Head Coverings

Men

• Why do modern Jews wear yarmulkes? In Paul's day, men were enjoined NOT to wear head coverings. Someone on StackExchange asked this and got some useful but not satisfactory answers.

• An article in The Jewish Magazine in 1999 says that head coverings for men are mentioned in only two places in the Talmud, both very distant from being a requirement to wear one, but that the custom evolved over time.

• From Wikipedia:

"The Yiddish term yarmulke is often associated with an Aramaic phrase (ירא מלכא) 'yireh malkha' meaning "fear of the King".[1] It might be derived from Polish jarmułka or Ukrainian yarmulka, perhaps ultimately from Medieval Latin almutia "cowl, hood"[2][3] or of Turkic origin (akin to yağmurluk, meaning "rainwear"),[4] Keppel or koppel is another Yiddish term for the same thing.[5]"

"The 17th-century authority Rabbi David HaLevi Segal (The "Taz") holds that the reason is to enforce the Halakhic rule to avoid practices unique to gentiles. Since, he points out, Europeans are accustomed to go bare-headed, and their priests insist on officiating with bare heads, this constitutes a uniquely gentile practice, and therefore Jews would be prohibited from behaving similarly."

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