MUSEUM OF PEOPLE'S FRIENDSHIP

KIPA

Kipa is a Jewish headdress.

In the West, a person shows respect by taking off his hat; among the Jews, by wearing it. According to Jewish tradition, a covered head is a sign that a mighty power is above you.

Kipa: a brief history of origin

Initially, Jews covered their heads only during prayer and Torah study. This is how they showed their respect to the Almighty. The exact time of the establishment of this custom is unknown.

At first, only the cohens, the priests of the Jerusalem temple, had to walk constantly with their heads covered. Over time, the most pious Jews began to cover their heads not only during prayer, but almost always, showing in such a way that all their actions were aimed at serving God. Gradually, this custom received the force of law, although it was not formally recorded in the Torah. During the creation of the Talmud (III-V centuries AD), Jewish sages developed a decree according to which it was forbidden to walk four cubits (about 2.4 m) with a bare head. This custom gradually took root in all Jewish communities.

But why exactly such a hat, and not a turban or something else? It is believed that the notorious Laws of Omar, created in the 7th century, served as an incentive for adopting the kippah as a headdress. AD one of the first Muslim caliphs. According to these laws, Jews did not have the right to wear turbans, like Muslims, but had to wear some other headdress. According to another version, the “fashion” for kippah was brought to the Middle East by the Turks. Then, in the VIII-X centuries, the main part of the Jewish people lived there. The proof of the "Turkic" hypothesis is usually considered the second name of the kipa - yarmolka (or yarmulke, as they often write). According to a number of experts, this is from the Turkic “yagrmurluk” (“raincoat”). However, many believers believe that the word "yarmolka" is not of Turkic, but of Jewish origin: from "yarey malachi" - "one who fears the king" (naturally, we are talking about the Almighty).

The meaning of the kippah for Jews

Translated from Hebrew, kipa literally means - top, top. The name indicates that the kippah covers the person from above, thus turning out to be the highest point within the microcosm.

Does a kippah always indicate a Jew's religiosity? Not always. Non-religious Jews wear a kippa when visiting synagogues, during mourning for the dead, and at bar mitzvah (coming of age). Kipa often helps to determine not only the religiosity of a Jew, but also to which population group this person belongs. Thus, the kipa partly fulfills the role of the identification mark "friend or foe" in the Jewish environment. A knitted round bale of an arbitrary color usually indicates that its owner is a religious Zionist (at least in Israel). These people are called “kipot srugot” (“knitted bales”). Kipot srugot are religious people, but they do not always keep all the commandments.

Stricter behavior is characteristic of those who wear a black kippa. These people position themselves as devout believers. But the most strictly obey the commandments are people called in Israel "haredim". They wear a hat over a bale. Some of them do not remove their kippa even while sleeping.

There are other nuances as well. White kippahs are worn, for example, by representatives of some Hasidic courts who wish to hint at belonging to the study of Kabbalah. Sometimes this bale has a pompom. Chabad followers wear a black hexagonal kippah.

The way a person wears a kippa can also tell a lot. Newly wearing it usually tends to make it more comfortable. For example, they wear a kippa on the back of the head, and not on the crown, as it should be. If the kippah is held on a hairpin or even dangles from the hair, then you have a person who covers his head solely because of a business need and immediately removes the kippa as soon as this need passes.

Some religious Jews are convinced that on the Day of Judgment (Yom Kippur), on the day of remembrance of the dead (Yorzeit) and other similar days, it is imperative to wear only a pile of dark colors. There is also the opposite option - many Israeli believers prefer to wear a black kippah every day, and on Saturdays and holidays just change it to white.

In tsarist Russia, it was forbidden to wear a kippah outside the line of the so-called Jewish settlement. However, in the very Pale of Settlement, a large fine was subsequently imposed for wearing it. In the days of the USSR, kippa was not officially banned, but not very much, to put it mildly, was encouraged. For Jewish revival activists, the kippah was a symbol of their Jewishness. Moreover, the symbol is literally highly valued.

Some facts about kippah

Knitting of bales is still a favorite type of women's religious needlework. Bales are knitted everywhere - on buses, at lectures, in line to see a doctor or an official.

In the Israeli army synagogues there are special kippahs in khaki. From time to time there are proposals to oblige all religious soldiers to wear such kippahs. For reasons of uniformity of clothing.

To prevent the kippah from being blown away by the wind, it is usually attached to the hair with special hairpins.