Comment of the day

Marty Bluke, in a link in the comments to this guest post re hair covering for women, published by Hadassah Sabo Milner on DovBear's blog, shares his post "Why don't girls cover their hair when davening?"

"The Shulchan Aruch (סי' צ"א סע' ג) paskens [presents a ruling that's binding in halachah/Jewish religious law] that it is אסור [forbidden] to say a Beracha [blessing] without a head covering. The Shulchan Aruch is based on 1 opinion in מסכת סופרים which Rabenu Yerucham paskens like l'halacha. The Mishna Berura (סי' ב' ס"ק י"ב) paskens like the shulchan aruch.By issurim [when it comes to prohibitions], there is no distinction between men and women, issurim apply to both equally. Therefore, this issur of not saying berachos [blessings] without a head covering should apply to women as well. We don't find any source to distinguish here between men and women.

In fact, the sefer ישכיל עבדי draws exactly this conclusion. He quotes the shulchan aruch and says he doesn't understand how the Beis Yakov's [yeshivot/Jewish day schools for girls] allows [sic] the girls to daven [pray] without covering their heads.

[ . . . snip . . . ]

The Charedi [fervently Orthodox] world has adopted so many wilder chumras [stringent observances that go beyond what Jewish law requires] why is this one left behind? There is no question that this chumra has much more basis then disallowing certain color stockings."

At 11:39 PM, thanbo said...
. . . It religiously empowers women, while stockings and sleeve length are about socially repressing them. And anything that religiously empowers women is modernishe and assur [forbidden] like the plague. [bold added]