My current hat collection
Many thanks to La-Di-Da, my current hat supplier, and to Parkhurst of Canada, which made the last three hats, all of which are unlined (cooler for wearing while dancing!) washable 100% cotton.
Considering the fact that I hate clothes-shopping, I've been pleasantly surprised to find that hat-shopping is not only much easier (since I don't have to keep running back and forth between the dressing room and the display floor), but can be fun--I'm amused by the obviously-too-large hats that the saleswomen occasionally try to sell me. "What do you mean, it fits? If it fell any further down on my face, I wouldn't be able to see!" :) (Small head + short hair = hat covering eyes :) ) Hat-shopping is certainly more fun than finishing up the post-apartment-painting and pre-carpet-installation housecleaning.
posted by Shira Salamone at 11:38 PM
8 Comments:
They are quite good with their returns policy though. I went to get two berets from them, and could not try them on for size (the berets would have been ruined if I had tried to fit them over my scarf!). They were very understanding that I couldn't take off my scarf, and suggested that I try them on at home and they would take them back if the size was wrong.
"They are quite good with their returns policy . . . "
Definitely.
What, you've never seem a guy pull off his hat with one hand while placing a kippah/yarmulke/skullcap on his head at the same time with the other hand? :) I will admit, though, that trying to remove one head-covering while putting another one on at the same time may be even more challenging when one of the head-coverings needs to be tied.
That won't work because a married Jewish woman is not supposed to uncover her hair in public if a man could see it (according to many opinions). Laws of covering hair are very different from kippah wearing which is a custom. That's why many frum married women will not get haircuts in salons--the sheitel macher or a husband does it.
"Laws of covering hair are very different from kippah wearing which is a custom."
True, RivkaYael, but, referring back to your point that "a married Jewish woman is not supposed to uncover her hair in public if a man could see it," I'm in favor of the "(according to many opinions)" part. If you haven't already read “Hide & Seek: Jewish Women and Hair Covering,” which I reviewed here, I would recommend it. The opinions presented in this book range (a) a married woman must cover every strand of hair to (z) a married woman is permitted to go bareheaded in times and places in which exposed hair is not considered indecent. You're in the middle, covering a good part of your hair. I'm at the "meikil" (lenient) end of the opinion spectrum, and only cover my hair (partially) when in a synagogue building, when praying, and when reading, singing, or listening to sacred texts/divrei kodesh. That's why I always cover my head at Jewish-music concerts--I assume that most of the lyrics will be quotes from divrei kodesh.
True, there are such opinions, but they are very much bedieved and I choose not to rely upon them at this point. Based on what I know, I would say that the halachic consensus is that hair must be covered. The main argument in R' Broyde's article is the difference between levels of obligation to cover hair (d'rabbanan or d'oraita)--it doesn't change the idea that one is obligated (and there are actual laws governing this).
The psak that I follow at this point is that I will only expose up to a tefach of my hair, and will not cover my hair with a sheitel.
In the interests of internal consistency, I do not think that it is correct to say that I "am not obligated" even according to the most lenient views. The dichotomy between "machmir" and "meikel" is a false dichotomy here--the different ways of covering hair come from differing internally consistent ways of looking at the halachic system, and everyone is "machmir" or "meikel" in different ways.
"In the interests of internal consistency, I do not think that it is correct to say that I "am not obligated" even according to the most lenient views."
RivkaYael, this is an issue that I'll really have to study and think about if we choose to become Orthodox. For one thing, I'm extremely prone to overheating, and could quite possibly find wearing a hat outdoors during the summer, or indoors in an overheated room, a real health problem. (I have another health concern, as well: I've already learned from experience that I can get a headache from wearing a head-covering that's too tight across the forehead.) For closers, I've read too many tales of married Orthodox women losing their hair from keeping it covered, even when they never wear sheitlach/wigs, and my hair is already too thin. So call it a combination of health and vanity, but I'm really not ready for this.
Haircovering is not an issue that would affect whether people eat in your home or not. "Chezkat kashrut" (assumption that one can be relied upon) is based on shmirat shabbat, and whether one can eat in a given person's home depends on whether one trusts the person to be shomer shabbat and kashrut.
As you may have observed, the wives of many important rabbis don't cover their hair. That was the sociological norm then (I'd definitely consider antisemitism as grounds to take the bedieved stance--and I know people who would wear a snood in the US but a sheitel in certain parts of Europe). Medical conditions are another reason to give heterim for people not to cover hair.
All that being said--the halachic obligation doesn't change, but its practice varies from place to place. And this particular issue probably would not affect your standing in the community.
Actually, I usually end up keeping a hat on outdoors because I need the visor for my light-sensitive eyes in the summer and my always-freezing ears covered in the winter. :) But I always go bareheaded indoors, unless I'm in a synagogue, praying elsewhere, or reading divrei kodesh/sacred texts.
I also keep my head covered while in a sukkah, because I consider that to be as sacred a space as a synagogue. Boy, was I hot while spending hours eating dinner and hanging out in our friends' shul's sukkah this past Sukkot! I guess that makes me both a figurative and a literal hot-head. :)
So it's nice to know that "Haircovering is not an issue that would affect whether people eat in your home or not" and that "this particular issue probably would not affect your standing in the community."
Thanks for the information and the reassurance, RivkaYael.
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