<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;"><DIV>--- On <B>Wed, 3/17/10, Micha Berger <I><micha@aishdas.org></I></B> wrote:<BR></DIV>
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<DIV class=plainMail>On Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 07:05:43AM -0700, Harry Maryles wrote:<BR>: The custom of the bride wearing a veil at her wedding comes from the<BR>: bible - Genesis (24:65)...<BR><BR>It's documented in the chumash but I think it's older. Lavan was quite<BR>the traditionalist when it came to marriage. Eg. "In our place, it is<BR>not done to marry of the younger before the older."<BR><BR>It seems to me that married women covering their hair was also general<BR>Semitic practice, as in minhag Benei Sheim, before required by the<BR>Torah. Which would explain why the Torah only mentions it back-handedly,<BR>by telling us about uncovering the sotah's.</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<DIV>I've always wondered about that back-handed reference to covering hair as a source for requiring married women to cover their hair. It seems to me that the custom of covering hair as a sign of modesty was more or less universal and - as you point out predating the Torah. IOW it is not specificly Jewish. </DIV>
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<DIV>That would indicate to me that hair covering is based at least in part on the prevailing Tznius customs of the time and the place. Customs were in place in most civilized societies throughout history. When Chazal derived their Halachos of hair covering hair from the Sotah ordeal this was the case. </DIV>
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<DIV>In our time and in our place (Western civilization of the 21st century)) hair covering is not at all considered a practice of modesty. Women in western culture do not cover their hair at all (except for fashion purposes or for purposes of warmth in cold climates). </DIV>
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<DIV>I'm not saying this as a possible Heter for women to not cover their hair. I just wonder if Chazal were alive today - would they have drawn the same inferences from the Sotah ordeal and have come up with the same requirements?</DIV>
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<DIV>The fact that is that in the late 19th and early 20th century many of the married religious women of the Litvishe Kehillos abandoned the practice of hair covering. This led Rabbi Epstein to permit making Brachos in front of them ...which seems to indicate that there is room to speculate about that possibilty.</DIV>
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<DIV>Rabbi Michael Broyde has written a lengthy discussion where he is melamed Zechus for those MO women who do not cover their hair. Unfortunatley I do not have a URL.</DIV>
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<DIV>HM</DIV>
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