The practice of Orthodox Jewish women shave their heads after marriage is a widely accepted custom, with some Chasidic sources referring to it as “one which derives from Hashem and the rebbe.” According to the Talmud, a woman’s uncovered hair is equivalent to physical nudity. In some Hasidic sects, such as the Satmar sect, it is expected to be shaved down to a stubble the morning after the wedding and maintained that length for the duration of the marriage.
The tradition of married Orthodox Jewish women covering their hair has been around for thousands of years, with women first covering their hair with cloth, sheitel, or wig. The hair used for the production of these wigs was taken from a Hindu temple where pilgrims travelled to undergo the ritual of tonsure (head shaving). According to Jewish law, one cannot shave their heads beneath to ensure that their hair is never exposed.
Payot, or sidelocks in Hebrew, are worn by some men and boys in the Orthodox Jewish community based on an interpretation of the Tanakh. Some Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish boys get their first haircut when they are three years old. The hair-cutting ceremony is known as the upsherenish or upsherin (shear off) and in Hebrew as halaqah (from the Arabic حلاقة – to shave).
In Israel, there are also non-religious families who adhere to this custom and do not cut their sons hair until the age of three. However, the majority of Orthodox Jewish women do not shave their heads, keeping their hair covered with a kerchief, hat, or turban.
📹 Why do Hasidic Women SHAVE their heads? + Her child LEFT the Hasidic community; how she reacted!
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Is Unorthodox a true story?
The series is based on Deborah Feldman’s 2012 memoir, Unorthodox. My Hasidic Roots: A Scandalous Rejection. Feldman grew up in the ultra-Orthodox community in Brooklyn and was raised by her grandmother. The new limited series Unorthodox, which debuted on Netflix on March 26, asks this question.
Unorthodox follows Esther “Esty” Shapiro (played by Israeli actress Shira Haas), a 19-year-old girl who leaves Brooklyn to live in Berlin. The series is based on Deborah Feldman’s 2012 memoir, Unorthodox. My Hasidic Roots. Feldman grew up in the ultra-Orthodox community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and was raised by her grandmother. Feldman’s mother left the community and came out as gay. She was absent for most of Feldman’s childhood but still lives in Brooklyn. Esty and her mother are reunited in Germany.
How do Orthodox Jews consummate marriage?
Today, the Yichud is not used to consummate the marriage. Couples often eat and relax together before the dancing and celebrations of nissuin begin. On their wedding day, the bride and groom fast. The Yichud is a time for the couple to eat together after breaking their fast. Even if they didn’t fast, it’s a chance for the couple to spend time together before the wedding day gets busy. In Yemen, the groom and bride didn’t use a chuppah, like today. Instead, they used a bridal chamber, which was decorated in the groom’s house. This room was decorated with colorful cloth, cushions, and short mattresses. The couple consummates their marriage when they are alone in the room. The chuppah is described the same way in Sefer HaIttur (12th century) and the Jerusalem Talmud.
Wedding feast After the wedding ceremony and the private time, the bride and groom will enter a room with friends and family to celebrate. The wedding ceremony is serious, while the wedding feast is fun. Guests should bring joy and fun to the couple on their wedding day.
How does a kippah stay on the head?
How do you keep a kippah on? It’s simple. Jews who wear a kippah often know how to put it on. They tend to own kippot that fit well. If they want a smaller kippah, they can use a hair clip to fasten it to their hair. Some people don’t like this solution, and traditionalists don’t like hair clips. If you wear a suede kippah, bald heads have the advantage of a high coefficient of friction. If all else fails, use double-sided tape or Velcro. Velcro to the kippah, not your head.
Michal Friedlander, Judaica and Applied Arts Curator.
Why do Jewish couples sleep in separate beds?
When Orthodox Jewish women have their period, we are in a period called “niddah” where we don’t have sex. We sleep in separate beds to keep the boundaries during this time.
Why do Orthodox Jews wear big hats?
A Brief History of Jewish Head Coverings. Jewish men have traditionally covered their heads as a sign of respect for God. Some Jewish women cover their hair when they get married to look modest. This article is about hats worn for reverence. Modesty hair coverings — scarves, wigs, and hats worn mostly by Orthodox women — are discussed here. We don’t know exactly when Jewish head covering practices started. The Torah says that Aaron, the first high priest, wore a head covering. The Talmud says that Rav Huna didn’t walk four cubits (about six feet) without a head covering to show he was aware of God’s presence. The mother of Rav Nahman bar Yizhak learns that her son is going to be a thief. She makes him cover his head and pray for mercy. He behaves well until the covering falls off and he steals some dates (Shabbat 156b). These ancient texts say that Jewish religious leaders wore head coverings. By the medieval period, it was common. Maimonides said that men should cover their heads when praying (Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Tefillah 5:5). The Shulchan Aruch says that men should cover their heads when walking more than four cubits (like Rav Huna did). By this time, Ashkenazi Jews wore head coverings.
Do the bride and groom kiss at an Orthodox wedding?
In Reform Judaism, the bride and groom kiss after the groom stomp on a glass. At Orthodox Jewish weddings, the bride and groom hug after the stomp, and guests cheer around them. There are several explanations for why the groom breaks glass at the wedding ceremony. This tradition reminds us of the fragility of life and relationships. Glass breaking symbolizes leaving childhood and the parental home. After becoming husband and wife, the couple goes to the Yichud Room to start their marriage. This must happen on the night of the wedding.
Why do Jews wash their hands before getting out of bed?
People wash their hands for different reasons. Some say it removes evil spirits from their hands. Others say it’s to prepare for morning prayers. Some say it makes their hands physically clean before reciting blessings and studying the Torah. This is done when waking up from a full night’s sleep or even after a long nap.
The Talmud says God told Jews to wash their hands and gives the blessing that is still used today.
Other occasions: After touching dirty or covered parts of the body, such as the private parts, back, armpits, inside of the nose or ear, the scalp (but not if one just touched the hair), or the sweat from the body (excluding the face), or one’s shoes, one washes one’s hands as a symbol of both bodily cleanliness and of removing human impurity. Sometimes, washing after excretion is called washing asher yatzar, which is the blessing said after washing your hands after going to the bathroom. You should wash your hands after leaving a cemetery, cutting your hair or nails, and after sexual intercourse. However, many Orthodox Jews do not wash their hands after sexual intercourse.After a bloodletting, some wash their hands after donating blood. To remove tumat met (impurity from death) after a funeral, some wash their hands. Some wash their hands before writing.
Do couples kiss in the Yichud room?
April 12, 2018 Mysteries of the newlywed couples room. A reader asked: What does a Hasidic newlywed couple do inside the little room – called the ‘yichud room – where they spend their time after the wedding is officiated?
The Hasidic couple has their first kiss in the private room. This is during the big wedding affair, while the rest of the hundreds of guests are in the main ballroom having their meal and telling each other how gorgeous they look. The Hasidic couple spends this time alone, at least for the first few minutes of it, and it is an opportunity for a tiny bit of intimacy.
Someone recorded a Hasidic male teacher preparing the boy for marriage. The teacher is talking to a sheltered, nineteen-year-old boy who had no prior contact with women. The whole thing is difficult to listen to – for emotional reasons – but here is the transcribed and translated instructions for the yichud room:
“You walk into the yichud room. As soon as you get into the yichud room, you lock the door,—whats her your brides name?”
Do Hasidic Jews sleep in the same bed?
Hasidic couples have two separate beds because of the laws of niddah. The couple gets a wedding gift of a fancy bedroom set with two beds and a nightstand in the middle. Here are some amazing furniture sets from Chasuna Depot. A Hasidic woman can’t have sex during her period. He can’t touch her, give her anything, or talk to her. She is now unclean. After her period, she has to wait seven days. She’ll change the bed linens to all white, just to match. She’ll sleep in a white nightgown and white underwear. This is to make sure she isn’t bleeding. She checks twice a day with this cloth to make sure she is clean. If seven days pass and everything is fine, the woman goes to the community mikvah. The mikvah is usually a fancy, unmarked bathhouse (so the kids don’t know about it). Inside, the place has hallways with private bathrooms for women to clean up before entering the mikvah.
What religions do not shave?
Some religions, like Orthodox Judaism, Rastafarianism, and Sikhism, believe that hair is sacred or a gift from God. They therefore prohibit haircuts, the removal of facial hair, or a combination of the two. What are my religious rights for forced haircuts? Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 says that employees can’t be forced to cut their hair if it goes against their religion, unless it causes the employer a lot of trouble. The employee must ask for a religious accommodation to keep their hair.
Why do they shave women’s head in Unorthodox?
In one of the series’ most important scenes, Esty shaves her head, a traditional practice for some Orthodox Jewish women to show they are modest. Shira says she was surprised by many things during her research, including the ritual. “It made me think about my place as a woman in the world…People like Esty who feel like they have no purpose. I tried not to judge this character or this project. I think that’s what the TV series is trying to do too. “These aren’t bad, just showing the journey of a girl and the whole story.” While the rising star was scared to say goodbye to her long hair on the first day of filming, she was excited to play Esty. “It’s meaningful and also about her emotional journey. “I was in.”
To become Esty, I did months of research. Shira also had to learn piano and take vocal lessons. In the last episode, we hear her sing at a music academy audition. “It’s about a woman finding her voice. In that scene, she literally finds it,” the actress says. The audition took a full day to film. “It’s like the moment she becomes a powerful woman and knows she’ll be OK. She knows she’ll grow. She goes through a lot but knows she can survive.
📹 Jewish women at wig salon discuss why they shave their heads | Clip from Documentary ‘93Queen’
A fascinating clip from the documentary ’93 Queen’. The documentary is about Ruchy Freier’s quest to start a female-led EMS in …
Your conversation with Pearl was fascinating. I’m a 66 year old white honky woman who was christened in the Episcopal faith, but my parents gave us no religious education. When I was 10 years old my parents divorced and my mother died one year later. Then my father fell ill and my sister and I were sent to a catholic convent for a year while he was recovering. I remember when we returned home, I told him that even though I had spent a year in a convent and attended their masses and religious classes that I still didn’t know what it was all about. He told me that he didn’t understand it either, but that I should always respect other people’s religions because it gave them something. I think it is sad that my parents never had that religious anchor to help them through life. I found my own anchor by listening to believers like Pearl. Thanks for sharing.
My mother has went through this same heartbreak. And in her religion around that same age a lot of the young do the same thing, but they always return when they get a certain age . So just continue supporting him and doing what your doing he knows what is right and what he was taught. He will be back and stronger in his faith than ever.