From veil to wig: Jewish women's hair covering

Judaism, Fall, 1993 by Leila Leah Bronner

To summarize: woman's hair in the Bible is viewed positively, as an adornment to her beauty. It is doubtful that hair covering marked a transition from maidenhood to a married state.

Hair Covering: Law or Custom?

The approach taken by post-Biblical interpreters has been influenced by how they have categorized the practice, whether as law (halakhah) or custom. It is, therefore, appropriate at this point in our study to ask: Was hair covering a custom in the Talmudic period, or a halakhically binding rule? What is the force and authority of custom in Judaism? Religious authorities have disputed the matter through the centuries. The categories have not always been clearly distinguishable, particularly since custom in Judaism often receives the force of law. Jewish law could even be based upon custom; for example, legal rulings sometimes cited custom as a historical, authoritative precedent.(9)

Yet, custom in Judaism, unlike law, "functions without preconceived intent and anonymously."(10) Custom is formulated by the practice of the people, not decreed from on high by authorities. This means that there is a certain anarchist, populist tendency in the process. Discomfort with the undefined lines of authority inherent in custom led some rabbis to formulate the principle that all custom actually comes from earlier, forgotten law (i.e., rather than just from the people). This represents an effort to lend greater legitimacy to what already constituted usual practice.(11)

Custom has a force and dynamic of its own. It is one of the ways in which religious practice develops and is reinterpreted over time. However, the development of custom is not entirely allowed a free reign. Sometimes, a custom was deemed inappropriate, and religious authorities stepped in to fight against it. This seems to be what has happened both in the case of modern women choosing to wear wigs or choosing to uncover their hair, as will be discussed below.

Hair Covering in Classical Rabbinic Sources

In addition to law and custom, Jewish religious practice is subdivided into other categories. In our case, the obscure concept of dat Yehudit plays an important role. Literally, dat Yehudit means "Jewish Law," but this explanation does not tell the whole story. The Mishnah appears to say that the duty to cover hair is a dat Yehudit rather than a Law of Moses, clearly implying that there is a distinction between a "Mosaic Law" and a "Jewish Law" (dat Yehudit). "Mosaic Law" is apparently considered by the Mishnah to be Torah-derived, whereas "Jewish Law" seems to be Jewish practice stemming from the people, i.e., what we have described as custom. Thus, the Mishnah apparently considered hair covering to be a matter of Jewish custom. Nevertheless, the Talmud (or, Gemarah) gives Biblical foundation for the practice of hair covering and, contrary to the Mishnah, declares it to be a Torah-derived law. Furthermore, it is interesting that the term dat Yehudit is used only in connection with women's behavior, leading some to define the term as "customs specifically relating to women's modesty."(11)