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Israel – Are you in overdraft? Maybe you should try to find a source in Halacha (Jewish law) permitting married women to wear wigs instead of other kinds of head coverings. The Institute for the Dissemination of Learning and the Clarification of Laws Concerning Wigs is offering $18,000 to anyone learned in Jewish law who can prove that modern wigs are permissible according to Halacha. Prove this via proof from a rabbi, and you would win $36,000.
There is a long-standing dispute in the ultra-Orthodox community about whether married women may wear wigs instead of other head coverings. Those who support the wearing of wigs claim that while Jewish law demands that the head be covered, the type of covering does not matter. Opponents of this view claim that if the head covering looks like hair, then it is pointless. An announcement by the Institute posted in synagogues around the country prior to Shavuot states definitively that wigs are forbidden.
“Modern wigs are forbidden according to the Torah since they are just as much a breach of the law as hair, if not more,” according to the announcement. “Unfortunately, such breaches are rampant among the ultra-Orthodox, and everyone has an obligation to put out the burning flame and to make haste to remove an obstacle, to eradicate this terrible problem of wigs… Every woman well knows in her heart the bitter truth, and how wigs look today, and she is going to be judged for this, and no excuses will avail in the next world.
“Therefore, every woman should make haste to join the thousands of righteous women who have already removed all kinds of wigs and pieces of wig that harm the souls of pure and holy young men and yeshiva students of the Jewish people.”
Therefore, “in order to encourage students of Torah to study and to teach the real truth… it has been decided to offer a prize of $18,000 to any observant Jew who can show that modern wigs are permitted, and can disprove the aforementioned. And since there are rabbis who still do not know about all this, and who still think that there is permission that can be relied upon, and in order to encourage the students to discuss this with their rabbis, it has been declared that anyone who succeeds in gleaning information from a rabbi who can disprove the aforementioned – as well as the rabbis themselves – will receive a double prize of $36,000.
Furthermore, the Institute’s instructions for those who have gone back to wearing an acceptable head covering are to cover the head with a “modest kerchief, and not, Heaven forbid, all kinds of newfangled modern kerchiefs and head coverings that are liable to attract attention because of the evil inclination and to cause the public to sin with accessories that attract the eye.”
BIG DEAL for them to offer such a reward. They’ll just send a few shnorrers to go gather the money.
this is now in the news
TEL AVIV (Reuters) – To wear them or not to wear them?
That is the question for ultra-Orthodox Jewish women caught in a dilemma after the wigs that many of them wear to cover their hair under religious modesty regulations were found by rabbinical sages to violate Jewish law.
The problem arose about two years ago when Israeli rabbis discovered that hair cut from the heads of Hindu worshipers at Indian temples was being used to manufacture wigs worn by religious Jews.
“It was a big scandal because they found out that the hair that was collected in India was used in rituals for idol worship,” said Amir Zahavi, the manager of a wig factory on the edge of Tel Aviv.
Hindu rituals, such as those performed in the temples, are considered sacrilegious under strictly monotheistic Jewish law.
The hair used in such practices certainly can’t be used to make wigs that ultra-Orthodox women wear under religious edicts that require all married Jewish women to cover their hair in public or when in the presence of men other than their husbands.
“It was a big problem and in a very short period of time most women stopped wearing wigs. There were cases in which wigs were burned in the street,” Zahavi said.
The Indian hair controversy fueled an already simmering debate in the world of ultra-Orthodox Jewry about whether wigs, known as “sheitels,” should be worn at all.
Traditionally scarves were worn by married women to fulfill
the requirement to cover their hair after marriage.
But some more modern ultra-Orthodox women began to wear wigs made from human or synthetic hair, sparking debate among devout Jews about whether wigs, which could be mistaken for real hair, violated the spirit of Judaism.
KOSHER WIGS
The discovery about hair used in Hindu rituals caused pandemonium. Rabbinical experts went from wig factory to wig factory in Israel and abroad to ensure that wigs for the ultra-Orthodox market did not include hair from India.
The rabbinical emissaries granted certificates of kashrut, or approval, to wigs they found to be free of Indian hair in the same way that they issue stamps of approval to food products adhering to Jewish dietary rules.
“These days everything must be kosher. From food to mobile phones to kids’ toys to even wigs,” said Shalhevet Hasviel, a writer at a fashion magazine for ultra-Orthodox women.
As a result, prices for human hair wigs went through the roof. A wig made from Caucasian hair — the most highly sought-after material — could cost as much as $2,000.
Merchants travel through some of the poorest regions in the world to buy women’s locks for the wig trade, paying around $5-$10 for a full head of hair and selling it to wig makers for anything from between $700 and $2,000 per kilo.
“It’s very hard to get good quality hair,” said Zahavi.
“You need virgin hair that hasn’t been dyed and hasn’t been highlighted, and it’s getting harder and harder to get good hair that hasn’t been colored these days.”
Some rabbis prefer wigs over other head-coverings, noting that wigs prevent hair from slipping out and being seen by men.
Another consideration, they say, is that wigs allow Jewish women living abroad to blend into their society, reducing the risk they might be singled out for anti-Semitic attacks.
But other rabbis — especially from Jewish communities of Middle Eastern descent — are deeply opposed to women wearing wigs. Using hair to cover one’s own hair, those rabbis say, violates the spirit of ritual law.
“You can buy wigs these days that are not modest and are of such good quality that they are more beautiful than the women’s real hair,” said Shelly, an ultra-Orthodox mother in Jerusalem, who wears a headscarf over her dark locks.
TO: One has to be tzniusdik in wearing a sheitel just like in the clothes one wears. Rabbi Falk explains it in his book Oz VeHodor Levusha.
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gO ASK rABBI FALK IF IT IS TZNEEIS DIK TO BE BLOGGING ONLINE!!
11:36 PM
I don’t think it is wrong to blog if no one knows who I am and I have totally Kosher opinions, which might set some people straight.
The Laws permitting wigs (Peya Nacris) are there all along.
Now you said something about a $36.00 donation to my favorite charity, right? Because some Israeli intentionally misquoted you as giving away $36,000.
The Ny Daily News once tried that. Court ruled they had to pay. No misinterpertations allowed.
Why don’t each and every one of us take a good hard look at the pre-war photographs of “families”.
I dare say the shapely style of dress has TONED DOWN over the last 40 years.
Face reality – take a good hard look. Ask your mothers what was under those clothes to make them look so “full” or as we say today “shapely”. Look at your Babbes ind Zaydes pictures from europe. Shame dich!!! Or is that what women are supposed to be? Think about it?
Show me the Heter to wear a fur on your head!
No it is not comfortable in the summer.
I am not so sure it is allowed. Show me where it says in Shulchan Aruch that you may.
The Gemara definately does talk about human hair shaitlach (peah nachris).
i recently had a check for $345 from a “prominent rabbi” bounce on me and now he is giving me the run around
now here is my offer, i am willing to give $2000 for any proof that it is permissible according to Halacha to steal from a poor shm—
so if you rely on that $36,000 for a deposit on your bungalow don’t accept anything less then “hard green dough”
i am sure that if it does come about there will be a slew of photographers on hand snapping away, will be published in mid section of “kol huolem kilo”
Good Topic:
According to Tsanzer Ruv (Author of the “Divere Chaim”) a sheitel is user mid’oiryse = min hatorah. It is amazing to see how girls expect to marry a Yeshive boy and one who would learn full time or at least have a “shiur” at the same time they want to dress like shikses, and according to Tsanzer ruv violate a isuer d’oiryse day in and day out by wearing a sheitel. That is one reason for the shidduch crisis in the “hymishe Chasidishe” circles, a boy has to learn in yeshive full time and be “kiloi lashem”, but a girl can dress like the goyim and enjoy life in all its forms and still be considered a good old fine frum girl. There is no leveled playing field.
A shtreimel and bekishe are not a chiyev and not a mitsve, try to compare apples to apples.
Chasidishe men wear a very unique dress code which you can spot from a mile away but most of todays Bas Yisruel’s are dressed like the goyim, even if its like the modest goyim it is not what “Shem, Lushen, Malbush” means, Hashem chose us among all the nations and Ha expects us to be different and dress different of all the other nations.
I apologize if i offended anyone with this post, there are really serious problems on both sides of the fence, Men’s and women’s, but since this is the topic of the hour i thought about voicing my opinion.
G-D bless us all.
1:46 anon, do u want to offer a reward for that 1 too? go right ahead. just make sure that everyone knows whom to contact for the reward, otherwise someone will begin a new blog string!!!
11:23 PM – don’t worry, they don’t expect to give away that money anyway.
What is the reward for someone who can prove that a man may go without a shtreimel on Shabbos and yuntiff ? What is the heter for a man to not wear a shtreimel and bekishe ????
One has to be tzniusdik in wearing a sheitel just like in the clothes one wears. Rabbi Falk explains it in his book Oz VeHodor Levusha.
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gO ASK rABBI FALK IF IT IS TZNEEIS DIK TO BE BLOGGING ONLINE!!
whats amazing is that they could give away money like that when people who dont have food for Shabbos.
The very natural wigs that make one think the hair is not covered should be banned. If it looks like the hair isn’t covered then what is the purpose of the head covering? The very long eye catching wigs are nor tzniusdik and just like an unmarried girl should not wear her hair long and loose, a married woman shouldn’t wear a sheitel like that either. One has to be tzniusdik in wearing a sheitel just like in the clothes one wears. Rabbi Falk explains it in his book Oz VeHodor Levusha.
I think its about times that the roles change.
I want to see women get up and ban Mens clothing.
i think they should start with those Black Hats.
There is no question that some of the sheitels out there are in violation of the “spirit” as to what a sheitel is supposed to accomplish. They are also the same women with the tight skirts with the slits.
On the other hand, most modest frum women such as a kollel wife are very tznius in the style of sheitel they wear which only adds to their spiritual beauty.
You have to look at the whole picture.
It is easy to be a nivul birshus hatorah.
P.S. Wigs were banned byy Hyngarian rabbonim over 100 years ago.
is this the same rabbi who said you have to burn the wigs a couple of months ago?
Why wigs… not not mans hats or something? the wigs were already on the market it’s time to come up with something new to ban…
Anonymous said…
Whom do I need to contact to claim the $36,000.
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contact the readers digesst clearing house.
what, you found a heter already?
Whom do I need to contact to claim the $36,000.