different label for each brand and type of garment, especially for women’s clothes. Instead, they print a few labels and attach whatever they have at hand to the garments. Labeling laws are not well-enforced in America either (תורת השעטנז ע מ ' תנז ).
9. One must certainly read labels to ensure there is no obvious and clear shaatnez. Still, when it comes to garments that frequently contain shaatnez, even if the label indicates there is no shaatnez, they must be checked to make certain they are, in fact, shaatnez free.
10. Labels do not list everything. Another reason labels are unreliable both in Eretz Yisroel and throughout the world is that companies are usually only required to list the main components of garments. Fibers that make up less than 5%, or in Eretz Yisroel, less than 15%, do not need to be listed. Thus, even if the label is accurate and indicates there is no shaatnez, a garment may have some shaatnez threads or fabric that are not part of its main composition. Also, clothing with ornamental needlework, such as embroidery or appliqué – which are not required to be listed – are occasionally shaatnez.
11. The label itself. Sometimes the label itself is made of linen and sewn into a wool garment. Therefore, if the label is made of a thick weave, one should check to see if it is linen. Also, some labels are attached to wool garments with a linen thread.
Checking a Sample of Garments
12. Many importers and storeowners today want business from frum Jews. Therefore, before they order a shipment, or right when they receive a shipment, they send some items to a lab. If those are kosher, they rely on that to import or sell everything in the shipment. We will discuss under what circumstances this suffices.
Significant Minority [“Mi’ut Hamotzui”]
13. Checking a sample does not permit the rest if they are the sort of garment of which a significant minority contains shaatnez (see Issue 115, Paragraph 28). If a significant minority of a certain type of garment contains shaatnez, every garment must be checked individually, as we find by checking food for bugs (שו"ת הרשב"א ח"א סי' רע"ד, רמ"א יו"ד סי' פ"ד ס"ח, שו"ת עולת יצחק ציוני סי' קע"ה ).
Large Quantity Made by Big Factories
14. For garments produced in large quantities by big factories, there is room to rely on checking a sample of the garments. Three of each type of garment should be checked (כמו בתפילין, שו"ע או"ח סי' ל"ט ס"ט ). If those are found to be free of shaatnez, the rest of that exact brand and type of garment do not need to be checked since all the garments of the same type made by the same brand are usually identical. Garments that are not that exact type and make, no matter how similar, must either be checked individually or undergo a sample check (השעטנז להלכה פ"ו אות ל"א ). A frum, pious Jew is believed if he says he did this (see below, 17).
15. Even if a store or importer checked a sample of their clothes to avoid the hassle of checking every item, it is proper for a G-d-fearing individual to check individual garments that he purchases (מו"ר בעל שבט הקהתי ).
16. Women’s clothes. Producers of women’s clothes do not usually make many of each type of item and stores generally have only a handful of each item. Thus, one should not rely on checking a sample of a type of garment to permit the rest made by that company since a sample of each type of garment must be checked and two types of garments, even when they appear similar, can easily have different compositions.
Trusting a Seller that He Checked a Sample
17. A company owner or seller who is either not frum r”l or a simple, uninformed person not familiar with the nuances of the issur of shaatnez (רמ"א יו"ד סי' קי"ט ס"ז ) cannot be trusted about shaatnez or that he checked a sample of clothes unless he has a letter attesting that he checked a sample of a specific type of garment. This is because people who want to sell to frum Jews often send a few items of clothing to be checked and then tell their customers that they sent their garments to be checked [even if they did not bother to find out the results, as long as they can say they “sent the garments to be checked” (heard from a shaatnez checker)]; they do not usually send a sample of each type of garment, yet they sell everything they have from that company anyway.
