Dreams

I had a dream last night where I kept either discovering that my hair was down and my head was completely uncovered, or that my hair had somehow escaped my scarf.  On the other hand, when I realized it, there was a scarf that matched my outfit (or so I thought in the dream) sitting on a bush right next to me, just waiting for me to put it on.  The rest of the dream was a funny mix of anxiety and utter randomness (involving a car that drives itself, a trip to a university to look at its dorms where we mostly looked at their bathrooms/changing rooms, and a very flexible cast of characters).

I don't think that I've ever dreamed about my head coverings before.  Has this happened to anyone else?

Another Collection of Coverings

Thursday: 

 And here it is from the front:

 Friday: (As you saw, in preparations for travel):

Sunday:  (What do you think about the rather large twisted crown?  I was worried that it was a bit much.)

 Monday: (Definitely a work-day.)

And then I skipped taking pictures for a few days, and here's Thursday, a day off (main goal: comfort):

Traveling Time

I'm making a new stab at a covering for travel.  One of you lovely people (The fine howgiyoret) suggested braiding my hair and pinning it over my head, so that I would really eliminate the bulky stuff behind the neck issue that gets so uncomfortable on long bus trips.  It definitely took some bobby pins, but here's the result.

I'll let you know how it goes  And anyways- here's a slightly different silhouette  while I'm at it.

Any other good tips for covering your head while traveling?

Shulhan Arukh on Going Bareheaded

Shulhan Arukh 2:4

ולא ילך ד' אמות בגלוי הראש (מפני כבוד השכינה) ויבדק נקביו... 

Translation:

And one should not go/walk 4 cubits with an uncovered head (because of the honor of the Shechinah [God's presence]), and one should check one's openings [i.e. keep yourself clean].  

This text codifies into what law (or what seems to be law- opinions differ, as we'll see at some point) the story from Kiddushin 31a- both the action (covering the head), the distance (4 amot/cubits), and the reason (respect for God's presence).  It does not reflect the reasoning from Shabbat 156b - there is nothing here about a covered head having any effect on our yetzer hara.  (Well, once could create a connection pretty easily, something about not sinning being how we show appropriate respect to God, but while it works, it's pretty obviously a created connection, just to weave in all the ends.)

I find it fascinating that head-covering is paired with basic hygiene.  It gives the practice this very basic feeling, as if it were something about general basic decency.  It isn't an sense that I've gotten anywhere else, yet, but it sure gives a different sense to things.  It makes me wonder if the honor of the Shechinah might be understood as "don't look like a shlump who can't take care of himself", or "don't be disgusting"- although that might take it a bit too far for me.  

Another Shabbos Re-Creation

Here's another replica of a recent shabbos-day head covering:

When You Hide Something...

A couple of weeks ago, I was talking with some of my colleagues, and we were, for some reason, discussing hair.  I was mostly listening- I don't "do" my hair much, at this point (obviously).  Then one of my colleagues mentioned that I had beautiful hair (a surprise- I tend to think of it as very fine, and therefore mostly adept at escaping however I put it up)- and another woman responded: "How did you get to see her hair?".  (The answer?  We'd roomed together at a conference.)

I never thought of my hair as something secret or special, that other people would be interested in seeing.

I knew that my husband found it special that he was the only one who got to see my hair.  I'd seen women (well, college students) have this reaction to other women's hair.

But my hair?  What's the excitement in that?

Apparently, if you hide it, it does become special.  Even if it's your own- someone else will still find it exciting, even intimate.

I kept wanting to say- 'but I'm not hiding it from you!  You could see it any time, there's no problem in that.'  But it felt too odd.  Strangely exclusionary to the one man in our peer group.

I don't know what to make of that moment.  Brief though it was, it really surprised me.  I have now something special, off limits, that I never really thought about that way.  Making sure it was covered? Sure.  Feeling uncomfortable in boundary-stretching situations?  Sure.  Something other people were actively curious about?  Never thought in a million years.

Have any of you had a similar moment?  How did you feel about it?

A Week of Coverings: In Which I Like Layers

Friday- The day after Thanksgiving.  Off to Goodwill, and a small variation in style: I've pulled the ends of my scarf through my bun, instead of tucking them in, to show off the fringes at the ends.  (This scarf was a gift from a former classmate and roommate, and I'm thinking gratefully about her, this morning.)

I rather missed taking photos on Sunday.  But, here on Monday is a scarf we bought at Goodwill on Friday (same style as Friday):

Tuesday:

 Wednesday: (It went with a red and white blazer that I'd already shed by the time I got to the computer)

Thursday: Here's the full view:

 And here's a close-up, since the colors are pretty similar, and blend into each other at a distance.

And now a bonus: Shabbos (Saturday day)-

 And from the side:  Definitely a more dramatic look...  And a hat for once.

From the front:

Women's Head-covering in the Talmud, part 1

Brachot 24a

Here's the part of the sugya that is most frequently quoted:

אמר רב חסדא שוק באשה ערוה שנאמר (ישעיהו מז) גלי שוק עברי נהרות וכתיב (ישעיהו מז) תגל ערותך וגם תראה חרפתך אמר שמואל קול באשה ערוה שנא' (שיר השירים ב) כי קולך ערב ומראך נאוה אמר רב ששת שער באשה ערוה שנא' (שיר השירים ד) שערך כעדר העזים

Translation:Rav Hisda said: A woman's thigh is erva (nakedness), as it is said: (Isaiah 47:2) "Take the millstones, and grind meal; remove thy veil, strip off the train, uncover the leg, pass through the rivers.", and it is said (in the next verse) "Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen".  Shmuel said: A woman's voice is nakedness, as it is said (Song of Songs 2:14) "for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely".  Rav Sheshet said: A woman's hair is nakedness, as it is said (Song of Songs 4:) "thy hair is as a flock of goats, that trail down from mount Gilead".  

The context is a discussion of saying Shema while naked/in bed, which then broadens to a discussion of prayer while naked or in the presence of naked people, and from there to this- a question of what qualifies as a naked person that one might not be allowed to pray in their presence.

This context can be offered as a reason why the restrictions that are placed on women's dress and behavior based on this text (covering the hair, not singing in public) should be limited to when someone (male) is saying Shema.  (It's worth noticing that the implied viewpoint character, as it were, is male, and the object of his gaze is female- I don't think there's anything that goes the other way around.  But that's an artifact of our tradition, which I will not reject.  My question is, instead- is there any application of these concerns in the opposite direction?)

The other major Talmudic source regarding women's head covering makes a very different argument, not tied to liturgy.  We'll get to that one soon.  In the meantime, this sugya could send me pretty strongly in either of two directions.  Either hair is really a sexual provocation, and inappropriate to expose at all, analogized to the thigh, or it is something that is generally acceptable, but one should be particularly stringent about avoiding anything at all provocative, analogized to the voice.  The first leads me to be very stringent in covering all hair on the head at all times.  The second allows significant leniency.  It all feels very uncertain.  If this were the only text that I had, I'd be pretty uncertain of how to interpret it.  We'll see how it gets handled later, as we go.  

More Weekday Coverings

Thursday-

Square scarf with the ends brought up and twisted over each other, and a thin headband in front of them.

Monday- (two photos, because this is a new style for me to wear for real, with the twists- I liked them, but should do them with less stiff fabric in the future- they took a while to stop hitting my shoulder oddly)

 Tuesday- (a standard)

 Wednesday- (I'm enjoying the repeating layers look, lately)

 Thursday, Thanksgiving-

More Shabbos Styles

This is three scarves, layered, with the ends hanging down in the back, secured by a hair elastic.  

 And from the back:

This is from Friday night:

 And here's the back:  This is my first attempt to play with "scarf stuffing"- I have a rather bulky scarf underneath the one you see (you can see the very front of it, in the picture above).  I tried putting my bun, and thus the padding, higher up, which is how I often see that look, but I couldn't get it to work quite right, and shabbos was quickly approaching- so back to my usual location it was.  I like the look, although it puts a bunch of weight fairly low down on my head.

Where do you put your bun/ponytail/etc under a scarf?  Low down, mid-range, up high?