Why cover your hair?

salt

Mon, May 07 2018, 7:07 am

OP are you asking about covering hair in particular - how do you explain why we do that, to a six year old?
Or, generally, how to explain to a 6 yr old why we keep halacha to a certain level of stringency, while other friends and people that she knows do things another way?

southernbubby

Mon, May 07 2018, 7:48 am

http://podcast.headlinesbook.c.....much/

Listen to this podcast while you are doing something in the house. Rabbi Harry Maryles, a Centrist rabbi and blogger, states that there is no allowance in halacha for a married woman to go completely bareheaded. He is a rabbi for MO. He states that it became the norm in Lithuania for women going out into the workforce to shed their hair coverings to fit into society but there is no halachic basis for it. It then became the accepted norm and people moved to the US because the general population didn't cover the hair of a married woman and much of tznius has to do with local norms; however, he holds that a married woman must wear some type of hair covering.

Don't take my word for it; listen yourself.

amother

Beige

Mon, May 07 2018, 8:46 am

southernbubby wrote:

http://podcast.headlinesbook.com/e/5518-hilchos-tzniyus-and-hair-covering-how-much/

Listen to this podcast while you are doing something in the house. Rabbi Harry Maryles, a Centrist rabbi and blogger, states that there is no allowance in halacha for a married woman to go completely bareheaded. He is a rabbi for MO. He states that it became the norm in Lithuania for women going out into the workforce to shed their hair coverings to fit into society but there is no halachic basis for it. It then became the accepted norm and people moved to the US because the general population didn't cover the hair of a married woman and much of tznius has to do with local norms; however, he holds that a married woman must wear some type of hair covering.

Don't take my word for it; listen yourself.

I only listened to the first minute of this because I have time for the rest right now own but he says very explicitly that he’s not not a posek and this is his opinion. Even if he was A posek for mo doesn’t mean His word is the end all Be all.

Regardless, although there are people who hold that they do NOT need to cover their hair for whatever reason, I don’t think anyone on this post is arguing that you don’t need to cover your hair at all.

saw50st8

Mon, May 07 2018, 9:06 am

OP, just tell her that you cover your hair because your Rabbi says it's halacha. You are constantly going to be surrounded by people who observe differently and 6 year olds don't yet have a full grasp of nuance. If she asks about other people, you can just say that they follow their own rabbonim and halachic observance is a personal thing.

This will come up constantly from hair covering to Pesach minhagim to everything in between.

[Rabbi Broyde has a really nice long essay on the possibility of hair covering not being obligatory if anyone is looking]

amother

Olive

Tue, May 08 2018, 1:57 am

salt wrote:

How to explain to a 6 yr old.

amother

Honeydew

Tue, May 08 2018, 7:43 am

You can tell her its a mitzvah for married women to cover and you are doing it to create a keli for brochos for the whole family. If she asks why someone else doesn't do that like any mitzvah you can say you don't know/its between them and their rav/they don't know or anything else. And that we focus on ourselves and doing what we know to be right.