It is nothing but a small circular shaped piece of material that is worn traditionally on the top of a Jewish males head, yet the kippah (also known as skullcap) is perhaps one of the most easily identifiable signifiers of Judaism. Despite the instant recognition that the kippah has attained little is discussed as to the origins and development of this custom and further to this, the trend appears to being going out of fashion with more and more young Jews shedding the headwear for the latest Beanie or Trilby hat from Topman. What purpose can the kippah serve the modern Jew? I would like to suggest that the kippah does indeed serve a useful purpose; in fact, I will suggest that the wearing of this simple garment can offer the wearer numerous positive life changing results.

The notion of covering ones head in Judaism is relatively new in Biblical terms with the Torah (i.e. the Bible consisting of the five books of Moses) making no such prescription on the Jewish people. The custom is first mentioned in the Talmud composed by various Rabbis during the period 200 to 500 C.E. The written Torah is traditionally understood to have been accompanied by an oral law, and it is this expansion and explanation of the oral law that is called the Talmud. References in the Talmud to cover ones head can be found in Kiddushin 31a where the actual text barely totals 7 lines. This is especially thought-provoking when you take into account that the Talmud is made up of 37 volumes and thousands of pages worth of Jewish discussion. Why is so little space devoted to the reasons and explanations of this now common practice? One might be led to conclude that, at the time the Talmud was written, covering ones head was an uncommon practice reserved primarily for the sages of the time.

The origins of the kippah are rooted in the Talmud’s description of the custom adopted by Rav Huna to not walk a significant distance without his head covered. In the book of Isaiah, one of the later prophets, we are told of a vision of the heavenly court where the angels who stand above God’s throne would call out and say, “Holy, holy, holy is Hashem, Master of Legions; the whole world is filled with His glory. (Isaiah 6:3).” A later verse tells us that, for Hashem, “The Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool” (Isaiah 66:1) The Rabbis of the Talmud draw out from these two verses that God’s Presence extends downwards to this world and thus a head-covering acts as a respectful separator or reminder of the Holy aura of God that surrounds our bodies.

This relates to a second small reference to covering ones head that can be found in Tractate Shabbos of the Talmud (156b). A story is told of R’ Nachman bar Yitzchak whose celestial signs destined him to become a thief. On being informed of this by astrologers, R’ Nachman bar Yitzchak mother forbade him to ever uncover his head. She told him, “Cover your head so that the fear of heaven should be upon you.” The Talmud goes on to tell us that one day whilst studying under a palm tree R’ Nachman bar Yitzchak cloth fell off his head upon which he look upwards at the palm. Overcome by his evil inclination he went up and chopped off a cluster of dates with his teeth. As the Talmudic commentator Rashi (1040-1105) explains, the palm tree was not his and thus he stole the dates. In this way, the adoption of a head covering was seen to encourage good deeps and keep one away from sin. Despite the Talmud’s early suggestion, it was not until the medieval period that the covering of the head became the customary sign of male piety and female modesty. As Yacov Newman and Gavriel Sivan explain;

"Bareheadedness [sic] was associated with frivolity, and as such condemned by Maimonides [a significant Jewish commentator and philosopher who lived from 1135 to 1204]; later, especially during prayer and in synagogue, bareheaded worship was stigmatised as Hukkat Ha-Goi [‘law or custom of the Gentile’] though association with Christian practice."