Kippah
A kippah[a] (plural: kippot), yarmulke, yamaka,[3] bullcap, or koppel is a brimless cap, usually made of cloth, traditionally worn by Jewish males to fulfill the customary requirement that the head be covered. It is worn by all men in Orthodox Jewish communities during prayers and by most Orthodox Jewish men at all other times. Among non-Orthodox Jewish communities, some who wear them do so at all times, while others wear them only during prayer, while attending a synagogue, or in other ceremonies.
Etymology[edit]
The term kippah (Hebrew: כיפה) literally means "dome" as the kippah is worn on the head like a dome.
The Yiddish term yarmlke (Yiddish: יאַרמלקע) might be derived from the Polish jarmułka or the Ukrainian yarmulka and perhaps ultimately from the Medieval Latin almutia ("cowl" or "hood").[4][5] It may also be of Turkic origin (akin to yağmurluk, meaning "rainwear"). The word is often associated with the phrase ירא מלכא (yire malka), formed from the Aramaic word for 'king' and the Hebrew root ירא, meaning 'fear'.[6][7] Keppel or koppel is another Yiddish term for the same thing.[8]
Head coverings in ancient Israelite culture[edit]
The Israelites might have worn a headdress similar to that worn by the Bedouins, but it is unknown whether a fixed type of headdress was used. That the headdress of the Israelites might have been in the fellah style may be inferred from the use of the noun צַנִיף, tzanif (the verb tzanaf meaning "to roll like a ball", Isaiah 22:18) and by the verb חַבָּש, habash ("to wind", compare Ezekiel 16:10; Jonah 2:6). As to the form of such turbans, nothing is known, and they may have varied according to the different classes of society. This was customary with the Assyrians and Babylonians, for example, whose fashions likely influenced the costume of the Israelites—particularly during and after the Babylonian Exile.[43] In Yemen, the wrap around the cap was called מַצַר, matzar; the head covering worn by women was a גַּרגוּש, gargush.[44]
Civil legal issues[edit]
In Goldman v. Weinberger, 475 U.S. 503 (1986), the United States Supreme Court ruled in a 5–4 decision that active military members were required to remove the kippah indoors, citing uniform regulations that state only armed security police may keep their heads covered while indoors.[45]
Congress passed the Religious Apparel Amendment after a war story from the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing about the "camouflage kippah" of Jewish Navy Chaplain Arnold Resnicoff was read into the Congressional Record.[46] Catholic Chaplain George Pucciarelli tore off a piece of his Marine Corps uniform to replace Resnicoff's kippah when it had become blood-soaked after being used to wipe the faces of wounded Marines after the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing.[47] This amendment was eventually incorporated into U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) regulations on the "Accommodation of Religious Practices Within the Military Services".[48]
This story of the "camouflage kippah" was re-told at many levels,[49] including a keynote speech by President Ronald Reagan to the Baptist Fundamentalism Annual Convention in 1984,[50] and another time during a White House meeting between Reagan and the American Friends of Lubavitch.[51] After recounting the Beirut story, Reagan asked them about the religious meaning of the kippah.[51] Rabbi Abraham Shemtov, the leader of the group, responded: "Mr. President, the kippah to us is a sign of reverence." Rabbi Feller, another member of the group, continued: "We place the kippah on the very highest point of our being—on our head, the vessel of our intellect—to tell ourselves and the world that there is something which is above man's intellect: the infinite Wisdom of God."[51]
Passage of the Religious Apparel Amendment and the subsequent DOD regulations were followed in 1997 by the passing of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). However, the Supreme Court struck down RFRA as beyond Congress' powers to bind the states in the 1997 case City of Boerne v. Flores. RFRA is constitutional as applied to the Federal government, as seen in Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal.
The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA), 114 Stat. 804, 42 U. S. C. §2000cc-1(a)(1)-(2), upheld as constitutional in Cutter v. Wilkinson, 44 U.S. 709 (2005), requires by inference that Orthodox Jewish prisoners be reasonably accommodated in their request to wear kippot.[52]
The French government banned the wearing of kippot, hijabs, and large crosses in public primary and secondary schools in France in March 2004.[53]
The government of Quebec, Canada passed "An Act respecting the laicity of the State" in June 2019, which prohibits the wearing of "religious symbols" by government employees including teachers, police officers, judges, prosecutors, and members of certain commissions.[54]