Talk:Shtreimel

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Removed advertisement.Atheistrabbi 16:57, July 10, 2005 (UTC)

How is the word pronounced?

[edit] Remove Stub Tag?

What does everyone think about removing the stub tag from this article? There is not much more that can added. --רח"ק | Talk 06:34, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

You're too nice. Be bold! (grin):

[edit] De-stubbed

This article appears to be of an appropriate length for the subject matter under discussion. It is also appropriately categorized and wikified.

By nature, stubbing and tagging articles devalues them, giving them an aura of unreliability and making them seem less credible. As part of my personal campaign to free up articles that have been stubbed and tagged without cause, this article has been disenstubified.

If any editor disagrees, and would rather re-stub it than improve it by adding actual content, please discuss here. The Editrix 17:01, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Why?

Can someone explain why such an elaborate piece of headgear is worn? Taxee 03:03, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

There is a custom among Chareidi Jews, and in this case I dont mean just Chossidim. All Ashkenazic and Sefardic Jews who apply Kabboloh, wear, not only a kippa, but a hat as well. The Reason for this is explained as such. A human has a soul. A human's soul has five levels, called Kochos. The Nefesh, Ruach, and the Neshomoh. Those are the lower three. The loftier two are the Chaya and Yechida. We try, in wearing two headcoverings, to reach these loftier Kochos. That is why many married men cover their heads with their talleisim. Since it's annoying to try to wear a Tallis with a hat, and since it is a minhog accepted by all levels of Orthodox Yiddishkeit, as it was the way of showing a man was married in the times of the talmud. As to the elaborate nature for the Shtreimel, Ask a Chussid. --Shaul avrom 21:23, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

There are a number of words that you used which are completely unfamiliar to me - Kabboloh, kippa, minhog. I am unable to ask a Chussid anything because I don't have a clue who or what that is. I attended a synagogue for my first time in Jerusalem earlier this year and sat in front of a man wearing a shtreimel. As I didn't have the opportunity to talk to him, I was curious as to why a person would wear something that looked so unwieldy. It also strikes me as odd that a hat can have a postive impact on a person's soul. I have added links and try to follow them but there are a few holes. Taxee 14:48, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Not to mention that the explanation provided is not the mainstream one. IIRC, it is for a similar reason as cobering ones head with a talis during tefillah (only if you are married, and that IS based on Kabbala -- see the Mishna Berurah there), which is a form of anivus, humility, as one prays before the Almighty. I forgot the Seif/Siman off the top of my head. -- Avi 01:53, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

I believe that the "elaborateness" is also relative. Many Chassidim try to preserve a way of life current in the eastern European villages of the 17th Century when the Baal Shem Tov was launching the movement. Just as the Amish in Pennsylvania have sort of "stopped the clock" in the 1600s as a way of showing their "plainness" and simplicity, so too I think certain groups of Chassidim are trying to preserve cultural observances. The shtreimel, as I understand it, was no more elaborate then than a nice fedora or homburg would have been in the 1950s. But, because it is such a rare commodity these days, it is also super-expensive.HarvardOxon 22:27, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

I just saw a documentary on hats in Jerusalem and the history behind them. There Chassidic Jews explained that the shtreimel had its origins in a decree in Europe that meant Jews had to wear fox tails and that the had was a development of this. The origins of the fox tails, apparantly, was that they had been worn by the crippled as a sign of being outcasts. Any comments on this?

Peter ^Isotalo 19:25, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

For a fact the hats are made of the tip of the fur tail . The reason for this is that because of a Russian Kings decree of claiming "all Jews to be lower than the end of the tail of an animal". The fur used ranged from Canadian sable, Russian sable, stone martin, bow marten and American grey fox. From the fur used the Canadian sable is the most expensive hat. Larger more flamboyant hats are merely a symbol of pride for those who can afford them.