(Heb. kissu'i rosh). Although no form of headgear is required by biblical law, the High Priest wore a cloth miter or turban (Ex. 28:4, 29:6; Lev. 8:9, etc.), while ordinary priests wore a ceremonial cap (Ex. 28:40, 29:9; Lev. 8.13). In Temple times, only those of high rank appear to have covered their heads, as was the custom in Mesopotamia. Conflicting opinions are expressed in the Talmud. According to one view, headgear for Jewish males was only a matter of custom and therefore optional (Ned. 30b). Many of the sages regarded bareheadedness as objectionable in a scholar, and some would not walk four cubits (less than 2 yards) bareheaded in view of the Divine Presence (Shekhinah) above them (Kid. 31a; Shab. 118b). Others considered it praiseworthy to cover the face as well as the head during worship (RH. 17b; Ta'an 20a); and others again made it a rule never to lead the congregation in prayer without covering the head (Sof. 14:15). The question of Jewish males praying bareheaded remained a hotly debated issue for centuries to come. However, the sages were unanimous in castigating any (married) woman who displayed the "crowning beauty" of her hair.
Rabbinic codifiers and scholars of the medieval period were also divided over this issue. Covering the head during prayer and Torah study was not thought obligatory in France and Spain, although Isaac Alfasi and Maimonides favored the stricter Babylonian tradition. While some later authorities, including even the 18th century Elijah the Gaon of Vilna (Be'ur ha-Gra to Sh. Ar., OH 8:2), continued to regard it as an optional "worthy" custom, most Ashkenazi and Sephardi rabbis from the Middle Ages onward associated the wearing of headgear with piety and bareheadedness with frivolity. In Christian Europe, moreover, Jews increasingly condemned bareheaded worship as a Gentile custom not to be followed. Synagogue and Passover Seder observance depicted in medieval Jewish illuminated manuscripts invariably shows Jews with their heads covered, Spanish and Portuguese Jews wearing hoods and German Jews wearing the pointed "Jew's hat" (Judenhut). Before long, certain types of headgear became distinctively Jewish and (by Gentile legislation) obligatory: turbans and skullcaps throughout the Orient, the Judenhut followed by the round black barrette in Central Europe, wide-brimmed weekday hats, fur-trimmed Hasidic shtraymels and spodiks for Sabbaths and holy days in Poland and Russia. When praying, attending synagogue, engaging in Torah study, and reciting benedictions before and after meals, the Jewish male now covered his head. This practice also won recognition from civil authorities when Jews had to testify in courts of law.
Among Ashkenazim especially, the wearing of a skullcap (Heb. kippah; Yid. kappel or yarmulka) throughout all waking hours became prevalent from the early 18th century. It usually replaced any other form of male headgear indoors, and its constant use became an outward sign of Jewish piety. What started as a custom eventually assumed halakhic validity. Reform Judaism tended to abandon the custom, however, even during prayer. German Neo-Orthodoxy set the tone for other observant Jews in the West by not demanding that the 19th-century Jew cover his head at all times; Conservative Judaism followed suit, limiting the obligation to synagogue, private worship, study of sacred texts, and all rituals. Many keep their heads covered during meals. Within the Reform movement itself, however, attitudes have never been uniform: while radical elements (chiefly in the United States) either banned hats and skullcaps from the temple or made their use optional, many European Liberal Jews and Hungarian Neologists (see Neology) tended to favor the covering of the head at least during prayer. As a badge of loyalty to Jewish tradition, the wearing of a hat or skullcap has become widespread among Jews since World War II and crocheted skullcaps are sometimes worn more as a sign of Jewish identification than for any religious reason.
Whereas the covering of a man's head was long regarded as no more than a pious act, the covering of a (married) woman's hair was even in biblical times considered a safeguard of her modesty (tseni'ut). For a woman's head to be bared in public was a supreme humiliation (Isa. 3:17), justifiable only in the case of a Sotah on trial for adultery (Num. 5:18). This standard, rigorously maintained in the talmudic period (BK 8:6; Ned. 30b), also had some impact on the early Christians (cf. I Corinthians 4-15). It meant that a man could divorce his wife for the act of walking bareheaded outdoors, yet lose no part of her dowry (Ket. 7:6), and some even forbade a blessing to be recited indoors when a woman's uncovered hair was visible (Ber. 24a). Single girls were exempt, however, and rabbinic law showed less severity towards the unveiling of a woman's hair at home, although even this was eventually frowned upon. From the Middle Ages onward, women's headgear became more elaborate, especially in Eastern Europe and Muslim countries. The Polish shtern-tikheI, for example, with its bejeweled or pearl-studded tiara, had weekday and Sabbath variations. Ḥasidic wives still have their hair shorn prior to the wedding ceremony and thereafter wear a headscarf (tikhel) covering all of their hair.
The use of a wig, already known in talmudic times (Shab. 6:5; Naz. 28b), first became fashionable among Ashkenazi women in the 18th century. Whether made of natural or artificial hair, the wig (Heb. pe'ah nokhrit; Yid. sheytel) seemed too great a compromise to many rabbis---including Jonathan Eybeschütz and Moses
