[Avodah] Hats and Ohel

[Micha Berger]

I had never seen a *serious* treatment of this question, although I have
teasted bar mitzvah boys about it. Now that yesivish fashion is a rather
stiff expensive fedora with a brim around a tefach wide, how is it more
permissable to wear a such a hat than to carry an umbrella?

And I'm not sure carrying an umbrella really ought to be assur, I'm asking
more about the (dominant) shitah that permits one and not the other.

The gemara (Shabbos 138b) says a siyana, which both Rashi and Tosafos
say is a kind of hat, one with a brim a tefach or more wide, may only be
worn on Shabbos if the brim is meduhaq. Rashi defines meduhaq as tight,
meaning it won't blow off, and therefore one is safe from the risk of
carrying the hat in a reshus harabim.. Tosafos, however, quote Rabbeinu
Chananel, who understands the criterion to be flexibility -- a hat with
a floppy brim isn't an ohel, but a stiff one would be.

The Rambam defines siyana differently, but also concludes that a stiff
piece of clothing that protrudes a tefach is a problem of boneh.

The MB (301:152) gives some reasons to be meiqil:

We can dismiss the one about floppy brimmed hats on umdena issues. A
new Borceleno's brim could support a good deal of weight before bending.

The MA says that a brim that slopes down isn't an ohel.

But what about the back of the hat? Perhaps slopes up isn't a problem
either. Really, my problem is the original comparison to an umbrella.
If this a matir, the umbrella isn't an ohel either.

The MB invoked Rashi as a matir, but I don't see that one, either. Rashi
simply has the gemara talking about a different issur. It means we
have nothing on this inyan from him one way or the other, not a raayah
that Rashi holds there is no problem. We would need a record of Rashi
considering this peshat and rejecting it because a stiff hat isn't an
ohel in order to draw this conclusion.

Of the MB's arguments, the only one that sat well with me (not that the
CC needs my approval) was the notion that the brim isn't there for shade
or rain protection, just looks.

So, when buying a bar mitzvah boy his first hat, be sure to tell him
that he can't get hana'ah from the shade, and if he finds thoughts of
the sun and shade (or being dry in the rain -- while ruining the hat)
crossing his mind -- take the hat off before the thought becomes a
significant motivation for wearing it!

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             One doesn't learn mussar to be a tzaddik,
micha at aishdas.org        but to become a tzaddik.
http://www.aishdas.org                         - Rav Yisrael Salanter
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