Q. Why do Jewish men wear a Kippa (head covering)?
A. Surprisingly, Jewish men only started wearing Kippas about 1800 years ago (Moses, King David and other biblical heroes probably didn't wear it). The Talmud tells us that one of the Talmudic Sages, Rav Nachman began to wear a head covering to remind himself that G‑d is always above him (figuratively). The fad quickly caught on, soon all Jewish men were wearing the cap.
With time the Kippa (skullcap) became a common Jewish dress. This added anther dimension to the Kippa's meaning. The Torah forbids Jews from following distinctly non-Jewish custom (Leviticus 18:3). According to Jewish Law, while a Jew is not required to dress differently than their non-Jewish neighbors, they must dress with whatever is regarded as a distinctly Jewish dress. Since the Kippa today has become a Jewish dress, most Jewish legal authorities say that Jewish men are required to wear the Kippa as a Jewish dress.
What about Jewish women? The Kippa has long been part of the Jewish dress code for Jewish men, but not for Jewish women. That is not because Jewish women never bothered covering their head, but because non-Jewish women always covered their heads.
You see, until the last century, women across the world in almost every society covered their heads. Still today in many insulated cultures, the women still cover their heads. A head covering for Jewish women therefore, never identified them as Jews and was never considered a uniquely Jewish dress. Non-Jewish men though rarely covered their heads making the Jewish man's Kippa uniquely Jewish.
Today, for the Jewish man, the Kippa is a way of publicly identifying as a Jew as well as a constant reminder that the Creator is with him aware of everything he is doing. For the Jewish woman there is no need for public identification or constant reminders, Kabbalah teaches us that while Male spirituality is aggressive and loud and has to be displayed and monitored, Feminine spirituality is more inner and subtle, and would be compromised if advertised.
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