The War of the Snoods--Part #1--some background for the combatants

Once upon a time in a land close by a wicked war was raging. The opponents on both sides were weary but neither side would consider giving in an inch. Historians would name this confrontation "The War of the Snoods." One one side were the "anti-ugliness-ists." On the other side were the "Shaitlach-are-torture-ists." Neutral but stuck in the middle of the tempest were the "it's-not-my-business-ists."

Okay, it's not much of a fairy tale, but the "war" really does rage. I was on a different blog the other day and I ran across a comment, posted by a male, about snoods that had me blinking--"snoods are responsible for the high rate of divorce. A man marries a woman with a full head of hair and then he ends up with a 'shmate head.'"

So what are the facts? Married women are supposed to wear their own hair covered. I am not getting into a halachic brangle here about how much, can any show etc. Let's just accept covered. One of the reasons for covering the hair is because a woman's hair is highly tempting to a man. So this is a tsnius issue. Married women are reserved for their husbands, ergo no uncovered hair in public. Another reason is so that a married woman can make a brocha or answer "amen" to a brocha.

Far back in recorded history we have evidence that women--and men--wore wigs. Wigs are not a new invention. But shaitlach ARE a relatively new invention. Wait a minute, you say. A shaitle is a wig. Nope, it is not. A shaitle is a fairly new option for Jewish women to use in covering their hair.

Let's jump back in time to pre-World War II Europe. (And to any men who are reading this posting and whose eyes are about to roll up in their heads, please keep in mind that you started the "war" and you need this information.) It was a time when yiddishkeit was flowering. Gazillions of frum people, so the women must have covered their hair. Yes, they did, but the majority did not wear shaitlach. My mother's recollection was that the German Jewish women first started the modern custom of shaitlach. Of course, they had absolutely no relationship to shaitlach today. They were, in most cases, made out of horse hair. A few were made out of wool. (My mother remembers seeing as a child a shaitle carved out of wood to look like hair and then stained. What did those women do? Nail the shaitle on?) They were severely styled, fit the head like a close cap, and everyone wore the same style. I know, I am priveleged to have a picture of one of my grandmothers and she is wearing this shaitle. I also have a picture of a sheva brochos and every woman present is wearing the same shaitle.

My great grandmother was not sure she wanted my grandmother as a shidduch for my grandfather as she had discovered that my grandmother intended to wear a shaitle. This was just a bit too modern. She gave in when a compromise was reached. My grandmother would wear the shaitle on Shabbos day and Yom Tov, but the rest of the time she would cover her hair the "right" way. (I cannot say for certain but it makes logical sense that the custom among chassidishe women of wearing a shaitle with a hat or turban covering it probably came about for the same reasons that my great grandmother had--the shaitle alone was too modern so it got covered as a compromise.)

So what was the "right" way? The right way was with what was called a "shtern tichel." It was a scarf that came all the way down on the forehead--the "shtern" in yiddish--and completely covered the rest of the head. I have a picture of my great grandmother wearing this shtern tichel. If you look at pictures taking during the Shoah you will see hundreds of other women wearing the same type tichel. To "fancy up" this tichel, on Shabbos some women wore a tiara type of ornament on top of the tichel. Some women also wore turbans.

It is highly likely that our Imahos wore their hair covered, and that what they covered their hair with was a "shmate." I very sincerely doubt that Sarah Imainu wore a shaitle. (And Avraham Avinu thought she was beautiful, both inside and out.) Given extant carvings of the biblical time period, the coverings were similar to long mantillas or the type of veils seen today being worn by Hindi women and Muslim women. It wasn't just Jewish women who were wearing this type of hair covering.

Cloth hair coverings have come in and out of general style for centuries. During the 1920s "flappers" wore cloches, a type of fitted hat that covered the hair. The style caught on and everyone then wore them. In England and France and the "civilized" countries of Europe, during the 16th to 18th century "matrons"--married women--wore turbans to fancy affairs, some with feathers on them, some with jeweled pins, to designate that they were married women. They also had a variety of hats and "shmates" that they wore during the day time. Even single women wore hats during the day time. Look at some of the portraits of women in America from Revolutionary times--the married ones are wearing lace caps (known as mob caps). In the 1950s and 60's hats were a valued fashion accessory for daytime wear, and were worn by both married and single women. There were also special "evening" hats. Berets have also been worn one and off for centuries. Chasidishe men might be interested to know that the shtraimlach they wear today were not just a copy of a man's fashion look in Europe--women wore hats identical to today's shtraimel. What we see is that "shmates" have been used to cover women's hair, both in Klal and out, almost since the beginning of time.

Therefore, snoods are not all that modern as a hair covering. Jewish women have been wearing tichlach of all kinds for a long time. It is shaitlach that are the modern adaptation. With what a frum woman covers her hair is not a matter of halacha--since the covering is what is halachically mandated--but a question of style and custom. And usually men do not mix into women's style issues. Why the exception when it comes to hair coverings?

So, go ahead, venture a guess, venture a few guesses as to why young men are so anti-tichel. I'm sure that a few of the reasons you will think of will be shared by all. But there are more then a few that don't get openly discussed, which of course I will raise. I'll tell you what I think in the next posting.