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When were the Sefardic Rabbonim of our generation mekabel to wear the headgear (hat) styles of the Ashkenazic Rabbonim. Today the Sefardic Rabbonim (from Chacham Ovadia Yosef shlit”a on) wear the Ashkenazic style black hats. The Sefardic Bnei Torah wear the same. The Sefardic Rabbonim always wore some headgear, but until roughly 50 or 60 years ago they wore some uniquely Sefardic style of head coverings. What prompted the change?
P.S. I think it is beautiful that all the Bnei Torah these days wear similar headgear, so I am not complaining c”v. I just am curious as to what the reason for the change was.
Probably because many Sefardic rabanim were trained in Ashkenazic yeshivos.
Social pressure.
I asked the Rav of a small sefardi minyan why he wears a black felt fedora. His response, they didn’t have many other options at the Hat Box.
Rav Ovadia Yosef wears an “uphat”, similar to many Chasidim and Litvishe Rabbonim.
A better question is when anyone was mekabel these hats – if you look a photographs just 50 or 100 years ago many gedolim and rabbonim wore other hats including gray. In fact, if you look at the film of the prior Lubavitcher rebbe most men were wearing gray
They always wore a hat.
The Sefardic Gedolim, Rabbonim, and Bnei Torah changed to it because today it is the uniform of Bnei Torah.
I think because the askenazic yeshivos are the majority and more mainstream, the sephardi bnei torah want to feel part of that bigger whole so they adopted the “yeshivish” mode of dress. It also looks more bakovodik today then a turban
Ashkenazi, Sefaradi, or Hasidic, in the end we all still wear what the Europeans began as a style then for themselves.
Rashi’s hat: Rashi and other rishonim describe the top of a ruminant trachea as the “shipui kova, sitting “like a hat on the siman, a roughly pentagonal structure and surely not black. In a better connection, in Hullin 48b, Rashi explains the bais hakosos as “at the end of the stomach, looking like a hat”. I will have to check on that in Sichos Hullin, but I am fairly certain it is not shaped quite like a fedora.
Twisted; Interestingly. Rash”i and the Ramba”m are portrayed wearing some form of a Turban, and not necessarily black. (Gray or light Brown.)I’m curious to know when the Napoleonic hats came into style. Just speculating. In the era of the Renaissance.
Why is it permitted to wear a hat/strimel if it was the Levush/ style of the Goyim?
shev: because now it’s not.
I never saw a goy wear a shtreimel. And I doubt they ever did in the past wear one in the form that yidden wear it. And even if they did, it is now certainly a yiddishe levush, irregardless of the past.
Shein(sheltered)?, obviously you have not been to or even seen photos of Europeans (British, Russian).
So we are allowed to follow non-Jewish styles of dress, as long the style is no longer common by the non-Jews?
Didn’t you hear? black is the new blue!
Al tifrosh min hatzibbur, I guess they want to be recognized by all.
Also it’s cooler, i mean easier to wear a hat than a turban,
and lighter. Also if it gets ruined very easy to replace.
As opposed to their rare special order (I assume) hats.
I think that all frum Yidden should have moved toward Sephardic dress and turbans as it is most assuredly closer to the original.
YehudahTzvi: How is it “most assuredly closer to the original”? I think not. And what and when, exactly, was “the original”?
As far as the Shtreimel is concerned, not that it has anything to do with the OP’s point, it never was worn by non-Jews. And you won’t find pictures of such. They may have wore some sort of fur hats, but never the form of a shtreimel. The shtreimel was originally designed as a Jewish hat.
Seriously, Will? We are a Middle Eastern People and thus our dress was therefore closer to what is worn in the Middle East, not Eastern Europe. Think it was probably a bit hot in the Midbar to wear a fox fur hat and long black coat.
Sefardim came from Spain (hence “Sefardim”) before they moved to the Middle East.
Yes, but the dress is that of the Middle East since there are no Jews in Spain. If it makes you feel better, substitute Eidat HaMizrach for Sephardic.
Hacham Ovadia, though once the Chief “Sephardic” Rabbi was born in Iraq.
The dress may have been Mid East when the lived there, but since they lived in Spain before the Mid East, their traditions derive from Spain. There wasn’t any more of an unbroken chain from Yerushlayim to Spain to Iraq then there was from Yerushlayim to Ashkenaz.
Sefardim came from Spain (hence “Sefardim”) before they moved to the Middle East.
First of all, some Sephardim went from the middle east to Spain and lived there for a much shorter time than Ashkenazim lived in Europe.
2nd, not all “Sephardim” came from Spain.
The Jews of Iraq and Iran are genetically from a different gene pool than other Jews. That study was published about a year ago. They moved there (or should we say were taken there) during the first galut and stayed there for 2300+ years. Rav Ovadia is from Iraq.
Correct MDG. Thank you. That was the point I was trying to convey.
Obaminator, I am not talking about traditions. I am talking about dress. Jewish dress has changed throughout the centuries among all Jews (except perhaps the Temanim). That being said, Israel is a Middle Eastern country and that is where we are all from. Ergo, our original dress would more than likely be closer to those other groups from the Middle east: Jalabiya, turban, etc.
No one is telling you to forgo your Shtreimel or fedora. All I’m saying is that we are not indigenous to Europe.
I think what YehudahTzvi is saying is quite reasonable that the traditional ME clothing is probably very similar to what was worn 2000 years ago. BUT I do realize that styles change. They could have changed from then until now, and even if the did not, we could still wear our western/European clothes now.
Speaking of Iraqi Jews, the Ben Ish Hy mentions not to wear black on Shabbat, but IIRC he does not mention any style. Furthermore, the Mishnah of Shabbat 6th perek talks about different styles of clothing. Apparently there were different styles back then.
“Also, we are not indigenous to Syria or Iraq. “
I think that Avraham Avinu came from that area.
Yes. Avraham did come from there. therefore I have less of a problem “re”adopting the dress of the Temanim or the Beduin than see Mizrachim and Sephardim dressing like they came from Volozhin. It is this precisely this ethnocentric thought that has defined black suits and fedoras as “Jewish” dress.
My Rav who has semicha from Chofitz Chaim was medakdek to not where a black hat (he wore gray) as he was taught that a black hat was gaivadik as people wore them to look “frummer”. Twenty years later he is now wearing a black hat. Why? Because his daughters all married Yeshivish guys and he was pressured.
FYI, i am black hat on Shabbos. Why? My wife’s cousins in Monsey guilted me into getting one.
Again, all I am saying is that we are Middle eastern and thus perhaps our dress should reflect Rav Amnon Yitzchak Shlita’s rather than mobsters from the 1940s.
“Your argument should be everyone should adapt the Temanim’s dress.”
Amen. But I’m not convinced that Yemenite dress is authentic as they rap their turbans around a Fez which is Turkish.
“In any event, there is no greater claim to authenticity or originality between the Sefardim and Ashkenazim. “
At least in color, Sepharadim are better. There are no positive references to wearing black in the Gemara.
To Be recognized. for example, Rav David Abuchazerah wears a yeshivishe hat and jacket and is respected by all edos. His brother Rav Elazar zt”l wore the traditional Moroccan garb his father and grandfather wore, and was not as respected in all circles. his petira was also less felt in the ashkenazi velt for that reason.
Nahapochu, that is very sad.
I think the reason is that they want to be the same like all the other rabbis-they want to stay low. These tzadikkim don’t like being famous.
Sephardim having been forced into Ashkenazic or western style of dressing, doesn’t commence with the hat.
It already commences with suit & main clothing [with hat just topping off this issue {please excuse the pun}], since “Al Pi Kabbolo” one is not supposed to wear black on Shabbos, black being connected with Saturn >> Saturday; One should try & wear 4 pieces of white clothing, the rest can be any color other than black.
Yet somehow, most Ashkenazim wear black [Navy & Charcoal suits would circumvent this issue] and the Sephardim of contemprorary time, have been dragged along with this Askenazic mode of dress.
One problem is that in the Israel of 50-60 years ago, Sefardim weren’t considered as ‘up there’ in the social strata as the Ashkenazim, many of whom were there since the first yishuv. The Ashkenazim were the dominant people (in the secular world especially, many times they still unfortunately are) and most yeshivos were Ashkenazi. In order for a Sefardi to get into one he needed to kind of blend in. I assume that from there it spread.
I was told that black dye was at one time more expensive than brown, and that it became a sign of wealth among the goyim. The yidden who first took to wearing black were thus were wearing a color that the goyish gentry were wearing.
I sometimes wear Arabic robe with turban for Shabbos if it is hot outside.
In European culture, black is considered as Chashuv. Even today, if a person wants to get very dressed up in secular America he wears a black tuxedo.
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