Kippots for Women!
- The Doc, a true feminist, believes women should get kippots favors just as men get kippots for men. Why not? But anyway, it is a matter of the rules of your shul.
- If your temple provides head coverings for women, this is one option. Otherwise, you can be a little fancier and prepare women kippots on your own for the Bar/Bat Mitzvah. Look for tulle circles at a good price. Get a piece of it, fold it in half and then in half again. Decorate it with a ribbon
and maybe also an artificial silk flower. Tada!
- Online shops offer additional alternatives. Lovely women’s headcovers at Judaism.com are a good option. The Doc prefers the white ones. Why wear black on a simcha?
- Use bobby pins
for the Ladies’ head coverings. Hot glue them to the back.
Hair Covering for Women in Judaism
Fancy Lace Headcovers
- Halacha (Jewish law) requires married women to cover their hair. This custom stem from ideas of modesty.
- Conservative and Reform Judaism do not generally require women to wear head-coverings. However, some
liberal Conservative synagogues suggest that women, married or not, wear kippots similar to
those worn by men, and some require it, not for modesty, but as a feminist gesture of egalitarianism. - Virtually all married Modern Orthodox women wear a head or hair covering in synagogue. The most
common head / hair covering for Modern Orthodox women is a hat or beret; younger married Modern
Orthodox women will wear baseball caps and bandanas when dressed casually. - Modern Orthodox women whose clothes are somewhat “hippyish” wear bright and colorful scarves tied in a number of ways. A style of half wig known as a “fall” has become increasingly common in many segments of Modern and Haredi Orthodox communities. It is usually worn either with a hat or headband.
- The most common hair coverings in the Haredi community are the snood, the tichel (scarf), and the sheitel (wig); some
Haredi women cover their hair with hats or berets. Some married Modern Orthodox women cover their heads, some
cover their hair (except for a few inches at the hairline), and some do not cover their heads or hair at all, though this
arguably contradicts the Halacha. - Rashi, famed as the author of the first comprehensive commentaries on the Talmud, Torah and Tanakh, also comments that in the procedure regarding a woman who is suspected of adultery, the kohen uncovers her hair, and from this we learn that it is shameful for Jewish women to have their hair uncovered.
