My Jewish community includes women as full and fit members of its ritual community, its minyan. The Reform tradition is (officially) indifferent on the subject of women’s headcoverings, so the challenge of including women’s cover in the Minyan Project has required more investigation.
Modesty: walking humbly
Modesty in dress (and behavior) is governed by the principle of tzniut, supposedly mentioned first in the injunction of the prophet Micah (6:8): “[...] to walk humbly (hatzne’a leches) with your God”. This “humble walking” has repercussions in many aspects of Jewish life: sexual relations, contact between (or separation of) men and women, clothing (how much of the male or female body to expose, or not), and women’s voices and hair coverings.
Historically, Oriental (Sephardic, or Mediterranean) Jewish women were covered completely, 
similar to Muslim and Hindu women; “Mountain Jews” from Azerbaijan were similarly covered from head to toe. (These images are 19th-century paintings by Théodore Chassériau, left, and Max Tilke, right). Reproducing these headcoverings will take more than a bit of thought and doing.
In the meantime, I’ve started on the more accessible headcoverings worn by European Ultra-orthodox (Haredi) Jewish women – the tied tichel (Yiddish for “kerchief”), sheitel (or sheytl, the ubiquitous wig) and snood (hairnet), though I expect to tackle the Modern Orthodox practices, including baseball caps, berets, and bandanas.
Would if I could …
Here’s a progress photo of a first pass, the Snood Deux pattern for a start (we’ll see how it goes after a while), MCY silk & wool (thick & thin, worsted) and 3.25 mm/US 4 needles (16″ circulars). (A photo of the sheitel, a modified Hallowig, to come).
FYI: my own snood pattern will be forthcoming, but in the meantime, there are plenty of snood resources available online … including (other than the Snood Deux) vintage patterns for crochet (such as the Perky Snood, 1945 Loop-the-Loop Snood) and knitting (1944 Snood) (and a few others for purchase), and a contemporary open-work Summer Cotton Snood.
There are also the over-sized berets, known in urban circles as “Rasta” hats (perhaps Mango Moon’s sari silk rasta, or this, or this). And then there are instructions for a fabric snood, perhaps most similar to those worn by modern Orthodox women.
I’m not Orthodox, and my increasingly graying curls are (middle-aged-ly, modestly?) short … but if I were … and my hair was … I would … wear a snood. Especially as part of a modern minyan.
This is great! Thank you for posting!
If you create a knitted snood with corners — http://tinyurl.com/59tb6m — let me know.
It’s not at all difficult to convert a knitted sack-like snood to a square one. Why don’t you send me your sketch and I’ll be able to let you know how to do it with clear instructions. By the way, your embroderies are very, very lovely!
Leslie
As a question for thought – is the walk humbly directed toward your relations with others or toward G-d? In the first case, there has been the trend toward modesty/snoods/putting the responsibility on the woman to cover herself.
In the second case, a plain kippah or yamulke would suffice since what ever seems to make yourself humble is in order. Go for whatever puts you in the right frame of mind while crediting that oral law has added a lot of mores which have varied with societies over time.
Thanks for your comment, Holly. I agree with you that Micah’s injunction is ambiguous, and that we all need might do well to consider humility both horizontally (with other people) and vertically (with our sense of the divine). Since ancient Judaism was (and contemporary traditional Judaism remains) patriarchal, it’s not surprising that our tradition (both written Torah and oral interpretation) treat women and men differently; as far as I know, the written tradition only speaks to men’s headcovering, not women’s – the regulation of headcoverings for men was the focus for interpretations of the vertical, and the horizontal applied to women: men had/have ritual status, so men cover their heads before the divine; women’s headcoverings mattered only insofar as they affected men … men should focus on the divine, but are tempted by women’s hair (and voices), so women’s heads are covered (and women stay silent in shul) to keep men from being inappropriately diverted.
Since I participate in the Reform tradition, the gender inequality of traditional Judaism does not govern my conduct. I look to the value or duty underlying traditional practice and sort out a suitable approach that applies to both men and women. The Minyan Project is thus my opportunity to study the history and practice of Jewish headcoverings as broadly and historically as possible.
(For what it’s worth, in the course of my daily life, my mop of short, graying curls appears to be more of a distraction to women than men).
[...] has written a great post on head coverings, traditions and the “to snood or not to snood” question. If you are [...]
leslie, your thoughtfulness about what it all means–speaking of fiber–always a pleasure to read. as one very far from jewish tradition, i’ve thought there might be some link, some rogue DNA that pulled me toward small head coverings.
makes me think it’s an idea to explore further one day.
Just put a crocheted snood pattern on my new headcovering blog: http://lightandgoodorder.wordpress.com/great-martyr-catherine-snood/
I also grew up in the reform tradition. Today I am an extremely connected Jewish atheist who works in an charedi neighborhood, and the tradition of tzniut is very attractive to me. Though I don’t practice tznua to the degree that most Orthodox do, I do wear sleeves all the time, wear long pants or skirts and often, I will cover my hair. It is much more for me than for anyone else (as if anyone else would care…).
I really appreciate your comments on this issue. Also, I’m a crocheter, so thanks for the links to snood patterns! I’m going to try those out.
b’Shalom!