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My rov has wanted me to get one for a few months and I didn’t want to get one b/c I didn’t feel ready.
Now I feel like I want to start wearing one for davening. I ask opinions from people in my community and most (99%) say I should wear one. However a couple that I ask don’t feel I should.
I would like to hear some opinions.
If you’re part of a black hat community, wear one.
Do whatever you want. Stop crowdsourcing personal decisions.
For the most part, one should dress in a way that resembles everyone else unless one is making a statement by dressing differently than everyone else. If you don’t want your clothing to indicate an ideological position, dress in a way that fits in. This applies in general, not just shul.
TO bring down a non-religious example, a man should normally wear pants unless he is a Scot making a political statement by wearing a kilt, or an Arab wearing an ankle length gown in a place wear everyone else dresses “western”. If you are in a shul in which most people wear black fedoras, wearing no hat other than a kippah, or on the other hand wearing a homburg or a streimel, communicates an “agenda”. That’s good if that’s what you intent, but not if your intention is just be normal and not make a statement.
If you don’t want to, then don’t.
If you want to, then do.
Halachically, there is no requirement to wear a black hat while davening. The Mishna Berurah says a person should dress respectfully, as per the standard of the times. He gives an example of a hat for his times. However, nowadays, where wearing a hat indoors is sometimes considered disrespectful (such as in a courtroom, during singing of the national anthem, etc), it definitely is not required for davening.
The only reason to wear one now is to show that you identify yourself as belonging to a certain group. If you feel like yo’re part of that group, wear the hat. Otherwise, don’t. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that it’s required.
DaMoshe: Slightly disagree. If your community defines “respectful” as wearing a black hat, then one should wear a black hat during Davening.
You know what they say about people who wear black hats, don’t you?
heretohelp: Lots of things. There are entire blogs dedicated to it!
heretohelp,
no, actually
“The Mishna Berurah says a person should dress respectfully”
The author of the Mishna Berurah did NOT wear a black hat.
The author of the Mishna Berurah did NOT wear a black hat.
Are you basing that on the one picture that exists, in which he is not wearing a fedora?
“Are you basing that on the one picture that exists, in which he is not wearing a fedora?”
I’m basing it on the testimony of a Rosh Yeshiva who learned at the Chofetz Chaim’s yeshiva in Poland as a young man while the Chofetz Chaim was still alive.
Golfer wrote:”heretohelp,
no, actually”
Me neither.
Charliehall
He wore a hat. Maybe not a Fedora but a hat that was commonly worn at that time. I’m a assuming it was black. Maybe your source knows better. What color was it? By the way nothing wrong with wearing a blue hat either. Nothing wrong with wearing a golf hat as long as it looks nice and is respectable. For example I don’t think davening in a baseball cap is respectable.
Abc12345
Its very important for a get to try and blend as much as possible and not look weird or stand out. Your Rabbi has your best interests in mind. Many people in the street have no clue what they are talking about one way or the other so be careful who’s advice you take. I know geirim who became Chassidish and thus dress Chassidish. I know geirim who are Yeshivish or not Chassidish and wear a hat and jacket. Either way the main point is to blend and become part of the Klal and part of the kehilla (congregation and synagogue) where you daven regularly. And if you don’t have a shul where you daven regularly go find one.
“The author of the Mishna Berurah did NOT wear a black hat.”
Even if this is true, which I doubt, it has nothing to with the statement DaMoshe wrote.
I, for the life of me, cannot understand why you so often post comments that are tangential and meaningless.
I’ve seen many pictures of rabbeim amd yeshiva leute (pronounce “light”) in Lite wearing grey hats (they are B&W photos so the hats could be other colors but they look grey in the photos) anyway, they’re not black. Every photo of my Elteren in Europe shows them wearing Litvishe yarmulkes, no hats of any color.
Popa – I rarely comment but I found your post particularly offensive. A newcomer to any culture networks when making decisions as a way of helping him get a better handle on the nuances of the particular culture. Even if it were true, accusing someone of “outsourcing personal decisions” strikes me as a very condescending comment, but in this case it’s not even applicable. I would expect that some of the responses he got were helpful in helping him make sense of the issue in his mind.
crgo: Networking and crowdsourcing are rather different.
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