Back to Question of the Week Back to Archives Q: Do women wear kippah just like men? What are the viewpoints regarding this issue by the different Jewish groups? Joyce
		A: Those little beanies sure do generate a lot of curiosity, don't they? (see (Why do Jews wear yarmulkes? , When did we start to wear kippot?) Just to recap from previous Reb-on-the-Webs, the nature, meaning, and requirement or non-requirement of head covering has varied among Jews over time and space. Currently, the important meanings are: humility or modesty, a reminder of God's presence, the bodily creation of sacred space and possibly time, and Jewish identification. Let's first ask the question, Do men wear kippah? Answer: sometimes. In most Reform synagogues, for example, kippah is optional. (A very few require it and a very few forbid it.) And, of course, the vast majority of all Jewish men do not wear kippah when they are not in synagogue. Where kippah is optional for men, it is usually also optional for women. It is still more common to see men wearing kippah than women, but the number of women wearing both kippah and tallit is growing. In Orthodoxy, I might say that some women wear kippah, but not like men. Actually, they wouldn't call it kippah, but married women are supposed to wear a head-covering in order to cover their hair. In Orthodoxy, it is considered immodest for a married woman to show her hair. The problem in a more Orthodox context with women wearing kippah "just like men" is exactly the "just like men" part. There is a rule derived from Torah that men are not supposed to wear women's clothing and women are not supposed to wear men's clothing. So it is forbidden for a woman to wear anything "just like men." More liberal interpretations of Judaism, though, understand the definition of men's and women's clothing to be a matter of social convention which allows for change and overlap. So that it becomes possible for women to wear kippah just like women. written by Rabbi Jeremy Schwartz
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