From veil to wig: Jewish women's hair covering

Judaism, Fall, 1993 by Leila Leah Bronner

(9.)The Hatam Sofer (1762-1839) represents an extremist position arising out of opposition to the incipient German Reform movement, having ruled that from his time forward no distinction was to be made between the smallest custom and a Biblical prohibition (See Encyclopedia Judaica, s.v. "Moses Sofer," XV, 79).

(10.)Encyclopedia Judaica, s.v. "Minhag" (M. Elon), XII, 8; and M. Elon, "Minhag," in The Principles of Jewish Law, ed. M. Elon, The Institute for Research in Jewish Law 6 (Jerusalem: Keter, 1975), pp. 91-110.

(11.)Encyclopedia Talmudit [Talmudic Encyclopedia], s.v. "Dat Yehudit," VIII, 19 [Hebrew]; Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Nashim, Hilkhot Ishut 24:12.

(12.)Aline Rousselle, "Body Politics in Ancient Rome," in A History of Women in the West, I. From Ancient Goddesses to Christian Saints, ed. P.S. Pantel (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1992), p. 315.

(13.)I Corinthians 11:3-16; see also L.J. Archer, Her Price is Beyond Rubies: The Jewish Woman in Graeco-Roman Palestine, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement, Series 60 (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1990), pp. 212 and 247-248.

(14.)M.Ketubot 7:6. The translation is that of H. Danby, The Mishnah (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1933, rpt. 1983). J. Neusner (The Mishnah: A New Translation [New Haven: Yale University, 1988]) translates "with her hair flowing loose."

(15.)B. Ketubot 72a-b.

(16.)This view is attributed here to R. Ishmael.

(17.)This view is attributed in the preceding example (from B. Ketubot) to Rabbi Ishmael.

(18.)Sifrei Ba-Midbar, Pisqa Nas's 11. These two very similar pericopes (B. Ketubot 72a-b and Sifrei), i.e., that the law of sotah teaches that Jewish women were not to uncover their hair, were redacted differently in their separate Talmudic and Midrashic contexts, with the result that two contradictory views are attributed to R. Ishmael. Whereas the passage in Ketubot flows smoothly, consistently supporting the argument that parah means "uncovered" and that Jewish women are not to uncover their heads, the pericope in Sifrei appears to be displaced and is inconsistent with the argument that precedes it, namely, that parah means "to dishevel."

(19.)M. Sotah 1:5.

(20.)M. Jastrow, Dictionary of Talmud Babli, Yerushalmi, Midrashic Literature and Targumim (New York: Pardes Publishing House, 1950), p. 1033.

(21.)Rashi on Num. 5:18.

(22.)Rashi on B. Sotah 8a; see also his commentary on B. Ketubot 72b.

(23.)T. Sotah 3; A. Hoffer, "Which Disheveling [Uncovering] of Hair for Women is Biblically Prohibited?" Hazofeh Lehakhmat Yisrael 12 (1928): 330-335; M.J. Broyde, p. 85.

(24.)B. Sotah 8a (on M. Sotah 1:5) reads:

Our rabbis taught: "And he will parah the head of the woman." It states only her head; how to I know [it also applies to] her body? Scripture states: "ha-ishah" ["the woman," i.e., her womanhood, or the woman herself]. If so, why does Scripture state, "...he will parah her head" [which is included in "the woman"]? It teaches that the priest loosens her hair [but uncovers her bosom!.