From veil to wig: Jewish women's hair covering

Judaism, Fall, 1993 by Leila Leah Bronner

Many religious women have internalized the value of hair covering and find meaning in it.(47) Many others, however, find it restrictive and burdensome; and they feel that there is sufficient precedent in Jewish law that they can, as Rabbi Hurewitz and others have suggested, be modest, observant women with or without covering their hair. However, it is the very fact of a wide variety of practices among orthodox women, and of halakhic opinions sanctioning them, that makes any broadscale reinterpretation of the halakhah in this area less likely, at least in the near future.

NOTES

(1.)Earlier studies on the subject include those of Louis M. Epstein, Sex Laws and Customs in Judaism (New York: Ktav, 1948; rpt. 1967), 36-60; G. Ellinson, The Modest Way: A Guide to the Rabbinic Sources, Woman and the Mizvot 2 (Jerusalem: World Zionist Organization Department for Torah Education and Culture in the Diaspora, 1992); and Moshe Weiner, Glory of the King's Daughter: Laws of Modesty in Women's Dress (New York: Empire Press, 1980). A number of the relevant rabbinic commentators are assembled in the useful collection, Sefer Sanhedrai, ed. A. Weizer (Tel Aviv: Yesod, 1971) [Hebrew].

(2.)Marc Shapiro, "Another Example of 'Minhag America'," JUDAISM 39 (1990): 148-154; and Michael J. Broyde, Lilli Krakowski and Marc Shapiro, "Further on Women's Hair Covering: An Exchange," JUDAISM 40 (1991): 79-94.

(3.)Christopher R. Hallpike, "Hair," The Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. M. Eliade (New York: Macmillan, 1987), VI, 154-157.

(4.)The practice had meager medieval antecedents and was observed by only a minority of women in 16th century Central and Eastern Europe, but grew in popularity over the course of the next two centuries; see Epstein, pp. 58-60.

(5.)Epstein, pp. 55-60.

(6.)The story of Samson, the nazirite, suggests that hair was regarded as having a special force or vitality. When Samson's hair is cut off, his strength vanishes. Although the Bible attributes Samson's strength to God, and his loss of it to breaking his nazirite's vow, at a mythological level, it is Samson's hair that houses his supernatural powers. In either case, Samson's hair holds important symbolic value for the story.

(7.)Cf. Tamar in Gen. 38:14 and the coquettes in Isa. 3:16-24. Other important references to hair covering are found in Lev. 10:6; II Kings 9:30; Isa. 47:2, III Macc. 4:6; Susanna 32; and Judith 10:3. A number of these references indicate that uncovering the hair meant demeanment and a debased status.

(8.)In Talmudic accounts the bride is said to go to the hupah with head uncovered (see M. Ketubot 2:1 and 2:10; and Epstein, pp. 44-45). This may only indicate that she was uncovered for the ceremony, not necessarily that as a maiden she normally went uncovered. There is sparse, contradictory evidence as to whether unmarried girls covered their hair in the ancient period, whether Biblical or Talmudic. Most Talmudic discussion of hair covering involves the married woman. Even in the medieval period the situation is diverse, with Maimonides (Yad Ha-Hazakah, Issurei Bi'ah 21:17) opting for hair covering of girls, as opposed to Ashkenazi decisors who say it is unnecessary.